The NCAA is in Trouble, and Players Shouldn't Have Any Sympathy

The COVID-19 pandemic has been devastating for a lot of industries, including sports. Each league is trying to find a way to play games that don’t blatantly put the health of its players, coaches and other staff members at risk. A big reason for this is that, even during a pandemic, there is money to be made from games, and no sports organization is as desperate to generate revenue than the NCAA.

While the organization was one of the first to address the pandemic back in March when it restricted fans from attending March Madness games, before scrapping the entire tournament, it faces an even bigger challenge in the coming months: football.

The cancellation of March Madness had devastating financial consequences on the NCAA, but the cancellation of an entire football season could be even worse. The sport is a huge revenue generator for a lot of colleges and universities that are going to see a decline in attendance, and therefore tuition dollars, this fall. But while schools may be left in a very difficult situation if there is no season, by no means should any NCAA athlete for any sport have to play in the midst of a pandemic.

It makes sense that professional athletes would want to play because playing their respective sports is how they make a living, and even with that being said many across different leagues have opted out of playing. College athletes do not get paid for playing their respective sports, an entirely separate issue, therefore the only incentive for them to play is to keep their scholarships. One could argue that some student athletes would want to play anyway for simply the love of the game, but that will almost certainly not be the case.

According to the Los Angeles Times, 30 UCLA football players wrote a letter to the university last month which condemned the school for failing to protect their health and safety. This came after certain schools, like Alabama and Auburn, began training camps early and saw a surge of COVID-19 cases among the players.

Certain conferences are taking matters into their own hands. Earlier this month the Ivy League announced that no sports would be played during the fall season. Some smaller Division III conferences have also cancelled fall sports.

But schools that generate a lot of money from football and are dependent on that money, like Alabama and Auburn, are likely going to try to find a way to play. The NCAA is already staring down a very uncertain future with all of the revenue lost, so it will encourage anyway to bring in money even if it means making unpaid student athletes put the health and safety of themselves and of their families on the line.

Whether or not the NCAA will, or can, force student athletes to play has yet to be seen. We will find out come the fall, and if early training camps were any indication then resuming games guarantees many players will get infected with COVID-19. The consequences of that could be dire, and that, combined with the huge loss of revenue from March Madness, puts the NCAA’s future in uncharted territory.

Photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Report: Michael Rosen