NYTimes | Well, that was fast.
When was it, exactly, that the African-American football players at the University of Missouri tweeted
that they were going on strike until “President Tim Wolfe resigns or is
removed” from office? It was Saturday night, around 9 p.m. Eastern
time.
In
other words, nearly two months had gone by before the football players
decided to get involved. Once they did, Wolfe lasted all of 36 hours.
Later in the day, Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin said he would resign as
well, effective at the end of the year.
In announcing his resignation
Monday morning, Wolfe said he was motivated by his “love” for his alma
mater. No doubt he was sincere. But it is hard to believe that his
calculations didn’t include money as well: the $1 million
that Missouri would be contractually obliged to pay Brigham Young
University if the Tigers failed to play Saturday’s game; and the mess it
would create for itself — and the Southeastern Conference, which it
joined only four years ago — if a players’ strike lasted to the end of
the season. Missouri’s final SEC game in late November, against
Arkansas, is scheduled to be televised by CBS, which pays the conference
$55 million a year for television rights.
As Andy Schwarz, an economist who has been deeply involved in a series of antitrust lawsuits against the N.C.A.A.,
put it, “the issues at Missouri are far more important than college
football, but the Missouri athletes showed that the color that matters
most is green.”
