PAC-12 players threaten to boycott 2020 season

PAC-12 players threaten to boycott 2020 season and release a list of demands. Yahoo Sports' Dan Wetzel and Pete Thamel break it down on the latest episode of the latest Yahoo Sports College Podcast. Subscribe to the Yahoo Sports College Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Video transcript

DAN WETZEL: Pac-12 players dropped this little bombshell over the weekend. They're-- hundreds of them, supposedly-- willing to boycott the season, sit out the season, unless all of their demands are met. Now, this is a long time coming, but here are the demands-- health and safety, opt-outs without penalty, third-party selected to-- by players to enforce rules. Obviously you have the COVID concerns.

They want schools like Stanford to dive into their endowment fund to-- to protect all the sports. They rip lavish spending, salaries, facilities, all these different things.

They want end racial injustice in college sports. They want 2% of all conference revenue to go to financial aid for low-income African-American students.

There is economic concerns. This is a-- this is a big one-- 50% of all revenue to athletes. A six-year scholarship, one-time transfer rule, a variety of things. I mean, this is the-- this is the dream list, if you will, of the NCPA and-- and many people who have demanded these things. What-- what are your thoughts on it, Pete?

PETE THAMEL: So I was-- I dove into this pretty hard this weekend. I-- I first heard about it Friday morning, and then, you know, spent a lot of time on the phone with-- with Pac-12 coaches, who didn't know a lot about it. And they honestly still don't know a lot about it, you know, come-- come Monday, after a few that I-- after a few that I spoke with.

I love the ideal of it. I love the-- the asks for social justice, for racial equality, for health insurance. I think the health insurance ask is a great ask. And that's something that's-- that's something that's really overdue. Obviously safety is tantamount.

I've just heard too much, Dan, over the last six weeks of, like, too many programs who, like, just aren't testing as, like, a philosophy, basically. Like-- like, yep, we'll only test this amount of guys.

And, like, so kids are scared. I do think one of things I gleaned this weekend, calling around, is that there's an undercurrent of, like, players who are nervous. And I really think that when you-- when you look at, like, the environment right now, and there's so many unknowns with COVID, I do think, like, you know, you talk to every coach, like, players want to play. Players want to play. No one wants to play more than the players. I mean, in defense of these players, they've pretty much spent June, July all cooped up, you know, some to varying degrees of weeks.

And so, like, I-- like, of course they want to play. They've made all the sacrifices. They're elite athletes. They're competitive to get to that level.

I'm curious. I-- I don't think this Pac-12 thing is going to, like, cause some like fundamental breakthrough or be some, like, huge tipping point. I-- I do think it's important. It's a seminal moment in the fact that there could be-- there could be more of it.

I really do think it does underscore the uncertainty right now from the players' standpoint. And I'm glad that the players do have a-- do maybe have more of a voice from this style.

All that said, a couple of the demands were just, like, foolish. I mean, Ramogi Huma, who's obviously, you know, been working as an athlete advocate for at least 15 years, right, Dan? I mean, maybe longer.

DAN WETZEL: Longer, probably.

PETE THAMEL: He's been-- he has sort of masterminded and orchestrated this. He's tried to make it look like it was an organic movement from the players. And that's really just not true. Like, for him to be recommending, like, the 50% cut, like, that's just-- like, he knows better than that.

If you want to be taken seriously, you have to know how an endowment works, right? Like, there are just some things that, like, that were, like, a little bit disappointing if you want a seat at the table.

But for the most part, like, there's-- there's a lot of-- you know, say there's about 20 demands in there. Like, a majority of them are good. The players should be heard. There should be uniform consistent health protocols at every school within a conference.

So again, some of the messages were muddled. But-- but overall I think it's-- it's a positive. And this is what the world's going to look like. Like, the players have a bigger voice. And the two things that are going amplify the power of the players are name, image, and likeness, and the ability to transfer on the spot.

So having to respond to player demands request, et cetera, even-- even if they're a little bit ridiculous like some of these Pac-12 ones are, that's just like-- this is, like, the new part of college sports we need to embrace and accept.

[DRUMLINE MUSIC]