Let's Talk About the College Football Problem

I've had a day, and a not so great night of sleep, to think about the Big 10 canceling fall sports this year. I know the Pac 12 did too, and that the three other power 5 conferences are trying to continue with a fall season, but this piece is about my disappointment, my understanding, my fears and my distaste for how the NCAA treats its student athletes in the Big 10. The other conferences, quite frankly, I could care less about.

Say that college football does play a season, or attempt one in the fall, I am sure there will be stops and starts and players getting sick, players opting out and coaches whining and complaining about the "sanctity of the game". People in the South will riot if they don't get one Alabama or Texas game, so I am sure that their AD's and president's are going to do whatever, including endangering children, to play some football. Anyway, like I said up top, I am disappointed. I am feeling things that I have never felt before. I feel heartbreak, and not like when you break up with someone.

College football, Michigan football, these have been two of the most constant things in my life. They have always been there. Every fall since my existence they have played. This year they won't. I feel like something was stolen from me, like a piece of me is simply gone, almost like a limb has just disappeared. That may sound dramatic, but that is how I feel. I look forward to fall. I like the weather, but more importantly, that is when Michigan takes the field and I have twelve to thirteen weeks of angst, exuberance, anger and joy all at once. When the Wolverines take the field, I hang on their every play, good and bad. I know it may sound sad, but it is true. Outside of family, Michigan football is the only thing that I have ever truly loved. Now it is gone.

There are a myriad of reasons for the loss of Michigan football. I mentioned all the maskless idiots, the people who think CoronaVirus is a "hoax", the MAGA dummies yesterday. After reading why this happened, I found out new things that are happening behind the scenes. One thing in particular that doctors are seeing in young athletes who have had Covid and supposedly recovered from it, they are having heart issues or complications. The doctors have seen this in at least five Big Ten athletes, and they say that others who have recovered are saying they are having heart issues as well. This is what made me stop and really think, is it worth it? Do these young kids really need to risk the rest of their lives to play ten football games so I can yell at them through my TV screen? I know they want to play, they say they want to play, they have been at school gearing up for this, they have spent their lives dedicated to this game, but why on Earth would you want to risk your long term health, especially when you don't see a dime for the work you put into this sport.

That is another big time issue I have with all of this. All of these people who say it is a "hoax", all of the Big 12, ACC and SEC fans calling out the Big 10 and Pac 12 today for canceling, do you really think the NCAA cares about these kids and their want to play? There is no way in hell that I will believe that for one second. The NCAA makes money hand over fist off these football players. The schools do too. So do the coaches. But the kids, what do they get? They get a free education you may come back at me with. Okay, so a free education is worth risking their lives to you armchair QB's? These kids going out and playing a sport where spit and sweat are going to be flying all over the place and they will be so much more susceptible to contracting this virus because of that, you are okay with that? The fact that they will bash into one another for three plus hours once a week is fine because you need your football? That is all BS. These "fans" that say these things are no better than the NCAA and Mark Emmert and the presidents of the schools that voted to cancel this fall season.

I firmly believe that the powers that be in the NCAA were afraid because college athletes were starting to use their voice, and the possibility of them unionizing was becoming more and more real by the hour. I fully believe that the Big 10 and Pac 12 commissioners were much more apt to cancel when they figured this out. They just used the CoronaVirus as the face. I am sure both things factored into the decision, but in the long run, and it saddens me to say, I think the NCAA is becoming fearful that players were going to start to get what they truly deserved. They were going to get more than an education, which they most certainly deserve. The NCAA saw this, and they knew they needed to act now. The fact that it was the Pac 12 and Big 10 that canceled first is no surprise. They have schools that actually care about academics, and don't hold football over everything else. The Pac 12 and Big 10 formed groups that were making demands that any regular working person gets. There are smart kids at these schools. Northwestern, Michigan, Purdue, Washington, Oregon, Stanford these schools are just as hard to get in as a regular student. Throw on the athlete part, and it is even tougher. The NCAA and Mark Emmert thought they could pull one over on these kids, these kids who give them free labor while making them millionaires. But these kids wouldn't stand for it. They made a list of demands, the NCAA and the two league commissioners saw this and they had to shut it down. The kids were becoming too powerful for them. That is so sad. It is sad because they chose their own power over safety. Again, they will use the pandemic as the face to shutting it down, but people in the know know that it was these kids finally having leverage that caused the cancellation.

The same kind of student athlete activism isn't going to happen in the South. The Alabama's of the world, the Texas', the Clemson's, they don't give a rats ass about these kids, they just want some football. And when these kids are no longer good to them, to hell with them, bring on the next guy they say. But what will these diehard fans do if one of these kids, one of the star kids gets Covid and has to miss the season? How will Clemson fans deal if Trevor Lawrence gets it because he is supposed to be a football robot? Or how about Sam Ehlinger at Texas? Or Najee Harris at Alabama? If one of these kids gets it, that team's season is all but over, if they actually do end up playing. How will fans of those teams feel then? Will it be next guy up, or will they actually realize that it is too dangerous to play a sport like football right now? I don't know, and that is the scariest thing of all of this to me.

I was so angry, I was depressed, I am still feeling feelings I have never had just like I said up top, but I do get why they are doing it. I get both the ethical and unethical parts of it. It's upsetting, but canceling, and I don't for one second think a spring season is viable in any context, is the necessary thing to do. Just look at how poorly the MLB has done, and that is a professional league with the best doctors and training staffs in the world. At the end of the day I am upset, but I will get over it. I am hopeful to see college football, the Michigan Wolverines that is, next fall.

While I don't think this is a death knell for the sport, I do think the players need to continue pushing and demanding more rights. If anything, they have the time and the backing of many, many people now. I also don't think the long term risks outweigh the short term happiness any lazy ass American sitting on their couch will get this fall. While I am sad, I will get over it and I am pretty sure I will see Michigan play football again in the Big House with 100,000 plus fans maybe as soon as next year. Right now though, I get why they had to cancel. They had no choice. I will be curious to see if other leagues do play, if they even get close to finishing and who opts out and who stays. Time will tell.

This is a wild time we are living in right now, and it seems to get worse and worse by the day. Football should be the least of our worries right now. 

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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