ARLINGTON, TX – JANUARY 03: Evan Boehm #77 of the Missouri Tigers reacts in the second half while taking on the Oklahoma State Cowboys during the AT&T Cotton Bowl on January 3, 2014 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

The University of Missouri has been the subject of some high-profile boycotts from the student body as well as the football team in recent months.

The most notable has been the Concerned Student 1950 protest that was a result of racial slurs directed toward black students at the school by some people in the white majority population at the school and the apparent lack of response from school officials to do anything about that. The protest gained support from the football team as well as the Missouri coaching staff and resulted in the resignation of President Tim Wolfe.

Now, to prevent anything like this from happening again, the University of Missouri is instituting sanctions for those who boycott and protest at the school that may include taking away scholarships for “for athletes who do not meet their scholarship obligations” according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.

To try and explain this, Missouri Athletic Director Mack Rhoades said,

“There is an expectation that our student-athletes practice, play, go to class and be responsible socially. There is absolutely that expectation of our student-athletes.”

“The player boycott was an extraordinary situation and the athletic department is working to prevent a repeat.”

“For us, this is about creating an environment where our student-athletes never feel that they have to go to that measure.”

Keep in mind that as of now, this seems to pertain to only student-athletes but this alone has implications that could stifle any sort of boycott or protest in the future.

Whether the University of Missouri or anyone else likes to admit it or not, the football team is a very powerful group on campus. Just like at many BCS conference schools, the football team is one of the most powerful groups on campus and possibly more powerful than the administration. Depending on the school, the football team brings in money, both in donations and from local and state governments, and can be a great marketing tool to get people to apply to the school for their college education.

The Concerned Student 1950 protest reached peak attention from other students, the school and the media when the football team and the coaching staff joined. Not as many people were too much concerned before the football team got involved and while that in itself is pretty unfortunate, that’s the reality. Anyway, once the football team joined, progress was made and now by instituting sanctions on anyone from the team to participate, that can weaken any sort of boycott or protest at the school.

This can also backfire on Missouri. For one thing, implementing something like this isn’t the best PR move. But in a strict football sense, essentially telling players on the football team to “shut up and play,” is not a very good advertisement for potential recruits to come and play for your school. As if the apparent racism at the school wasn’t bad enough, if a player feels like they cannot speak up to bring about changes, they probably aren’t coming to play for your school if they have other offers.

I understand why the University of Missouri would implement sanctions like this. College Football is a big business and Missouri wants to make sure that players play in every game and the revenue keeps flowing in. It’s not that they’re necessarily insensitive toward race issues, they just don’t want any boycotts period.

At the same time, just shutting people out and not listening to what people have to say is also a very dangerous road to go down. This doesn’t mean you have to give into every demand that comes forth, but there aren’t too many people who wake up wanting to start a protest. If they have gotten to the point to protest, they probably have a very good reason. And whether or not they are actually in the right, chances are a solution can come out of that by one side listening to the other, and vice versa.

[Columbia Daily Tribune]

About Phillip Bupp

Producer/editor of the Awful Announcing Podcast and Short and to the Point. News editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. Highlight consultant for Major League Soccer as well as a freelance writer for hire. Opinions are my own but feel free to agree with them.

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