Opinion: Mizzou resignation shows power of college sports

Sports columnist Pat Forde recounts the incidents that led to a 4-5 football team as the agent of change in the University of Missouri president’s office.

In Forde’s piece for Yahoo Sports, the Mizzou alumnus describes the athletes as real “big men on campus” who vowed not to play another college football game until school president Tim Wolfe resigned amid racial tensions on campus. He commends them for using their strength in numbers off the football field. Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin also later resigned..

“What’s happening at Mizzou right now should be viewed in the context of what happened recently in Ferguson, less than two hours from campus,” Forde writes. “This Civil War border state, with a complex and occasionally distressing racial history, has become a national petri dish for examining race relations. And good for the football players for actually paying attention and jumping into the dish.”

But Forde wonders if the team would have put the game on the line had they been 7-2 at this point in the season. And he softly warns other college athletes to use their powers wisely.

“The hope today is that Missouri improves itself by going through this current controversy,” said Forde, the parent of a Mizzou student athlete. “It’s OK for an athletic team to be known for something other than its win-loss record.”

After winning the first half of this campus battle, they’ll look to improve their record on Saturday against Brigham Young University.
 
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