As athletes return to campus, what are they signing up for?
Ohio State calls it the Buckeye Acknowledgment and Pledge, a two-page document the school asked its athletes to sign before they could begin using team facilities during the pandemic.
The document SMU is requiring its athletes to sign is much more direct: Acknowledgment of Risk for COVID-19 Summer 2020.
Across the country, universities have begun the process of getting ready to play through a public health crisis. As athletes return to campus, what are they signing up for?
Missouri also has a pledge and Ohio State's athletic director said the school got the idea for its document from Big Ten rival Indiana. Baylor'a AD said athletes there are being given a waiver and awareness form to sign. How much legal protection any of these forms provide schools is up for debate, along with the ethics of requiring unpaid students to sign them.
“I worry that in some situations athletes are being used sort of guinea pigs to demonstrate what we can and can’t do as we bring regular students back to campus,” said Karen Weaver, associate professor of sports management at Drexel University. “I just don't think that’s right.”
SMU has made it clear that at least in part the purpose of its document is to mitigate the school's liability if an athlete contracts COVID-19. Ohio State has said its document is not intended to provide liability protection, though it was crafted with the help of legal counsel.
For some experts, the two documents are not so dissimilar.
“I don’t care what label they put on it,” said Carla Varriale-Barker, an attorney in New York and chair of Segal McCambridge's sports, recreation and entertainment group. “They could call it a pledge, they could call it a waiver, they could call it a release, they could call it a cantaloupe. If you are signing...
