By Staff
Coaching Management, 9.4, May 2001, http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/cm/cm0904/bbstrength.htm
An advocacy group led by a former UCLA linebacker is using a new approach to improve the welfare of collegiate football players. The group, named the Collegiate Athletes Coalition (CAC), ultimately hopes to establish a national association of players from NCAA Division I-A football teams for the purpose of voicing their concerns to the NCAA.
Ramogi Huma, a former Bruins linebacker who’s now a graduate student at the university, got the ball rolling in January when he, along with 14 members from last year’s UCLA team, formed the CAC. Huma got the idea after seeing a former teammate suspended by the NCAA in 1995 for taking free groceries from an agent.
“For me, that was a big shock,” Huma said in an Jan. 19, 2001, story posted on SportsLine.com. “What really got to me was, as a football player, you see all the money changing hands. You see all this big money being made. [But] you’re faced with the same reality that you might not have enough money at the end of the month. That’s what motivated me.”
The CAC’s goals include securing health care coverage for all sports-related injuries, including those suffered during voluntary workouts; increasing life insurance policies for student-athletes; increasing monthly stipends; eliminating the limitations on outside income during the offseason; allowing student-athletes to make education their top priority; and improving graduation rates.
While Student-Athlete Advisory Committees (SAACs) exist to address issues regarding student welfare, Huma thinks it’s important to create a separate group outside the NCAA structure. “After close scrutiny of the SAAC system, the football players at UCLA concluded that these committees are not given an adequate means to influence NCAA legislation,” he says. “For example, the NCAA does not mandate that the student-athletes on these committees be oriented to the NCAA legislative process or their role as representatives. These SAACs cannot propose NCAA legislation and they cannot vote on NCAA legislation [although athletes on Division III SAACs are permitted to vote on legislation]. These are just three examples that illustrate how this system is fatally flawed.”
While there have been pushes to improve student-athlete welfare in the past, both by individuals and groups, what makes the CAC different is its support from the United Steelworkers of America. “The Steelworkers have been instrumental in helping the CAC formulate organizing strategies,” Huma says. “In addition, the CAC has been in close contact with the Steelworkers’ legal and communications departments. The Steelworkers have also committed to help fund this movement—they have played a crucial role and will continue to do so. But while the Steelworkers are a crucial asset to the CAC, I would like to add that the CAC maintains complete autonomy. The Steelworkers believe in our cause and are providing unconditional support.”
The involvement of the Steelworkers had led some to envision student-athletes walking picket lines after being asked to run too many sprints. But Huma feels those fears result from misconceptions about the CAC’s intent. “The CAC is not a union and it is not advocating striking,” he says. “More accurately, the CAC is a student advocacy group.”
He also wants to make it clear that the group is targeting NCAA issues and the larger issues facing collegiate athletes and not the day-to-day operation of teams. “This is not about how coaches run their teams,” he says. “The CAC did not form in response to unjust treatment by the UCLA coaching staff or administration. This movement is about initiating positive change at the NCAA level that will address the needs of football players as students and athletes.”
Huma says the reaction to the CAC from various UCLA parties has been positive. “The CAC has received support from our coaches, athletic director, and chancellor,” says Huma. “Their formal stance is that they support any push for student-athlete welfare. This does not mean that this support is exclusive—they also support the NCAA’s student athlete advisory committees. But this support is objective proof that the UCLA coaches and administrators care for the overall welfare of their football players.”
Huma, who intends to stay involved with the CAC after he graduates, hopes to expand participation in the organization over the next few months. “We have contacted a number of prominent football schools,” he says. “We are at varying stages of organizing at these schools, and while we have yet to establish a CAC chapter at another school, we have received unanimous support from the players that we are in contact with.
“I would like to see other players take advantage of this opportunity,” he continues. “I would also like to see coaches encourage their players to take a stand and get involved with the CAC.”