SHOCKER: Larry Scott fumbles meeting with Pac-12 players, tone deaf

Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott fails the conference’s student athletes by being tone deaf and offering little comfort to 18 football players on a conference call to discuss #WeAreUnited.

The New York times is now chiming in on the Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott and how he is handling the conference. SHOCKER! Scott is trying to dismiss the players concerns as he totally fumbled the initial meeting that could have resulted in some positive dialog and moves. The elitist attitude he continues to exude is exhausting.

As we reported earlier, there was a consortium of Pac-12 players starting with some players from the Cal Bears team and from 11 of the 12 member schools (including All-American and honor roll candidates) who made demands and threatened a boycott to play football in a post in The Players Tribune. The players felt there was “Inadequate transparency about the health risks, a lack of uniform safety measures and an absence of ample enforcement.”

Arizona Wildcats Football

According to the New York Times writer Billy Witz, “They [the 18 players including Arizona Wildcats Malik Hausman] had two primary objectives: pushing for daily Corona Virus testing and protecting the eligibility and status of players who choose not to play for health reasons.” It seems these were basic requests that should have been taken seriously but they weren’t by Scott. According to Witz,

"On both fronts, the players said, they made little progress.They said Scott told them the conference was powerless to mandate uniform testing standards. They also described the commissioner as often condescending, unprepared and unwilling to meet with them again — telling them that subsequent discussions would be with the conference’s medical advisory board.The players said Scott criticized their statement on The Players’ Tribune as a “misguided P.R. stunt.”"

Really Larry? A public relations stunt? Can’t take that back. Couldn’t you have empathized with the players and not have belittled their efforts to have a voice? Why did you use your $5+ Million dollar salary privilege at the worst time and condescending tone towards these student athletes? According to ESPN, multiple sources not named, Scott said, “If this is about creating generational wealth you are wasting your time.”

Out of the 18 players on the call, there was one player each from OSU, USC, Oregon, Arizona, ASU, Washington State, and Utah, two from UCLA, Washington and Cal, three from Stanford. Colorado was the only school without representation. Otito Ogbonnia (DT out of UCLA) told Blitz, “He boasted how progressive the conference has been in giving the players a voice, but the way he treated us didn’t reflect that.” Duh!

Also according to Blitz, Cal Bear OT Valentino Daltos came away with the impression that Scott didn’t want to meet again and the players (18 of them) didn’t come away with any answers. Oregon Duck Jr. DB Jevon Holland asked Scott if they could have lawyers present and Scott’s rebuttal again was dismissive, “this isn’t a negotiation, it’s a discussion.” The big question is are these student athletes employees? The NCAA does not think so, thus labor laws do not apply to student athletes.

The student athletes were sent meeting minutes from the conference and the players responded with their own letter wrote Blitz. The NCAA has failed the players and the conference once again by not creating universal testing standards.

Shortly after the Pac-12 players posted their demands, the Big-10 and Mountain West followed suit. The Ohio State players disassociated themselves from the Big-10 and we guess were okay with signing liability waivers absolving the school. In addition, the MAC (Mid-American Conference including schools in the mid-west and east coast) announced their postponing of fall sports to the spring season “because of the Corona Virus pandemic” according to Sportstechie.com.

But on Friday, in solidarity, the University of California Academic Senate (covering all UC Schools including UCLA, USC and Cal) went further and endorsed the student athletes unequivocally by calling out the conference for racial injustice, “Playing football during a pandemic raised racial and social justice concerns in a sport whose players are primarily Black — The Council proudly stands, shoulder to shoulder, with the PAC-12 college athletes and #WeAreUnited.”

Let’s be real here, if your son was playing college football during this COVID19 pandemic, do you feel one test a week is enough? The players want to be tested more often like the NFL. Daltoso expressed his concern for “concrete mandates” to Scott, “This virus doesn’t look at if you’re a professional or amateur; it has the potential to harm — we don’t need guidelines, we need mandates, rules that schools all across the conference need to follow.”

Scott reiterated that players opting out would not lose their privileges or scholarships, but recently two Washington State players, Kassidy Woods and Dallas Hobbs (who was on the call) did suffer consequences from standing with the #WeAreUnited group. The players wrote back to Scott calling his answer on opting out, “If you feel unsafe just opt out and go home” unacceptable.

The letter back to Scott included Holland expressing his concern at the lack of engagement and assurances, “Our deepest fear is the Pac-12’s negligent return to play may result in a member of our Pac-12 family dying due to Covid-19.” The sentiment in the letter was basically that Scott wasn’t taking the matter seriously.

And there you have it, another classic blunder by Scott and the Pac-12. He didn’t budge an inch, didn’t empathize, nothing. If football doesn’t happen in the Pac-12, then the blame falls squarely on Scott and the conferences’ lack of leadership.

Maybe Scott is banking on the season being postponed to the Spring, since on Sunday, the Power 5 Commissioners held an emergency meeting to discuss the matter. It seems the “vast majority”  of the Big-10 Presidents (12 out of 14) will vote to postpone football to the spring season. Although no official vote has taken place yet. Some college administrators told ESPN that no one wants to be the first to do it, but “It feels like no one wants to, but it’s reaching the point where someone is going to have to.” Larry Scott’s Pac-12 may just be the conference that pulls the trigger.