Is College Athletics at the Crossroads?
What once seemed like some dream now seems closer to reality than ever before in the wake of the weekend developments in the Pac-12 conference where players have either found their voice or lost their minds depending on one's point of view.
Rohan Nadkarni of Sports Illustrated chronicled the story of hundreds of players from the west coast league, who are threatening to opt-out of this season if the league and their schools don't meet certain conditions.
"A group of hundreds of Pac-12 football players announced Sunday they will opt out of any upcoming training camps and games unless the conference negotiates with them and reaches a legal agreement regarding health and safety practices, while also addressing issues of racial injustice and economic inequality," wrote Nadkarni. "With a virus that’s showing no signs of slowing down and constant civil rights protests around the country, the holdout is happening at one of the most critical moments in this country’s history."
"The coronavirus has put a spotlight on a lot of the injustices in college athletics," Cal offensive lineman Valentino Daltoso told Sports Illustrated. "The way to affect change, and the way to get your voice heard is to affect the bottom line. Our power as players comes from being together. The only way to do this is to do something collectively."
Ok, so I can't speak to what the exact conditions are in the Pac-12, or at Cal where Daltoso is a member of the Bears squad, but I can, and have an opinion on a few things.
Daltoso is correct in that the players have more power than perhaps ever before, but injustices?
Could there be issues behind the scenes that are unknown to me and others outside the room?
Absolutely, but is life on a college campus and an athletic program that unjust? I guess that would depend on one's viewpoint, and mine would likely be viewed as old school.
I would have loved to have been given a free ride to college where I was fed, clothed, and housed at no cost to my parents. That holds real value to me as an adult, and likely would have as a college-age student in the late '80s had I been given that option.
As for the player's demands when it comes to health and safety in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, I agree that they should have a voice in the risks they are taking to play the game, but then they have been given the choice to opt-out and retain their scholarships moving forward.
The life of a student-athlete at the college level isn't all roses, but then there are others who have a life far worse, and while there could be injustices in places that need to be addressed, I'm not going to feel overly sympathetic to the plight of 20-somethings who are getting a free education, housing, and meal that others their age are having to go into deep financial debt to earn the same degrees.
It's a touchy subject to be sure, and perhaps I'm too old to understand the situation, but then perhaps we have reached a point in this nation where people in their zeal for the perceived social justices have lost sight of the line between what is a real need and what they want overall.
Either way, there are issues in college athletics that aren't going away anytime soon and that must be addressed.
