Lawrence, Rencher lead charge as players from all Power 5 Conferences form coalition
By: will-vandervort August 10, 2020

Clemson quarterback Trevor Lawrence, along with his good friend and teammate Darien Rencher, got together with representatives from every Power 5 Conference Sunday night via Zoom and formed a coalition with the hopes of saving the 2020 football season.

Rencher, a running back for the Tigers, tweeted the alliance shortly after midnight on Monday. The coalition has representatives from the ACC, Big Ten, Pac-12, SEC and Big 12. The Pac-12 movement and the Big Ten United are also working in collaboration with the movement under the hashtags #WeAreUnited and #WeWantToPlay.

The new movement’s mission is to:

  1. We all want to play football this season
  2. Establish universal mandated health and safety procedures and protocols to protect college-athletes against COVID-19 among all conferences throughout the NCAA
  3. Give players the opportunity to opt out and respect their decision
  4. Guarantee eligibility whether a player chooses to play the season or not
  5. Use our voices to establish open communications and trust between players and officials; ultimately create a College Football Players Association
  6. Representative of the Players of all Power 5 Conferences

It did not take long for the #WeAreUnited and #WeWantToPlay movement to gain steam. Within an hour, Rencher’s tweet was picked up and retweet by almost every major sports news outlet in America.

Lawrence, Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields and other top players from all over the country posted the #WeAreUnited and #WeWantToPlay statement all over Twitter through the early morning hours on Monday.

The movement comes in response to reports that the commissioners of the Power 5 Conferences met on Sunday to discuss the possibility of canceling the 2020 football season. Other reports also surfaced late in the evening that the Big Ten is expected to announce it will cancel the 2020 season by Tuesday.

Sunday evening, Lawrence came out with a series of tweets on why canceling the season was bad for the players and put them in even greater danger of getting COVID-19 than if they were playing.

Clemson is scheduled to host its fourth practice of fall camp Monday afternoon. The season, for now, is set to start on Sept. 12 at Wake Forest.

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