A group of PAC-12 "student athletes" have gotten together and via "The Players Tribune" have released their demands to the PAC-12 conference...Stating they will not participate in Fall camps and the Fall sports season if they do not get what they want...
The list is 4 key things...
1. Health & Safety Protections
2. Protect All Sports Preserve All Existing Sports by Eliminating Excessive Expenditures
3. End Racial Injustice in College Sports and Society
4. Economic Freedom and Equity
In this day and age you can't blame anyone for wanting guaranteed "health and safety protections"...."Eliminating Excessive Expenditures"...I get the impression that some of that is talking about PAC-12 commissioner Larry Scott who has a $5.3 million dollar contract...It's already being reduced next year to $4.6 because of COVID pay-cuts the conference has put in...But I believe the players would also like to see coaching contracts reduced...Especially since the players are the product people pay to see and they make nothing!
Number 3 they addressed very quickly in their statement saying, "Because NCAA sports exploit college athletes physically, economically and academically, and also disproportionately harm Black college athletes, #WeAreUnited.
In rejecting the NCAA’s claim that #BlackLivesMatter while also systematically exploiting Black athletes nationwide, #WeAreUnited.
Number 4 is the big gun....
Guaranteed Medical Expense Coverage
- Medical insurance selected by players for sports-related medical conditions, including COVID- 19 illness, to cover six years after college athletics eligibility ends.
Name, Image, and Likeness Rights & Representation
- The freedom to secure representation, receive basic necessities from any third party, and earn money for use of our name, image, and likeness rights.
Fair Market Pay, Rights, & Freedoms
- Distribute 50% of each sport’s total conference revenue evenly among athletes in their respective sports.
- Six-year athletic scholarships to foster undergraduate and graduate degree completion.
- Elimination of all policies and practices restricting or deterring our freedom of speech, our ability to fully participate in charitable work, and our freedom to participate in campus activities outside of mandatory athletics participation.
- Ability of players of all sports to transfer one time without punishment, and additionally in cases of abuse or serious negligence.
- Ability to complete eligibility after participating in a pro draft if player goes undrafted and foregoes professional participation within seven days of the draft.
- Due process rights
I can't blame these athletes for asking for all of this...I doubt the conference will the 50% revenue sharing...I love the 6 year scholarship idea...That's self aware "student athletes" who know 98% of of them won't go to the pros...The amount of money the schools and conferences make thanks to these athletes, there is no damn reason why they shouldn't be providing medical insurance for them...
These athletes are making a hell of a point...the majority of PAC-12 schools have already told their students they will be doing the Fall semester online...Much of the conference's schools are in COVID hot spots...'So students don't come back to campus, except you students that make us millions, you can risk your lives!'
This theory the NCAA has had for ages that these are "amateur athletes" and "student athletes" so they shouldn't be paid or receive benefits, while the NCAA, Conferences and Schools make millions on their backs can be thrown out the window now...When you're telling students not to comeback to campus because of COVID but you expect your football players to be there, you've just acknowledged they are your money maker...They aren't merely "Student Athletes"...
Personally I think all these conferences are crazy to try and have football seasons...and by doing it they are making it clear that first and foremost the care about making money, above all else....
