The Best Win the Razorbacks Could Have Would be Against their Oppressors in the NCAA

Arkansas will probably win some football games (hopefully 6? Possibly 7!), but they will also lose games, and they will lose them hard to teams named Alabama, Auburn, and Mississippi State. But I think the Razorbacks are capable of an entirely different kind of Win, a win where they refuse to play football at all.

Why would they do that? Well, they could do that for a variety of reasons, but I think (are you listening to me Arkansas Razorback football players?) they are the victims of a massive civil rights abuse. They should demand to be paid a significantly higher amount by the athletic department and the NCAA, who profits at an alarming rate from the barely paid labor of student athletes (and maybe get some lifetime health insurance while they are at it). It's possible they could win a higher wage and lifetime health insurance though a boycott of football activities, and I think they should.

Razorbacks players can take their cue from our rivals the Missouri Tigers, who in 2015 helped improve civil rights at the Missouri campus with a football boycott. The boycott was started by a group called #Concernedstudents1950 and was centered on campus racism and the refusal of University of Missouri leaders, especially system president Tim Wolfe, to do anything about it. On Oct 20., 2015 #ConcernedStudents1950 issued a list of demands for the University of Missouri, including the removal of President Wolfe, a mandatory racial awareness and inclusion curriculum. an increase in African American professors, and more. They gave the University of Missouri eight days to respond. When no response came, graduate student Jonathan Butler decided begin a hunger strike on Nov. 2nd, announcing that it would end with either the resignation of Tim Wolfe or his death.

Not long after Butler's hunger strike was announced, the Missouri Tigers football team joined the protest. On Nov. 7 they announced their boycott of football activities, and on Nov. 8 tweeted the above photo. With the Tigers football team involved the protest began to gain quite a bit more traction with national news coverage including ESPN. Faced with the embarrassment of his inaction and the prospect of the school losing millions of dollars in lost football revenue, Missouri University System President Tim Wolfe resigned.

ANYWAY, the point that I'n trying to get to is this: The Missouri Tigers football team realized their innate economic power and used that to affect institutional change on a civil rights issue. To me, I think the way the NCAA treats it's football players is also a civil rights issue. Student athletes' labor is exploited by the NCAA. The NCAA revenue for 2016 was 995.9 million dollars. That money does not get made without the student athletes, and they are far from realizing their true value by receiving just a scholarship and stipend money.

So, if there are any Razorbacks out their reading this article, this is for you: Resist! Stand up for your Rights! You are not an amateur, you are a true professional generating millions of dollars of revenue for your school! Reject Tyranny and take what is yours!

https://www.si.com/college-football/2015/11/09/missouri-football-protest-racism-tim-wolfe