Big East basketball players to wear BLM patches this winter

A move destined to rile some of the fanbase, but encourage others, the Big East will have the men’s and women’s basketball players wear “BLM” patches — meaning “Black Lives Matter” — on their jerseys throughout the 2020-21 season.

From the Big East’s anti-racism statement:

Our Student-Athlete Advisory Committee has been especially forceful in expressing their desire for compassion, decency and change.

For all of us in the extended BIG EAST family, “Black Lives Matter” is not a political organization or ideology, but a fact. For us, BLM means that the safety, dignity and well-being of all Black people are non-negotiable rights and that intolerance and repression because of skin color cannot be tolerated in our world.

Much like the NBA, the English Premier League, and other leagues around the world, the Big East will display a token of support for the movement, which has seen an increase in support this summer as American residents gathered to protest racial inequality after the killing of George Floyd in May in Minneapolis.

[Editor’s note: this is a sensitive subject, keep your comments civil.]