Will There be a College Football Season or Nah?

The resurgence of the coronavirus is seeding much controversy about college sports – boiling down to the ethical question of whether NCAA officials will choose wealth over health. Without doubt, there is some complexity in simply pulling the plug on the college football season, but with Division I Ivy League, Patriot League, and now the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and Southwestern Atlantic Conference leading the way in calling off their football season, it is definitely possible. Yet, other colleges and conferences are meeting this week to create contingency plans aligned with the NCAA’s updated protocol for fall play.

However, these conversations are ignoring the elephant in the room -- how a college sports enterprise that heavily relies on the labor and talent of Black athletes is putting money ahead of students’ health.

I specialize in research at the intersection of race and collegiate athletics, and I am also a former Division I track & field athlete. I reviewed racial demographic data of NCAA Division I football athletes vetted to play in 2019, where half (49 percent) of the athletes are African-American, making up the largest racial/ethnic group of football student athletes.

The historical injustices of sport fall heavily on the backs of Black athletes, even as COVID-19 disproportionately affects Black communities. Continuing with the fall season sends an explicit message to young Black athletes that their health is not a concern. Rather, they are a commodity showcased for the benefit of those in power.

Although the NCAA acknowledges there are strikingly more cases than originally predicted that would allow for the safe resocialization of college sports, they are still pushing forward with ambiguous guidelines such as testing strategies, daily self-health checks, social distancing, wearing mask, training outside, and quarantine. But as we all know, there is much discrepancy in resources, college health personnel, athletic trainers, etc. that will not realistically allow every NCAA member institution to abide by the NCAA’s guidelines.

The NCAA has the power to shut the fall season down in the interests of public health of its student athletes. But I suspect the NCAA will place the onus on conferences to decide whether to allow their athletes to participate in fall competition. Similar to what we saw with March Madness earlier this year, the NCAA initially left the decision to athletic conferences to pull their athletes from the Big Dance before making the last minute call to cancel the tournament.

Why is the NCAA willing to put student athletes’ health at risk? MONEY.

It is a disheartening reality that in the 21st century, major corporations continue to benefit from the labor of communities of color at all cost.

Despite a legacy of fame and achievement from Arthur Ashe to Gabby Douglas and LeBron James, our young Black athletes still find themselves subjugated by a multibillion-dollar NCAA industry built on their talent. In 2018, March Madness alone accounted for 80 percent of the NCAA’s $1 billion revenue. As you can imagine, long-term interruption of this major enterprise is not up for debate.

As we witnessed two years ago, when Serena Williams’ health crisis was initially ignored after giving birth, reflecting the common experiences of Black women seeking medical treatment, the severity of the impact of societal issues is often relegated or ignored when they affect Black communities. Similarly, with the pandemic, the NCAA is overlooking the higher risk among African Americans, who are the majority of football athletes.

The NCAA has an unsavory track record of acting unfavorably when it comes to Black athletes – dating back to the late 1950s when HBCUs were finally extended NCAA membership, to the implementation of eligibility requirements of GPA and SAT/ACT standards that were extremely adverse to Black athletes in the 80s and 90s, and continuing today with academic policies that disproportionately penalize Black athletes attending low-resourced colleges. But overtly risking the health of athletes who are primarily Black is a new low.

I love the excitement around college football, hosting tailgates and witnessing some of the best talent in the country. But continuing this tradition of college football in the name of risking student athletes’ health is just not worth it. With new cases recently soaring to the single highest day just last week and college football athletes are testing positive for COVID-19 daily, how many more red flags does the NCAA need to make the executive decision to postpone the fall season and truly prioritize the health of their student athletes?

The NCAA needs to postpone or cancel the fall season for all NCAA member institutions.

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