Buckeyes Now

Ohio State Parents Planning Another Protest, Aligning Message Across the League

After protesting the Big Ten's postponement last week at conference headquarters, the Buckeyes are now planning to take their voices to the Horseshoe this weekend.

Brendan Gulick

Ohio State Parents Planning Another Protest, Aligning Message Across the League
Ohio State Parents Planning Another Protest, Aligning Message Across the League /

Randy Wade isn't giving up the fight.

After Wade organized and mobilized the Big Ten parents' peaceful protest on Friday at the Big Ten headquarters in Rosemont, Illinois, he said on social media this afternoon it's time to gather again. The father of Ohio State cornerback Shaun Wade lives in Florida, but he'll be back in Columbus this weekend.

Late Sunday morning, Wade tweeted, "If there was a protest in Columbus I wonder how many people would show up?" When he got over 100 responses (most of them supporting his idea), Wade says they're going to be on campus on Saturday.

"We will meet at the Rotunda at the shoe 11:00am this Saturday... The Ohio State parents association is leading the charge for continued answers.... We ask other Big Ten associates parents to join us or do the same at their perspective schools... #Fight" Wade's tweet read.

Other football parents were quick to back Wade up and the official Twitter account for the Football Parents Association at Ohio State got involved as well.

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Monica Johnson is the mother of Ohio State freshman offensive lineman Paris Johnson Jr. Amanda Babb is the stepmother of Buckeye wide receiver Kamryn Babb.

Wade is also encouraging fans who'd like to attend to show up.

More than anything else, the Ohio State parents have asked for transparency into the process that led to the postponed decision. Their frustrations seems to be mounting in light of the SEC, ACC and Big 12 conferences showing no signs of backing down from their intentions to play this fall. In fact, NC State and the University of North Carolina are still practicing and preparing for a season, despite the fact that they've moved to an online-learning environment for the rest of the fall semester.

“When we say ‘Let us play,’ we don’t necessarily mean play for the fall,” Wade said during his speech at Friday’s rally, just before starting a ‘Let us play’ chant. “When we say ‘Let us play,’ we mean show us transparency. When we say ‘Let us play,’ we mean communicate. When we say ‘Let us play,’ we mean our kids are important to us.”

Wade was also a guest on ESPN radio on Sunday and explained why he's continuing to fight for the Buckeyes.

"My issue is our kids want better communication, more clarity, more transparency about how the decision came about to cancel the football season and what steps can we make to play football in the future."

He was also asked during the interview if the Big Ten has tried to contact any of the parents that have expressed their frustration publicly.

“No, not that I know of,” Wade said. “I talk to parents from Nebraska, Iowa, from Purdue … from about six different Big Ten teams. As as far as I know, none of us have heard anything. But I don’t speak for everyone. Everyone is starting to get together now, we’re going to have a couple meetings today to see what our next steps are and go from there. We just feel the way things were handled, it was just crazy.”

Several of the Big Ten parents associations at each school are planning to meet on Sunday night to make sure their messages are aligned. It appears the Buckeyes aren't the only ones planning further demonstrations on campus.

Stay tuned to BuckeyesNow and all of our social media outlets (@BuckeyesNowSI) on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for continued coverage!

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Brendan Gulick
BRENDAN GULICK

Brendan Gulick is the publisher for BuckeyesNow, Cleveland Baseball Insider and Cavs Insider on the FanNation Network. He is also an accomplished host and play-by-play voice on TV and radio, including on Big Ten Network and NCAA.com where he's called 45 NCAA national championships. Gulick is an update anchor and fill-in host at 92.3 The Fan in Cleveland, Ohio.

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