Early coaching changes seen as one more reason for a players union
Against the backdrop of a striking number of in-season coaching changes, Jason Stahl, the founder and executive director of the fledgling College Football Players Association, envisions a day as early as next season when college athletes are empowered to have meaningful input in a university’s decision to hire a new football coach.
Those familiar with the machinations of how big-name football coaches are hired may call this a pipe dream. But given the current climate, with student-athletes amplifying their voices like never before and the recent National Labor Relations Board decision characterizing athletes as employees, Stahl believes it’s not only realistic but critical as the new landscape of college sports takes shape.
“Once players themselves, not us as outsiders, but once players themselves decide that that’s what they want, and we establish CFBPA representation on that team, we will demand that players have a seat in that decision-making process and that they are part of the hiring process,” Stahl, a former University of Minnesota professor, told On3.
In college football, a head coach and especially position coaches are significant reasons why players choose to attend a particular school. When a head coach is fired, players’ lives can be turned upside down. They are left trying to quickly read the tea leaves on who may be hired — and what playing style and overall culture will be adopted — while also simultaneously evaluating transfer possibilities.
That scenario has happened at seven schools this season even though it’s another month before the regular season ends. Coaching openings emerged at USC, LSU, Texas Tech, TCU, UConn, Georgia Southern (already filled by Clay Helton) and Washington State, creating a moving coaching carousel that parallels the season’s stretch run.
“Think about it in terms of your own workplace, right?” Stahl said. “You’re in the midst of a huge project, and your head boss gets fired. You’ve got to make sense of this. You’ve got to make sense of what it means for your future. Well, that is the same position these young men are in.”
When coaching turnover occurs, players can be run off because coaches want to create room for their own recruits and transfers, which means, Stahl said, “there is pressure to buy in or get the hell out because they are not part of whatever the new system is going to be.”
During the hiring process, it would be instructive for a university’s administration to welcome input from the leadership of the football team, even if the administration proceeds in a different direction. The CFBPA, whose advisory board includes attorneys, academicians and former players, wants players to tap into their collective power.
Stahl wants the CFBPA to be a membership-driven organization. If players from one of the schools with a coaching vacancy reach out to the CFBPA, Stahl will encourage him to sign up and to galvanize as many of his teammates as possible to also join (dues for current players are $24 per year). If the membership numbers grow, Stahl envisions traveling to the school to work with the players to develop a broad strategy. They would then get their message out and articulate “demands for the coaching transition” and the hiring process.
The key point Stahl stresses is that a movement within a program needs to grow organically, authentically emerging from the players themselves to use their collective voice.
In the near term, the CFBPA seeks to hire a research director who can help provide transparency into programs for prospects and transfers to assist them in making college choices. Data collected would center on everything from the number of injuries, graduation rates, drug tests and more at programs.
If programs can establish a chapter, “we want to make sure that everyone knows that the CFBPA chapter is there and that we’re watching and representatives are watching how that (coaching) transition is playing out,” Stahl said, “as opposed to the new coaches coming in and essentially nobody’s watching and the coach and the staff have free rein to do whatever the hell they want. We want those days to end.”
Quick hit
+ The Fenway Bowl, a new bowl at Fenway Park, is announcing Boston-based Wasabi Technologies as the title sponsor in a multiyear agreement. The inaugural Wasabi Fenway Bowl, to be played December 29 on ESPN, is also announcing the formation of an executive committee, a 16-member organization to offer strategic recommendations to bolster the game’s educational and community-oriented mission.