One big difference between the return of pro sports and the return of college sports
When pro sports come back, it’ll be because the players and owners negotiated a deal. When college sports come back, it’ll likely be because the schools, exclusively, say they should.
Welcome to The Slant! If you follow this newsletter on Instagram, you may have been expecting a different topic today. But in light of recent news, I figured that could wait.
Every sport in America is plotting its return right now. MLB is sketching out an ambitious plan that isn’t exactly approved by medical experts. The NBA is considering a “bubble” return with players all staying in Disney World. Meanwhile, the NCAA is inching closer to a return as well.
The NCAA’s move to approve voluntary activities doesn’t mean players will automatically start showing up at facilities on June 1, but it is a step in that general direction.
“The way one source described the process of returning is that it will be more of a step than a leap,” Pete Thamel of Yahoo writes. “The ability for schools to have student-athletes return will depend largely on their state and local government restrictions.”
When pro sports leagues are figuring out the when and how of returning to play while the coronavirus pandemic is still very much with us, it’s a two-sided conversation.
When Major League Baseball wants players to come back, it has to negotiate with the MLB Players Association. From ESPN:
Last week, instead of unilaterally ordering players back onto the field, the owners were forced to negotiate their return. Players already had agreed to prorated salaries based on how many games they play this season, but owners are proposing a revenue-sharing deal -- effectively a further pay cut -- because, they say, costs will vastly exceed revenue without fans.
ESPN quotes Angels second baseman Tommy La Stella saying he wants to make sure the sport: "is smart about it and not pushing to get back on the field to make money at the expense of our safety. ... It's not the corporate heads who are in compromised positions, it's going to be the producers."
From ESPN on the NBA’s return:
The NBA and NBPA are meeting to discuss the structure of a return, including how the league will navigate the possibility of regular-season games, play-in tournaments, playoff formats and whether the full 30 teams will be brought back to finish the season, sources said.
From The Washington Post on the NWSL’s potential return to play a month-long tournament in Utah:
The league’s nine owners have voted in favor of proceeding, said two people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because some details remain unresolved. Not all U.S. national team players are sold on the plan, two people said.
The crux of every union’s argument is this: you can’t make money without us, and we’re the ones exposing ourselves to the virus while the owners stay safe.
College athletes, especially football players, have the same argument. They make boatloads of cash for their universities. Their athletic directors aren’t hiding the fact that they desperately need the revenue college football and its players provide. College athletes don’t have any formal union or collective bargaining power, though they have tried. In 2014, Northwestern players attempted to form a union. The NLRB eventually declined their request, overturning a previous decision after a union-busting effort from the school and head coach Pat Fitzgerald.
So this means the return of college sports is not the two-sided conversation pro athletes have with owners. ESPN’s big piece on the return of college football quotes precisely zero players. Instead, the return of college sports involves conversations between administrators, athletic directors and coaches at different schools. Those same administrators, according to Heather Dinich and Andrea Adelson at ESPN, “are acknowledging the realization that once workouts, practices and games resume, the spread of COVID-19 will be inevitable.”
Of course, no schools are mandating that players return to campus — yet. Removing a ban on in-person training is not the same as requiring players to show up. But in college football, “voluntary” summer workouts aren’t usually voluntary.
Maybe your school’s administration thinks like Lincoln Riley does. But what happens if you get an administration that leans more toward Mike Gundy?
College athletics’ lack of a central governing body is a glaring problem here.
The NCAA punted on addressing when athletes can return to campus, putting these decisions in the hands of school administrators who need the money college football provides.
Administrators have no consensus on what to do if a player tests positive for coronavirus. From John Talty at AL.com:
One Power 5 administrator openly speculated that teams might not be upfront about positive tests if it meant an automatic shutdown. “You better hope no school is covering things up,” the administrator told AL.com but they couldn’t help but be skeptical that a win-at-all-costs program would really shut it all down for a third-string punter.
Some experts say that even if testing is ethically viable (meaning there are enough tests available that colleges wouldn’t be preventing potentially sick people from getting them), it may be too expensive to test entire college football teams at the levels health care experts advise.
"It is clearly going to be a part of the way professional athletes deal with this, and professional leagues," one medical expert told ESPN. "I think it's going to be more of a struggle for colleges. ... My suspicion is testing will be a part, there will probably be various screens from time to time, but I will be surprised if routine testing is a part of college. The logistic cost and numbers don't add up very well."
So where does that leave us?
No school has started bringing players back to campus against their will. But in an industry where the power rests almost exclusively with coaches, who have the ability to suspend, dismiss and control the playing time of their players, college athletes are boxed in. When pro sports come back, it’ll be because the players and owners negotiated a deal. When college sports come back, it’ll likely be because the schools, exclusively, say they should.
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