December 21 is College Signing Day, the annual event where top NCAA football programs do their best to attract talented Black athletes.
Many of these universities are in states where “college football is religion”, and where a championship, trophy or title is the ultimate prize. Which means no effort is spared in luring and enticing the best Black athletic talent in the country.
What’s eye-opening is that these same universities hail from places at the forefront of Black voter suppression and disenfranchisement.
Kiran Koshy’s film points out the paradox of Black college athletes playing for schools in states where lawmakers actively muzzle the voices of Black communities. Its goal is to start a movement of awareness, encouraging recruits to weigh their options with a broader perspective of the kinds of institutions, and the people behind the institutions, hoping to sign them.
“It’s inspired by years of living in the college football crazy South, and by the question, Do states that suppress the Black vote deserve the best Black athletes?,” Koshy noted.
“We hope to start a movement, #YardsforVotes, to remedy the hypocrisy. Talented, young Black athletes have a choice, and they deserve to be reminded of what they’re really choosing when it comes to many football programs in many states across America.”
