Where college football stands around the country
17 August 2020
Data: Axios Research; Cartogram: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios
The splintering of big-time college football has set the stage for even more drama as the fall inches closer and campuses start to re-open.
The state of play: The Big Ten and Pac-12 are planning for a possible spring season (a logistical nightmare) amid backlash from players and coaches. The SEC, Big 12 and ACC are still planning to play this fall, which has put move-in weekend under a microscope as students return to campus.
Football news:
- Ohio State QB Justin Fields started a petition requesting that the Big Ten allow teams to decide for themselves whether they wish to play in the fall. It already has over 200,000 signatures.
- Clemson QB Trevor Lawrencespoke with President Trump on Saturday. "He made the statement that he feels he's safer on the field than he is outside of the field," Trump told reporters.
Coronavirus news:
- UNC-Chapel Hill has called an emergency meeting after reporting its fourth cluster of coronavirus cases on campus in the span of three days.
- Nine Oklahoma players tested positive for COVID-19 after getting the week off from football. The team was allowed to return home, but over 75% stayed on campus, according to coach Lincoln Riley.
The bottom line: Add in NCAA doctors saying football is a bad idea, and you're looking at an "all-time cluster."
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.