(This post was originally published by Asher Low at Badgers Wire.)
Today the Big Ten released a new, conference-only schedule that has the college football world buzzing. The start of the season is supposedly just a month away, although until any season begins there are questions that transcend any football game that must be answered.
This morning, over 1,000 Big Ten football players joined together to write an article in the Players’ Tribune that details the need for the NCAA to come up with a plan that can keep athletes safe during a college football season this fall.
A group of more than 1,000 Big Ten football players is calling on the conference and the NCAA to devise a comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and well-being of players leading up to and during the upcoming fall season. #BigTenUnitedhttps://t.co/C8gt2Fddbs
— The Players' Tribune (@PlayersTribune) August 5, 2020
Many Badgers are a part of this significant coalition of athletes. The claim of the players is that the NCAA has taken a “laissez-faire” approach in preparing for a return to play that keeps athletes safe. The athletes are saying that now, with only 30 days until the supposed Big Ten 2020 opener, there is no time to wait to have needed dialogue. Instead of just saying that the conversation needed to begin, the coalition of players went ahead and started that conversation in the article through what they are calling the “Big Ten Unity Proposal.”
The proposal lists safety protocols that the athletes deem necessary, testing, contract tracing, and other procedures related to those tests, as well as the NCAA/individual schools committing to protecting scholarships if in fact the season is shut down in the fall.
The Big Ten proposal comes on the heels of a similar Players Tribune article from athletes in the Pac-12 conference. Athletes are coming together to start conversations that the NCAA has largely avoided until now, and if a safe season can be played, it will be this type of dialogue that gets us there.