“Hundreds” of players from across the Pac-12 say they will not take the field unless college football cleans up its safety protocols and gives them health insurance.

Live sports have come back in the last couple weeks, and we’ve gotten a look at which coronavirus safety protocols work, and which definitely don’t work. NBA players have been contained in their Orlando, Florida “bubble” for more than three weeks, and knock on wood, have not suffered any outbreaks or notable positive tests (though they did have one embarrassing visit to a strip club scandal). Major League Baseball, on the other hand, has not utilized a bubble, has players flying all over the country for games, and now has at least 30 positive COVID-19 cases, is postponing games like mad, and might cancel the entire damned season any day now. It seems like other sports could draw conclusions from this?

The infection risks are probably even higher in college football, which is asking players to travel for away games, plus it is college so people will have sex and do drugs to create additional virus threat vectors. Some college football players seem aware of the dangers they’re facing, and of course, they don’t get paid while their coaches and administrators rake in millions. That’s why KTVU is reporting an absolutely unprecedented move, where players in the Pac-12 athletic conference are threatening to refuse to play in college football this year, and multiple players from Cal and Stanford are involved with organizing what would essentially be a player’s strike.

“NCAA sports exploit college athletes physically, economically and academically, and also disproportionately harm Black college athletes,” a group of Pac-12 players said in an open letter posted online Sunday. “We are being asked to play college sports in a pandemic in a system without enforced health and safety standards, and without transparency about COVID cases on our teams, the risks to ourselves, our families, and our communities.”

The kids made this announcement on a website called the Players Tribune, which is sort of like Medium, except mostly only athletes and sports-adjacent celebrities post on it. Their post also calls for prohibition of COVID-19 liability waivers, pay cuts for coaches and administrators (nice!), investment in Black student initiatives, and for full medical insurance for six years after their college playing careers.  

The open letter itself is not signed, though some players have come forward and tweeted that they were part of the effort. An ESPN report this morning claims that “400 players” were on a conference call on the matter over the weekend. The KTVU article does not name which Cal and Stanford players signed the letter, but a Los Angeles Times report informs us that the letter was signed by Stanford defensive back Treyjohn Butler, and Cal offensive linemen Jake Curhan and Valentino Daltoso, and defensive back Joshua Drayden.

As seen above, some players say they’ve already been kicked off their teams for their involvement in the effort.

Pac-12 conference officials have basically blown the letter off, saying an open letter on the internet is not a negotiation. “Neither the Conference nor our university athletics departments have been contacted by this group regarding these topics," the conference said in a statement to ESPN. "We support our student-athletes using their voice and have regular communications with our student-athletes at many different levels on a range of topics. As we have clearly stated with respect to our fall competition plans, we are, and always will be, directed by medical experts, with the health, safety and well being of our student athletes, coaches and staff always the first priority.”

And it didn’t get much attention on Friday, but the conference released its revised and abbreviated football game schedule, according to the Chronicle. There are some thoughtful gestures and neat novelties in the mix; it’s conference games only, the season wouldn’t start until September 26, Cal and Stanford would play the Big Game on the extremely early date of October 24, the regular season wraps up December 5, with a simple conference championship game on December 18 or 19, and no mention of whether a qualifying team could accept an invite to the College Football Playoffs.

But the notion of college football still happening in December, during the feared flu-season winter outbreak of COVID-19, seems aspirational at best, and completely out to lunch from a realistic perspective. College football is embracing President Trump’s wishful-thinking strategy with coronavirus. These players will hopefully convince their well-paid administrators to employ intelligent thinking, even if they don’t get their full wishlist of transformational demands.

Related: Op-Ed: Let's Play Ball? When Profit In Professional Sports Outweighs Life

Stanford Announces Elimination of 11 Varsity Sports Programs, Citing Pandemic [SFist]

Image: John Martinez Pavliga via Wikimedia Commons

The internet is laughing loudly at 30-year-old Lucas Yancey. The Cal grad and Woodside resident is one of the contestant bachelors on the latest edition of The Bachelorette, and if the above video is any indication, he was cast on the show in order to inspire "what a douche" comments on social media and to irritate the rest of the cast until he makes it to the final three.

The Bachelorette this time is Rachel Lindsay, the first African-American bachelorette in the franchise's history — and that's out of 33 combined seasons of The Bachelor/The Bachelorette on ABC. Rachel is an attorney from Texas, and as they've done with previous seasons, they plucked her out of the last round of The Bachelor in which she vied for the love of four-time failed marriage prospect Nick Viall.

Uproxx pegs Lucas, with his megaphone entrance, Jim Carrey-esque forced zanyness, and "Whaboom" catchphrase, as a bit of hate-watch casting, and they're likely spot-on. Did I mention that in addition to introducing himself with a catchphrase, "Whaboom" is also a t-shirt line that he's pimping — he steps out of the limo in his first episode wearing one of his own t-shirts bearing the word/brand. He also lists Whaboom as his occupation in his bio. He also needed to say it and act insane during the rose ceremony.

Vulture, which dug up the easily findable video below — some kind of spec commercial Yancey made for Doritos — suggests that casting Yancey, with his obvious thirst for showbiz fame, is "an extremely cynical casting move" even for this show, which long ago gave up on the ruse that anyone's really on it to find love.

I know. Big news, right? Attention-hungry, wannabe famous actor goes on reality show to get attention/fame.

But this time, he's from the Bay Area. So, we're all to blame.

Following yesterday's devastating mass killings in Nice, France, UC Berkeley reports that several students were injured and one is missing in the attack. That act of violence, carried out with a truck during Bastille Day celebrations, claimed the lives of 84 people and injured more than 200 others.

The Berkeley students were among 85 from the university attending a 15-day program called Entrepreneurship and Innovation in Europe. “Campus study abroad staff, our risk services office, and student affairs are working with fellow students in France, the program director on the ground, officials in the area, the U.S. consular officials and the family in an effort to locate him,” Cal officials said in a statement.

Two students broke their legs and one broke a foot. A third, 20-year-old junior Nicolas Leslie, is unaccounted for. “We just want our son back,” the Chronicle quotes Conrad Leslie, Nicolas' father.“We haven’t gotten the bad news. Our thoughts and prayers go to the people who have.”

The Wall Street Journal has learned Leslie's uncle, who is apparently in Nice, has gone from hospital to hospital searching for his nephew.

Thousands of partiers and college students took to the streets in Berkeley near the Cal campus on Saturday night and early Sunday morning as Halloween revelry devolved into a massive riot.

Up to 5,000 people were in the streets near Channing Way and Piedmont Avenue, with some throwing rocks and bottles. At least one person was sent to the hospital as the result of three reported assaults. At this point it is unclear what sparked the chaos, though Berkeleyside reports that large parties were getting shut down by the Berkeley Fire Department after 10 p.m. Saturday night. There are several fraternities in the area, and earlier that day was a college football game at Memorial Stadium between Cal and USC.

Police responded to the area of Channing Circle after reports of a crowd of thousands throwing rocks and bottles, but no use of force by police—such as tear gas or batons—was reported. Lieutenant Alyson Hart of the Berkeley Police Department said the crowd had "thinned considerably" by 1:10 a.m., Sunday morning.

Despite the massive gathering and the objects being thrown by people in the crowd, police say there was only one confirmed case of property damage—a smashed car on Channing Way.

Captain Andrew Greenwood told Berkeleyside that at least three suspects had been arrested in connection with the three assaults, and that authorities believe that all three were responsible for the attacks. According to ABC 7, one person is in the hospital with a head injury. Records from the Alameda County Sheriff's Department show that as of 5 a.m., Sunday morning, three people had been booked: one for misdemeanor battery, one for a DUI, and another for public intoxication.

There were reports of supposed gunshots, but police were heard over the scanner saying they believed they were fireworks.

There's a story in today's Chronicle about a 15-year-old "hacking" his way into UC Berkeley after dropping out of middle school, doing home-schooling, and taking classes at community colleges. He starts Cal as a full-time junior in January. But it's pretty clear that Sage Ryan (yes, that's his name) and his stage mother worked the system for publicity, rather than any big academic dreams.

This kid has an IMDB page, photos of him walking the red carpet at a Variety magazine event where he talked about going vegan, and YouTube clips of him on America's Got Talent at age 7.

In between his movie and TV appearances, Ryan's mom created a home-based private school for him, enrolled him at West Los Angeles Community College, lied to get him into a UCLA dorm at age 13, and helped him avoid taking California's high school equivalency exam. They tell the Chron that Ryan had "behavior problems" due to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, so normal school wouldn't work for him. Oh and also his budding acting career.

Here's an except of his UC application essay:

"I would like to take this opportunity to explain why I, at age 14, am applying as a transfer student to the UC. When I was 11 years old, I was doing poorly in the sixth grade. I was missing school due to my work schedule but when I was in class, I was miserable. My mom asked me once if there was anything that I did like about school and I told her that one time in science we studied geology and I had enjoyed that. She, as a progressive educator, enrolled me in a community college geology course. ... I took several on-campus courses and some online classes as well. I was also able to attend UCLA via the cross enrollment program. My favorite thing about college has been being able to choose the courses that interest me."

His mom, a math teacher at a continuation high school in Larkspur, is encouraging her students to also pursue shortcuts: "They have little hope of going to a four-year school unless they take advantage of community college now."

At Cal, Ryan will be studying — you guessed it — theater.

[Chronicle]

The University of California, Berkeley has announced that the naming rights for the field at Memorial Stadium will go to Kabam, a maker of free video games headquartered in San Francisco. For $18 million, Kabam will get their name plastered on the field at the 25-yard lines and some signage at the 50-yard line for the next 15 years.

The New York Times reports:

Starting in 2014, the playing area will be known as Kabam Field for the next 15 years, at a cost to the mobile games maker of $18 million.

It is a first of a kind deal for the university, and possibly the first time a gaming company has put its name on a college field.

Kabam, which makes some free but apparently popular titles like "The Hobbit: Armies of the Third Age" and "Kingdoms of Camelot," will also be doing a some more academic side projects. According to the New York Times, the gaming company will also be creating scholarship and internship programs, donating to the library, and creating an on-campus "innovation lab" as well as an interactive gaming zone at the stadium.

Kabam's co-founder and CEO Kevin Chou is a Berkeley graduate himself, as are two of the company's other co-founders, and they're all probably pretty bummed to see their Golden Bears having a startlingly bad 1-11 season this year.

[NYT]
[CalGoldenBlogs]

UC Berkeley is being evacuated after an underground fire. pic.twitter.com/XDeuSiI52K

— Joe Vazquez (@joenewsman) October 1, 2013

A power outage at UC Berkeley prefaced a major explosion on Monday night, resulting in a campus-wide evacuation. The fire, it seems, stemmed from a vault under California Hall close to the center of campus, with the initial blast reportedly shooting up in the air some 20-40 feet.

Eyewitness Peter Myers notes, "There was an explosion at about 6:40, followed instantly by fireball coming out of a manhole cover that came about 30-40 feet high. I guess that was the old generator they were talking about." While Cal sophomore Jennifer Han explains to The Daily Californian, "At first, I was really scared because I thought the explosion was big enough to produce a shock wave ... You heard it first, and then there were flames."

The Daily Californian has more:

According to [UCPD Lt. Marc DeCoulode], the explosion appears to be related to vandalism discovered by the campus late last week. Vandals were stealing or attempting to steal copper grounding wire from an electrical system not readily visible, and the damage appears to be more extensive than initially believed, he said.

After the explosion appeared to come from a manhole grate, campus police advised students to stay away from any manholes on campus. Officials are not allowing anyone to enter the campus and have instructed everyone to evacuate through the north and west entrances.

At least one student was whisked to a nearby hospital to be treated for minor injuries. A handful of others had to be rescued from elevators that stopped during the outage.

Below, the jarring blaze shooting from the vault:

The campus remains closed as of tonight. No word yet as to whether or not classes will resume on Tuesday.

UPDATE: Updates regarding class schedule will happen early tomorrow morning (Oct. 1) at around 5 AM. We're also hearing word, via commenter Michael Ball, that the campus has reopened.

UPDATE II: Things are back to normal, more or less, with only 11 buildings sans power. Most classes have resumed.

[Chron]
[Daily Cal]
[SF Appeal]

In this Internet age, when everyone who isn't looking to get off is just searching for a reason to be pissed off, current Daily Californian sex columnist Nadia Cho has ruffled a few feathers with her recent account of that classic college pastime: sex in public.

Her piece, which seems perfectly harmless and safe in a way that more horny college kids should aspire to be, details an afternoon romp around a few of the more popular campus spots to bone: in the main library stacks, where up against "the shelves full of books on religion seemed like the best place to fuck." Or in the basement classrooms in Moffitt for "loud ass-slapping sex" and student-teacher roleplaying. Or in Wurster Hall where it turns out the classrooms actually lock.

The inspirational message from Cho, who is the latest in a tradition of tell-all college paper sex columnists, is this: "Just do it." The fun is in the possibility of getting caught, she says, and college should be a fun, open environment in which one can explore their sexuality. Far be it from us to begrudge anyone their discreet public sex romps (because slut-shaming is lame and ruining sex for everyone), but one unidentified Berkeley librarian had some equally compelling arguments for not getting down in one of the school's hallowed temples of knowledge where people are trying to do their homework. In the comments section on the Daily Cal, "Librarian" writes an earnest plea [emphasis ours]:

Please don't fuck in the library. I work here. My staff works here. I told my staff I'd do what I can to make sure theirs is a safe and happy workplace. Now, in addition to pedophiles, thieves, and people with poor bowel function, I've got kids using shitty liberal arts justifications to fuck in the library.

I don't want to rain on your liberating parade or interfere with your bucket list, but you don't have to deal with the complaints. I know you would like your sex life to be more exciting, but do you know what is also exciting? Getting to work and thinking, "there won't be people fucking in the library today" Now that is liberating.

Incidentally, thank you for advising people not to ejaculate in the library. After cleaning up garbage, graffiti, shit that is apparently dropped from 10 feet above the toilet, and a variety of bodily fluids, I hesitate to ask cleaning staff to add ejaculate to that list.

Unfortunately, the rest of the response to Cho's nakedly frank piece is much less well-spoken. With fellow students and more than a few onlookers (probably pissed that they never consummated college educations themselves) taking to the comments section to call her a "really ugly and unattractive" attention whore who uses the F-word too much to be taken seriously. Which: fuck that.

A UC Berkeley fraternity is under fire for misguided haunted house decor left literally hanging outside their frat house on Halloween. Theta Delta Chi thought it would be a good idea to feature a fake body dangling from a noose outside a third-story window on Durant Avenue, prompting many critics on campus to compare the decorations to racially charged public hangings.

The zombie body, which was actually just a pair of jeans and a shirt stuffed with straw and topped with a grey head, has since been taken down after a picture of the decorations provoked accusations of racism on Facebook. "This is another incident that convinces me and my community that this campus and society is not post-racial and racist is alive and well," Black Student Union chair Salih Muhammad told Onyx Express, a magazine dedicated to the Black Community at Berkeley. The house's location at the corner of College and Durant was also questionable, seeing as how it is directly across the street from a residential space for Black students.

Although the fraternity's Facebook page is now locked, comments on the Daily Cal's article ranged from the defensive: "Scots and Irish have been hung by the English... It seems like people will get offended at anything. Ridiculous !!" To the angered: "You should be ashamed of yourself if you are trying to pick a battle over this." To the sardonic: "How can this possibly be interpreted as racist? say the white people..." And, of course, the irreverent: "That dummy is clearly Australian."

Along with the strands of fake spiderwebs, the body was part of the decorations for a charity haunted house. The event is one of Theta Delta Chi's biggest and proceeds benefit Autism Speaks and Green Stampede. According to fraternity philanthropy chair Devin Shoop, this whole thing was a huge mixup. "There was no intention whatsoever as to present it as a black person, and it was a poor choice of head to use because it was a dark grey color," Shoop told the Daily Cal. "We understand that this has offended people, and we’re sorry for any turmoil this might have caused."

Last year, the UC Republicans student group was also accused of racism when they held a "Diversity Bake Sale."

[DailyCal]
[OnyxExpress]

Former Cal Quarterback Joe Ayoob, who started nine games for the Bears while Nate Longshore was out on an injury back in 2005, can now add "World Record Arm" to his list of accolades. Over the weekend at McClellan Air Force Base, Ayoob threw a paper airplane designed by "Paper Airplane Guy" John Collins for a record-breaking 226 feet and 10 inches. Joe's throw beat the previous record of 207 feet and four inches by almost 20 feet.

This is big news for Joe who only played four games for Cal in 2006 before going on to play for the Central Valley Coyotes in the af2 Arena Football League, which is a real thing that exists so people in Fresno can get their small-scale pigskin fix.

[Make]
Hat tip: [Deadspin]

The transfer student who brandished a handgun while in the computer lab at the Haas School of Business at Cal and was subsequently shot by campus police yesterday has died. He's now been identified as 32-year-old Christopher Nathen Elliot Travis, an undergraduate whose motives for carrying the handgun are still unclear.

Travis died at Highland Hospital last night following the 2:20 p.m. shooting. Students at the business school were told about the death at a special meeting this morning. The incident began after a female staff member riding the elevator with Travis saw what she believed to be a handgun being removed from his backpack. After officers approached Travis in the computer lab, he pulled out the firearm in what they said was a threatening maneuver, and refused to drop it after several orders to do so. Police are continuing to interview witnesses.

As the Chron reports, it was the first fatal officer-involved shooting on campus since 1992, when People's Park activist Rosebud Denovo broke into a Chancellor's mansion and was shot by an Oakland police officer after she wielded a machete at him.

[Berkeleyside]
[Chron]
[Appeal]

Cal Berkeley's diving coach Todd Mulzet lands his dive while watched by an unknown spectator after diving off of the 10-meter platform to celebrate his team's 2011 NCAA Swimming and Diving Championship Saturday, March 19, 2011, in Austin, Texas. (AP Photo/Michael Thomas)

After 17 protesters were arrested earlier this week over UC budget cuts, among other isues, eight demonstrators occupied a fourth-story ledge at UC Berkeley's Wheeler Hall. Riot police were called in to use force on both the building squatters and supporters outside the building. Pepper spray was used against several demonstrators, and some protesters reported being hit with batons.

"All of a sudden, I was surrounded by riot police who were hitting me in the stomach and head," senior Pourya Khademi reveals to the Daily Cal. "Just as I was turning away, another one sprayed me directly in the face."

Some of the protesters' demands were met, but the hefty requests were squashed as expected. "Demands to have student conduct charges dropped and to open a dialogue about the campus Operational Excellence program were partially met, while demands to end budget cuts and to democratize the UC Board of Regents were not."

Here are some images from yesterday's melee shot by local photographer Keoki Seu.

[Daily Cal]