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Will More College Football Teams Rebel?

Grambling running back Jestin Kelly (28) searches for running room against Texas Southern in the first half of an NCAA college football game in Grambling, La., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (Kita Wright/AP)
Grambling running back Jestin Kelly (28) searches for running room against Texas Southern in the first half of an NCAA college football game in Grambling, La., Saturday, Oct. 26, 2013. (Kita Wright/AP)

The football players at Grambling State staged a boycott last month that forced the school to forfeit one of its games.

Among the issues the players complained about were poor facilities and long bus trips to games. The school pledged to work on those issues.

“There have been plenty of unhappy college athletes before,” John Bacon, a sportswriter who has written about college football told Here & Now’s Meghna Chakrabarti. “But no one has ever done this before … And this is a stunning fact, this is a great precedent. This could be the Rosa Parks of college football.”

Bacon says that even though Grambling State is not a big player in the world of college football, the precedent the team has set is incredibly powerful: It lets them see the power that teams can wield over the schools that profit from their success.

“If you’re playing for a national title and you’re playing with an ESPN contract or a CBS contract, there is big money afoot,” Bacon said. “And that’s where the guys really have the power.”

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