Missouri’s football team stood up to its school’s administration. It wasn’t a fair fight. From the moment a large group of Tigers, backed by their coaches, stood up against university system president Tim Wolfe and school chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, the players were going to win.
Mizzou’s players are this powerful because you care so much about football
If you think these athletes have nothing more important to do than play football, then you’re the one who enabled them to do something bigger than football.
@GaryPinkel
When the football team made its announcement Saturday night, oodles of Internet humans were upset. “PULL THEIR SCHOLARSHIPS,” they said. When head coach Gary Pinkel announced his solidarity with the team Sunday morning, they adjusted to: “FIRE THE COACH AND PULL THEIR SCHOLARSHIPS.”
That was never going to happen.
Missouri, like many colleges of its size, relies on football for part of its revenue, branding and community. The school made $31.2 million from the SEC alone for the past athletic year. As Bill Connelly wrote, the team’s recent success has helped drive the school’s increase in applications.
Wolfe and Loftin were each reported to make around $450,000 a year. Pinkel just got a pay raise and contract extension that will give him $4 million per year until 2021. You could fire Wolfe and Loftin, hire replacements and do it again twice before hitting the financial burden of paying Pinkel this year. Never mind the next five years or the fact that hiring a new coach would cost as much.
If Mizzou had immediately pulled the scholarships of all the players who threatened to quit -- 30-plus in the initial group, plus support on social media and elsewhere from others, with only one anonymous player speaking publicly against the movement -- it would’ve had trouble finishing the season.
So add the monetary losses of canceling a game Saturday against BYU, to which Mizzou would've owed a million dollars if it had canceled, followed by SEC games at home against Tennessee and on the road at Arkansas.
Then you have to go about replacing those players for the next year. It’s pretty hard to manifest dozens of FBS players from thin air, even for the defending SEC East champions. It would be borderline impossible to do so after telling players they could lose scholarships for having strong opinions. Mizzou would be putting out non-competitive football for years, setting the program back decades and costing the school millions.
Once the team decided this was a cause worth throwing its weight behind, the game was over.
This wasn’t a few players frivolously deciding to get somebody fired ...
They were joining a large amount of the black student population in a pre-existing protest, including one who was literally starving himself.
They were joined by Missouri lawmakers from both the Democratic and Republican parties.
The administration had angered professors (the English department issued a unanimous vote of no confidence), the deans of nine departments (they called for Loftin’s departure) and grad students (they protested low pay and benefits, leading to professors cancelling classes in support) and united women’s groups with Greek life via a misguided sexual assault policy.
... but the players were the ones who made change happen.
Others complained for weeks, months and years. But within 48 hours of the team threatening action, Wolfe and Loftin had made their announcements. The team turned eyes and cameras towards Columbia in a way nobody else could, and the action they called for came quickly.
Mizzou FB players address media: "This should be a testament to athletes across the country; you do have power." pic.twitter.com/zrxrG7yhAF
— Robert Klemko (@RobertKlemko) November 9, 2015 Once upon a time, college football was extracurricular activity for the boys at the university to prove their mettle. Colleges used to support football teams. Nowadays, it’s the other way around.
Some have wondered whether the team would be striking if it was in position to win a third straight SEC title. In trying to turn this into a joke about a team with a bad record, those critics are pointing out something. Even a struggling team can enact massive change off the field. Can you imagine how much leverage the Tigers would’ve had if they were 9-0 and not 4-5?
Which comes back to Mr. PULL THEIR SCHOLARSHIPS.
If you adamantly believe that Missouri’s players should lose their scholarships for taking a stand, you deserve a hearty pat on the back. Because without realizing it, you’re the person who made all their successful protest possible.
You think students in good academic and social standing deserve to lose their scholarships for threatening to not play football. This says that, to you, playing football is the most important thing a student on an athletic scholarship can do.
This happened thanks to you. Your decision to assign incredible importance to college football allowed this scenario. You’re upset that college football players have power, but you’re the one who gave them that power.
The Mizzou strike
Bill Connelly and Steven Godfrey podcast on where Mizzou goes from here
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