Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Virtual Events
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    Hands-On Career Preparation
    An AI-Driven Work Force
    Alternative Pathways
Sign In
Commentary

Enter the Real Power of College Sports

By Thabiti Lewis November 11, 2015
Enter the Real Power of College Sports 1
Courtesy of Hank Willis Thomas and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York

In Hank Willis Thomas’s provocative photo “The Cotton Bowl,” a football player is in a three-point stance at the goal line facing a black sharecropper picking cotton in the end zone. The point of the image, part of the artist’s “Strange Fruit” installation, is that the exploitation of black bodies for profit without adequate pay continues in the 21st century. The king crop — collegiate football — must be harvested.

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

In Hank Willis Thomas’s provocative photo “The Cotton Bowl,” a football player is in a three-point stance at the goal line facing a black sharecropper picking cotton in the end zone. The point of the image, part of the artist’s “Strange Fruit” installation, is that the exploitation of black bodies for profit without adequate pay continues in the 21st century. The king crop — collegiate football — must be harvested.

The University of Missouri football program generated more than $35 million in revenue in 2014 and netted roughly $14 million in profit. So, while university administrators may not wholly believe that black lives matter, it does matter to them that certain black lives are on the football field. Within 48 hours of the players’ announcement that they would not labor in the field for the university until the president was removed or resigned, he was gone.

I applaud their courage and their wisdom. It is difficult to applaud the University of Missouri’s governing board, however, because members were aware of the campus climate of vitriol and of the ex-president Timothy Wolfe’s refusal to act. They ignored a letter received from a graduate student, Jonathan Butler, outlining the abuses; they remained quiet when a white student spewed epithets at members of the Legion of Black Collegians in October; and they were mute when members of Concerned Student 1950, a protest organization, surrounded Wolfe’s car during the homecoming parade demanding to have their marginalized voices heard.

Why was there was no action from the board after the student-body president, Payton Head, reported that racial slurs had been shouted at him? The pattern of inaction continued after Butler went on a hunger strike, vowing not to eat until Wolfe stepped down or was fired.

The board was lax in responding to all but one thing: the football players’ threatened boycott.

Why? Not only does money talk, but when the oppressed rise up and attack the purse strings of the powerful, things happen. To be clear, Wolfe’s resignation was less about morality than about money: If Missouri were not to play Brigham Young University this Saturday, it would have to pay $1 million in damages to BYU and potentially would lose at least that much in game revenue.

And now that Wolfe is gone, I wish the players had vowed not to return to the field until most of their demands had been met. These three can be immediately addressed: (1) The university meets the Legion of Black Collegians’ demands from 1969 for the betterment of the black community. (2) The university creates a strategic 10-year plan by May 1, 2016, to raise retention rates for marginalized students, sustain diversity curriculum and training, and promote a more safe and inclusive campus. (3) The university increases funding, resources, and personnel for the social-justice centers on campus to hire additional professionals, particularly those of color, expanding outreach, and increasing campus-wide awareness and visibility.

These courageous young athletes deserve applause for taking an enormous chance. Like the Northwestern University football team, which demanded to be unionized, the Missouri players are using their power as college athletes to bring attention to injustice in the world.

Perhaps the Missouri basketball team will apply pressure to help get the list of demands met. Or maybe during the college-football playoff or bowl games, or the NCAA basketball tournament in March, players from other teams will protest by sitting on the bench or refusing to play.

The NCAA’s president, Mark Emmert, likes to remind us that these players are “student-athletes” and therefore undeserving of pay Maybe athletes in football and basketball will decide to leverage the moment for a bigger piece of the financial pie. Perhaps Clemson University’s football players will follow Missouri’s lead and strike to get their president, Jim Clements, to respond to the list of grievances that a student group, the Coalition of Concerned Students, gave him in January to deal with a pattern of social injustice.

ADVERTISEMENT

Regardless of what happens next, my hope is that this is only the beginning. For now, the Missouri players have shown us the power of sport in American culture. Their stand reminds us of what we learned during the Montgomery bus boycott: Those who control systems of power have a different meter of morality when it comes to money than when it comes to people.

Thabiti Lewis is an associate professor of English at Washington State University and the author of Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America (Third World Press, 2010).

A version of this article appeared in the November 20, 2015, issue.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Tags
Opinion
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

More News

Graphic vector illustration of a ship with education-like embellishments being tossed on a black sea with a Kraken-esque elephant trunk ascending from the depth against a stormy red background.
Creeping concerns
Most Colleges Aren’t a Target of Trump (Yet). Here’s How Their Presidents Are Leading.
Photo-based illustration of calendars on a wall (July, August and September) with a red line marking through most of the dates
'A Creative Solution'
Facing Federal Uncertainty, Swarthmore Makes a Novel Plan: the 3-Month Budget
Marva Johnson is set to take the helm of Florida A&M University this summer.
Leadership & governance
‘Surprising': A DeSantis-Backed Lobbyist Is Tapped to Lead Florida A&M
Students and community members protest outside of Coffman Memorial Union at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, on Tuesday, April 23, 2024.
Campus Activism
One Year After the Encampments, Campuses Are Quieter and Quicker to Stop Protests

From The Review

Glenn Loury in Providence, R.I. on May 7, 2024.
The Review | Conversation
Glenn Loury on the ‘Barbarians at the Gates’
By Evan Goldstein, Len Gutkin
Illustration showing a valedictorian speaker who's tassel is a vintage microphone
The Review | Opinion
A Graduation Speaker Gets Canceled
By Corey Robin
Illustration showing a stack of coins and a university building falling over
The Review | Opinion
Here’s What Congress’s Endowment-Tax Plan Might Cost Your College
By Phillip Levine

Upcoming Events

Ascendium_06-10-25_Plain.png
Views on College and Alternative Pathways
Coursera_06-17-25_Plain.png
AI and Microcredentials
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin