As reports regarding a potential cancellation of the 2020 college football season made the rounds on Sunday night, several players took to social media to share the hashtag #IWantToPlay.
By Monday morning, that hashtag had taken on a new meaning, with a collection of the sport's biggest stars -- including Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields -- using it to promote both their desires for a 2020 season and a list of requests to help make that happen.
The message, which was shared by more than a dozen of the sport's biggest stars, including Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, calls for uniform health and safety protocols across college football's Power Five conferences (the Big Ten, ACC, SEC, Big 12 and Pac-12). Specifically, the players' message states and requests the following:
- We all want to play football this season
- Establish universal health & safety procedures and protocols to protect college athletes against COVID-19 among all conferences throughout the NCAA
- Give players the opportunity to opt out and respect their decision
- Guarantee eligibility whether a player chooses to play the season or not
- Use our voices to establish open communication & trust between players and officials; ultimately create a college football players association.
- Representative of the players of all Power Five conferences
Last week players from both the Pac-12 and Big Ten publically voiced concerns regarding starting the 2020 college football season amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Later in the week, several Ohio State football players took to Twitter to praise the school's efforts in providing a safe environment.