College Football Players Across Power-5 Form Union to Save Season
College football stars all across the country have taken to social media in attempts to save their 2020 football season amidst rumors of Power 5 conferences potentially delaying the season to the Spring of 2021.
The movement began with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay and now they have united to form what appears to be the beginning of a player's union.
Trevor Lawrence was vocal on social media Sunday, and he was the first player to tweet out their united demands which read as follows:
- We all want to play football this season
- Establish mandated health & safety procedures and protocols to protect college athletes against COVID-19 among all conferences through the NCAA
- Give players the opportunity to opt-out and respect their decision
- Guarantee eligibility whether a player chooses to play the season or not.
- Use our voices to establish open communications & trust between players and officials. Ultimately create a college football players association
- Representative of the players of all Power 5 conferences.
Though it wasn't exactly described as a player's union, the hashtag #WeAreUnited is rather self-explanatory.
This is something that NCAA officials have feared for some time now. In fact, Power 5 administrators have long been terrified of players organizing and using their collective voice:
If and when football returns this fall, it appears it will be under the player's guidelines, and rightfully so. They are the ones taking the risks and they are the ones voicing their opinions in order to save it. Sunday saw the WeWantToPlay hashtag trend to the No. 1 storyline on Twitter, having been tweeted over 62,000 times by the time of this writing.
As for whether or not this uproar from players all across the country will keep Power 5 conferences from pulling the plug on a fall season, time will only tell. Though, it doesn't appear we will need to wait too long. A decision from the Big 10 is expected to come down the pipe rather soon.
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