You will be totally surprised to learn that Larry Scott blew off the #WeAreUnited players in their meeting this week.
When a group of Pac-12 Conference players who are threatening to opt out of the football season met with Commissioner Larry Scott on Thursday night, they had two primary objectives: pushing for more-frequent coronavirus testing and protecting the eligibility and status of players who choose not to play for health reasons.
On both fronts, the players said, they made little progress.
They said Scott told them the conference was powerless to mandate uniform testing standards. They also described the commissioner as often condescending, unprepared and unwilling to meet with them again — telling them that subsequent discussions would be with the conference’s medical advisory board.
The players said Scott criticized their statement on The Players’ Tribune as a “misguided P.R. stunt.”
(Larry only respects guided PR stunts. But I digress.)
You should be equally surprised by this.
Valentino Daltoso, a senior offensive lineman at California, added: “It was not very productive. We did not come away with many answers. He made it very clear that he does not want to meet again.”
Seriously, what would be the point?
There was one revealing moment to emerge from the meeting:
The players also said they were rebuffed when Jevon Holland, a junior defensive back at the University of Oregon, asked near the end of the nearly 90-minute meeting if they could have lawyers present. When Scott equivocated, he was pressed by Holland for a yes or no answer. According to the players, Scott said lawyers could talk to lawyers but “this isn’t a negotiation, it’s a discussion.” Anderson — who formerly worked as an N.F.L. executive — informed the players that he was a labor lawyer and that they were not employees, a position the N.C.A.A. has long fought to assert.
And therein lies the rub, as this quote illustrates.
Gee, I’m beginning to suspect that the health and safety of college athletes isn’t the top priority of these people.
Get The Picture 
What I got from that other than that Larry Scott is a dick is that he doesn’t think the conference is playing this year. So he is going to kick these issues down the road just like everyone has been doing for years but you know damn well he can push for conference wide testing protocols and an extra year of eligibility. These assholes can’t even pretend like listening to these young men’s concerns are important. Their greed and arrogance will be their undoing.
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I don’t disagree —- I just find a P5 AD saying “the real issue is University Presidents are terrified..” to be slightly disingenuous. It’s like the AD is saying, oh, we support player organization —- and it would happen if not for those terrified University President’s.
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Wrong thread 🤦♂️
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Nauseating. Simply nauseating.
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When they say it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. (Both sides)
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Its hard to have a serious conversation with players that demand (under threat of boycott) wide scale salary reductions and profit sharing. This is also only 13 players out of thousands across the conference. It not like this is a unified front. Are these even starters making these demands or 2nd/3rd stringers who don’t have any meaningful playing time to risk?
However, their points about player safety insofar as the pandemic is valid. I just think their “list of demands” was the wrong way to go about this. None of
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The tweet is interesting as well. I could see how ADs would be as nervous as a cat in a rocking chair store about players “organizing” but why would University Presidents? Unless vast amounts of Athletic Department revenue is flowing into the university coffers? (I don’t think it is) I guess the reverse could be true that vast majorities of student fees are feeding the athletic monster and if players “organize” it’s going to get worse?
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Why would college presidents care? Look at our neighbor to the west in Tuscaloosa. Only 40% of their undergraduates are in-state. Of those 60% that are out of state, a healthy percentage selected Alabama based largely on the football program as integral part of the “college experience.”
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I totally agree that college football increases enrollment and is a heck of a marketing tool and great for contributions to the university. I am just trying to connect the dots of why they would care if the student-athletes are compensated versus not.
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There isn’t a single college president who’s come out in favor of doing so. I would suggest you rely on Occam’s razor as to why that is.
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I don’t disagree —- I just find a P5 AD saying “the real issue is University Presidents are terrified..” to be slightly disingenuous. It’s like the AD is saying, oh, we support player organization —- and it would happen if not for those terrified University President’s.
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Who is this Occam, and why should we worry about his razor?
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Doesn’t Alabama waive OOS tuition for certain study programs and demographics?
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That may be part of it, but I have several friends whose children could not get admitted to UGA, but could get admitted to Bama, Ole Miss, etc. Two of them are professors at UGA.
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I think the portal will be jam packed next year. So many ass hats so few hats.
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WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE…ALL YOU HAVE TO LOSE ARE YOUR CHAINS! Of course, the entire infrastructure, staff and education don’t want players to understand unions or organizing. And football players are a self selected group that has grown up accepting abuse and anger from coaches…it’s normal. And to question Daddy Coach! Never.
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Silver lining possibility:
Scott loses an entire football season to poor leadership while everyone else manages to cobble together a season.
That would be epic.
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Test
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Only in the sense that the West Coast is teetering on the edge of losing football altogether. Which would be a shame.
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It would be if it came to that. Larry is saddling that conference with problems for decades at this point.
I think they could be very competitive quickly if USC and UCLA ever managed to hire competent ADs. Those schools have been Exhibit A1 and A2 for everything the Senator rails about in college athletics administration.
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