Big Ten Players Reveal List Of Demands For 2020 Season

On the day their league announced its 2020 schedule, more than 1,000 Big Ten football players published a list of demands for the conference and NCAA.

In a lengthy essay for The Players’ Tribune, a group of Big Ten players voiced their concerns about the safety precautions the conference and NCAA have put forth amid COVID-19.

The players criticized the NCAA’s “laissez-faire approach is forcing each conference and each school to create its own plan” and called on the organization to “devise a comprehensive plan to ensure the safety and well-being of players leading up to and during the upcoming fall season.”

“We have started a dialogue in good faith with the Big Ten and hope that the NCAA will follow suit,” the players wrote. “Given the short time frame, and with our season at stake, this conversation must happen now.”

Among the requests from players are third-party testing for COVID, which is already in effect, testing three times per week including on the day of competition, whistleblower protection for athletics staffers and players reporting breaches of protocol and coverage for all out-of-pocket medical expenses related to COVID-19.

The final item–complimentary access to BTN for players’ families–might seem out of place, but it likely has to do with the fact families and friends will not be able to attend games this year.

Time will tell how these demands will be met, but overall, it’s a good thing the players are getting a say. We’ve already seen Pac-12 athletes make their voice heard, and now the Big Ten has followed suit.

This can only be a good thing for the sport of college football.

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