Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford was among a handful of Big Ten football players to speak with league commissioner Kevin Warren this week about giving players a seat in at the table in addressing a variety issues and concerns in “the changing landscape of college sports.” The meeting was reported by ESPN’s Dan Murphy and centered on improving player benefits and creating player representation regarding league decisions.
According to the report, the primary benefits the athletes are seeking include a player advocate in medical care disputes and other situations, health insurance for former players to cover college football-related injuries and a share of media rights revenue.
The Big Ten is set to sign a new television which will likely be worth $1 billion a year according to recent projections.
“As a student athletes at Penn State, and a member of the football team, I have had very positive and open discussion with Coach [James] Franklin, Director of Athletics Pat Kraft and Big Ten Conference Commissioner Kevin Warren about the changing landscape of college sports and how those changes are, and will continue to, impact student-athletes.” Clifford wrote in a statement posted to Twitter.
“It is important to state that my dialogues with my coach, athletics director and commissioner were conducted as a student-athlete. To characterize my dialogues as being on behalf of a union or a union member would be inaccurate,” Clifford added, refuting an earlier report to the contrary.
Warren met separately with Jason Stahl, the executive director of the College Football Players Association, about player medical insurance issues and media rights revenue sharing, according to the ESPN report. Warren acknowledged in a statement that he had met with players, including Clifford, as well as the CFBPA, but that there have been no collective bargaining negotiations nor are any scheduled.
“We are in the process of formalizing a student-athlete advisory committee to seek input from our student-athletes about the changing landscape of college athletics,” Warren told ESPN.
Clifford said he and teammates have met with the CFBPA to discuss their goals, but he indicated they are focused on addressing the issues at the program and conference level. CFBPA describes itself as a member-led organization representing past and present college football players, but not a union.
“In the last 90 days, the CFBPA presented interesting ideas to me and my teammates with the goal of joining their college football players’ association. However, at this time, I along with many players are committed to working at the campus and conference level to address the complexities of collegiate athletics for student-athletes,” Clifford said. “I am grateful to be a part of team, university and conference where our leadership is truly open to listening and learning from its students to further strengthen and safeguard our academic and competitive experiences. Collectively we recognize it will take forward-thinking teamwork and time to address our evolving industry and I believe we are all committed to working together to do it.”
Clifford has been particularly active in his final year in college athletics, starting his own name, image and likeness representation organization called Limitless NIL. The collective currently represents six student-athletes, four of whom currently play at Penn State.
While Clifford emphasized that the meetings were not the opening conversations in the steps towards forming a union, it would not be the first time that such a foray has taken place if discussions were to head in that direction. Northwestern players started such an initiative in 2014 but it would eventually fail despite positive momentum in the early stages of its inception after the National Labor Relations Board declined to rule on the case.
“Over the course of several conversations in recent weeks with Sean Clifford, he has shared with me his desire to explore pathways to improve the student-athlete experience for all student-athletes in the Big Ten,” Penn State Director of Athletics Patrick Kraft said in a statement. “Sean is a tremendous young man who is educating himself on some of the major issues in intercollegiate athletics. Last week, I suggested to him that I connect him with Big Ten Commissioner Kevin Warren to have a broader conversation on the student-athlete experience, and I hope they both have found those conversations to be beneficial.”
“I am supportive of — and take great pride in — student-athletes using their voices to affect positive change in all areas of life,”
