A Group of Pac-12 Football Players Opts Out of the Season

The announcement comes as the college football season is increasingly in doubt as the coronavirus bounces around the country — including infiltrating Major League Baseball — no more under control than it was in March, when college sports and professional leagues in the United States began shutting down.

This has led many universities to keep students off campus and some conferences, like the Ivy League, to postpone fall sports until at least January. But the schools at the lucrative top of the football food chain, which heavily leans on television revenue, are forging ahead. Four major conferences — the Southeastern, Big Ten, Pac-12 and Atlantic Coast — have pared their schedules mainly to conference games.

Still, there is pushback gathering over whether universities should be conscripting unpaid college athletes to keep hundreds of millions of dollars flowing into athletic departments’ coffers by largely assuming whatever risks come with Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Particularly when there are no N.C.A.A.-wide standards on the frequency of testing or other protocols, which some schools could resist because they would be costly. (The N.C.A.A. has made recommendations but decisions have been left up to the universities themselves.)

The N.C.A.A. Board of Governors, which largely comprises university presidents, will consider fall sports when it meets Tuesday.

While some athletes have expressed trepidation about playing football during the pandemic — including SEC players during a recent call with league officials, according to The Washington Post — and a handful have opted out, the Pac-12 players represent the first collective effort to question why players are assuming so much risk.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/02/sports/ncaafootball/coronavirus-college-football-pac-12.html