Our Stanford Chapter Two Weeks Later

This is a free online newsletter for Jason Stahl, Executive Director of the College Football Players Association (CFBPA). If you are a past, present or future college football player, I ask that you consider becoming a member of the CFBPA. For a short YouTube introduction on the CFBPA, click here. Those who would like to support the CFBPA can donate at this link or volunteer at this link.

Two weeks ago on the five-year anniversary of the CFBPA, we were grateful to be able to announce our first-ever current player led public chapter. Stanford football was the first team which had met our membership threshold to elect leaders and was ready to go public with their decision. The school now becomes our first outpost in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) as we attempt to organize all 17 teams in the conference into a collective bargaining unit. There is a still a long road ahead but we’re grateful to have this historic first step and grateful to our Stanford leaders who made it possible.

A lot has happened since then and so I wanted to do a quick newsletter update for those who are interested. We received a lot of fantastic support from around the country after the announcement and wanted to make sure we communicated quickly with all of these new supporters. So here, in no particular order, are updates from the last two weeks:

1. The Stanford chapter launch received fantastic coverage across numerous news outlets including ESPN, CBS Sports, Front Office Sports, Yahoo Sports, and The Athletic/New York Times. Media coverage is still rolling and we’ll do our best to post all articles at our media page at the CFBPA website. That page has all coverage of the CFBPA and its activities over the past five years and is a good place to go if you want to learn about the evolution of our institution over time.

2. We also, of course, have social media starting with our YouTube channel. At that channel we’ve now posted full-length interviews with both of our Stanford elected player representatives. You can watch my interview with Fisher Anderson here and you can watch my interview with Ernest Cooper here. Please subscribe for future player interviews both from our Stanford chapter and from other members and chapters of the CFBPA. I think the long-form podcasts show exactly why Fisher and Ernest were the leaders we’ve been waiting for. Beyond YouTube, be sure to follow us on other platforms of your choice including X/Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and LinkedIn.

3. We have a volunteer portal at our website which was absolutely flooded after our Stanford announcement. I believe all volunteers are now receiving this newsletter and, in the month of August, you will be receiving a communication from our volunteer coordinator. Be on the lookout for that. The fact that we are truly a grass-roots organization is why we were able to build our first chapter at Stanford. Every volunteer, every donor, every past, present and future player getting involved in an authentically grass-roots movement is why we will be successful in the end. Thank you to the hundreds of individuals who have gotten involved sacrificing your time, treasure and talent to build a players association for college football players. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, please head on over to our website to do so.

4. The U.S. Senate recently adjourned without passing the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA). I recently wrote about the PCSA at my newsletter mainly discussing why it was an inferior solution compared to collective bargaining for solving the problems of college athletics. The bill was recently amended to become even larger and unwieldy and so this continues to be the case. Given that the Senate is now adjorned until mid-September, and given that we are in an election year, the PCSA is not likely to advance any further than it already has. This is good as we can now move forward with the tried-and-true solution of bargaining with the players.

5. Shortly after our Stanford announcement, women’s basketball players at Oregon State University announced that they are attempting to unionize by petitioning a state labor agency to do so. This is an interesting development as the National Labor Relations Board is not a very hospitable place for athletes at private schools to attempt to unionize right now. However, athletes in more labor-friendly states may have stronger opportunities to do so. We’ll be watching this petition closely and wish the players the best of luck in their efforts!

6. Recently the NCAA made a change in their eligibility standards by implementing a new “age-based” policy. As Amanda Christovich at Front Office Sports explains, “Players now have five years to complete five seasons—rather than four—starting on their 19th birthday or when they enroll in college, whichever comes first.” However, the NCAA also said the new rule “would not apply to players who graduated high school and entered college in 2022 and had already completed four years of eligibility.” Some players challenged this ruling and a Colorado judge supported them with a preliminary injunction to “immediately allow all players who entered college in 2022, but who had exhausted four years of eligibility, a fifth year to compete.” This unleashed a truly chaotic environment which is still in flux. This overall episode once again shows that rules agreed to by the players through collective bargaining are the way to go.

7. Finally, the question I’ve gotten asked most over the past two weeks is, “When are more schools coming?” College football players are now in the period of preparation for the upcoming season commonly known as “fall camp.” Fall camp consists of extraordinarily long days of work for 6 or 7 days a week. College football players have long work days during normal months but in the month of August, it is even worse. So, none of the chapters we’ve been organizing will likely be unveiled during this period. During the season, things can get a bit better and so hopefully we will be able to make news with new chapters at some point. Stay tuned and if you’re a player who is not yet a member and wants to form a chapter on your campus, I urge you to become a member today!