BERKELEY, CA - NOVEMBER 13: Tthe California Golden Bears enter the stadium for their game against the Oregon Ducks at California Memorial Stadium on November 13, 2010 in Berkeley, California. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)A group of Pac-12 football players are considering a boycott of the upcoming college football season. With less than two months until the league is scheduled to start a delayed 2020 season, the group has released a list of demands pertaining to the ongoing pandemic, as well as racial injustice within college sports and the country as a whole.
“#WeAreUnited in our commitment to secure fair treatment for college athletes,” the players said in a statement, posted to The Players’ Tribune. “Due to COVID-19 and other serious concerns, we will opt-out of Pac-12 fall camp and game participation unless the following demands are guaranteed in writing by our conference to protect and benefit both scholarship athletes and walk-ons.”
Among the other focal points of the demands involve the conference’s spending. The group calls for commissioner Larry Scott and the league’s coaches to volunteer to “drastically reduce excessive pay,” and call for an end to performance and academic bonuses. The group also wants to see other sports, which have suffered cuts, protected with use of endowment funds, and to see the schools curb “lavish facility expenditures.”
Weeks ago, former Arizona State quarterback Rudy Carpenter revealed that a group of players were organizing. He said that all 12 schools were represented in the group, with 50 or more players being involved in total. This morning, the group released a list of media contacts, with nine of the 12 member schools represented.
Here’s a list of the players on Pac-12 schools that are listed as media contacts. They are the voices of their specific campuses. None I see from Utah, USC or Colorado. Jevon Holland is biggest name, a potential first-round pick. pic.twitter.com/czS57DDJg9
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 2, 2020
California Berkeley players were said to be at the forefront of this movement. That checks out, with three different Golden Bears represented on this list.
As Pete Thamel notes, Oregon safety Jevon Holland is probably the most significant member listed. He’s a potential first-round pick, and an All-Pac-12 player. In 2019, he was a semifinalist for the Jim Thorpe Award.
Unrelated to this, a few players have already opted out of the upcoming season within the Power Five conferences due to health and safety concerns. If these Pac-12 football players follow through and a large chunk of them wind up skipping the upcoming season, it could make some pretty serious waves within the sport.
