When the University of Missouri (aka Mizzou) football team decided to never take the field again until the President of the University Tim Wolfe was removed, it may have changed college football's role in campus politics forever.
Tim Wolfe's sin was that he presided over a predominately white campus where there was a belief that racism and other sexual orientation biases were not being addressed. How severe these charges were, I don't know. Also, I don't know if these allegations are typical of life at other colleges and universities in the country. Nor, do I know if there was truly inaction on the part of the university's President and administrative staff. But, whatever the case, football teams around the nation now know the power they can wield.
For that reason alone, expect more college football strikes in the future. Strikes for all varieties of grievances that can really hurt a university because of the steep revenues each college gets for their televised games. Understand that the Mizzou football team generates nearly $85 million in annual revenues.
Ultimately, colleges may be forced to pay their football players to avoid strikes. When income is at stake, players will be less likely to walkout in mass. Just my opinion.
References:
How the Missouri football team just took down its university president: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/11/09/missouri-football-players-and-the-untapped-political-power-of-the-college-student-athlete/
University of Missouri president and chancellor step down amid race row: http://www.cnn.com/2015/11/09/us/missouri-football-players-protest-president-resigns/
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment