Trevor Lawrence leads #WeWantToPlay movement, but can it save the season?

The latest drama to unfold in the NCAA Football saga is led by Trevor Lawrence and a host of College Football’s biggest names. Will #WeWantToPlay be enough to save the season?

In a Hail Mary move (pun very much, and unapologetically intended) late Sunday night, Trevor Lawrence and a host of College Football’s biggest names took a step towards a formal organization. Launching the #WeWantToPlay movement. Their goal? Save the football season by forcing the NCAA to respect its players and ultimately form a players association.

It’s a move that follows a slow, arduous march toward college athletes being recognized for the revenue stream they afford colleges and conferences. Tragically, it will not be enough for college season to be played by all of the Power 5, as the Big Ten is expected to cancel its season today. That means at best, there will only be a Power 4 vying for a national championship and that’s at the absolute best. It is hard to imagine all of the remaining conferences clinging to their seasons.

The time for making this season-saving moves is long past, ignored by a bloated monopoly trying to cling to its cash cow. The NCAA is like the Genie in Aladdin, except without being chained to a lamp. And yet it acted as though it has no control over its players, which thrust the role of “responsible adult” onto a bunch of 17 to 23-year-old players.

Now we are here, with Lawrence and Justin Fields and some of the biggest names in college football doing everything that they can to make sure the people who keep them playing for free do the right thing.

For the time being, we can cling to the slimmest of hopes that we can see a football season without one of the oldest, most respected and richest conferences in the country.

The real (non-pandemic) tragedy here is not that the fans are missing out. It’s not that the players might miss out on their final season in college. Is that the people in charge had almost eight months to figure this out. Rather than behave as adults who claim to be interested in the athletic and academic growth of its players, the NCAA abdicated that responsibility.

Luckily, leaders like Lawrence, were here to pick up the mantle. Sadly, it probably will not matter. The adults waited too long and did too little.

With any luck, the NCAA will learn its lesson and start treating its athletes with respect before they really get organized. But much like its response to the pandemic, it might already be too late.

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