Player Movement Begins Following Power Five Emergency Meeting
STILLWATER -- The last 24 hours have been rather crazy for college football. Reports began coming out Sunday morning of the 'eminent cancellation' of the 2020 college football season, followed by an emergency meeting of the Power Five conferences on the season. That prompted athletes, such as Oklahoma State running back Chuba Hubbard and the face of college football, Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, to take to Twitter as part of the 'We Want to Play' movement.
A large group of college football's top players, including Chuba Hubbard, Trevor Lawrence, Ohio State's Justin Fields, Michigan's Hunter Reynolds and Oregon's Penei Sewell, organized a Zoom call to discuss options and moving forward with the movement.
Several football players from around the Power Five conferences starting sharing a joint statement on Twitter late Sunday night which details what the players want.
- We all want to play football this season
- Establish universal mandated heath and safety procedures and protocols to protect college-athletes against COVID-19 among all conference throughout the NCAA
- Give players the opportunity to opt out and respect their decision
- Guarantee eligibility whether a player chooses to play the season or not
- Use our voices to establish open communication and trust between players and officials; ultimately create a College Football Players Association
- Representative of the players of all Power 5 conferences
This is the first time Chuba Hubbard's posted on Twitter since he announced he was taking a break from social media back on July 21.
Fellow Cowboys Brendon Evers and newcomer Dee Anderson have also tweeted out support for the 'We Want to Play' movement.
Things are also starting to heat up on a potential decision on a conference level. Dan Patrick is reporting the Big Ten has had an internal vote and by a 12-2 vote, league members have opted not to have a fall football season. Iowa and Nebraska were reportedly the two schools who voted to play.
Pokes Report's Robert Allen reports there's a possibility that at least two Big Ten schools have reached out to the Big 12 to see if they could play this season.
The Pac 12 is also expected to come to a similar result as the Big Ten on the upcoming season. However, reports are coming out the SEC is determined to play the season and hopes the ACC and Big 12 will follow suit.
Power 5 AD made it clear: doesn’t mean SEC, ACC and Big 12 are playing, just means they’re not giving in just yet. They’re continuing to move forward.
— Matt Hayes (@MattHayesCFB) August 10, 2020
Science and medical professionals (and ultimately, university presidents) will dictate what they do. https://t.co/bOdcamaj4p
We'll be updating this article as more information comes out throughout the day.
