With Simple Protest, Players Join Push for N.C.A.A. Reform The protest took the form of three words, or three letters, scribbled onto equipment tape or actual equipment last Saturday during college football games. All Players United, or A.P.U., it read. The wording was simple, the message symbolic, and yet the protest added another voice to the growing chorus for N.C.A.A. reform. The latest outcry came not from administrators, coaches, former players or advocates. It came from current players. The National College Players Association, the group that organized the protest, said 28 players from Northwestern, Georgia and Georgia Tech participated. "I've been involved in this thing for a long time, and what I witnessed Saturday is something I never thought I'd witness," said Sonny Vaccaro, a former sneaker marketing executive and a longtime N.C.A.A. antagonist. The players actually feel they have a certain degree of rights, and they're not afraid to voice them. Even though that's coming out in drips, it's coming out. The next step centers on momentum, on whether more players at more universities join the protest and if the N.C.P.A. and other organizations with similar aims can turn three words into a catalyst for reform. Ramogi Huma said he believed they could. A former football player at U.C.L.A., Huma is the president of the N.C.P.A., and he had so many interviews this week he lost count. Even his neighbor, a former college baseball player, asked him if he had any wrist tape to mark. Huma is blunt on the subject of a boycott, an extreme extension of Saturday's protest. That is not what his organization has advocated, not something, he said, that has been discussed. But it is a possibility that cannot be dismissed in the current climate. Last week, Houston Texans running back Arian Foster admitted in a coming documentary - "Schooled: The Price of College Sports" - that he accepted money while at Tennessee. Then Floyd Mayweather Jr. posted a photograph of a betting slip on his Twitter account, which showed he won $200,000 on Texas A&M. It was accompanied by a note to Johnny Manziel. "Congratulations @JManziel2 for putting on a fantastic show," it read. He may not be able to make money off himself but I can. Then Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, told more than 100 faculty representatives from Division I universities this week that "the board anticipates a lot of change" in the next six to eight months. Then the N.C.A.A. announced Tuesday it had restored some scholarships Penn State lost in penalties levied in the wake of the university's sexual abuse scandal, penalties that were widely considered excessive. Critics took that as another sign of Emmert in retreat. "The N.C.A.A. is under fire," Huma said. America as a whole believes that reform is necessary. College sports is at a tipping point. And what you saw Saturday, is players weighing in on that in a very real way. The protest resulted from a series of conference calls held by N.C.P.A. player councils over the past few months. They had witnessed the backlash from when current players joined the Ed O'Bannon lawsuit against the N.C.A.A., and wanted to show support. Someone threw out an idea. Huma liked it. The question was whether players would participate. Word, he said, spread throughout locker rooms Saturday, and the 28 players who participated were more than expected. That group included Vad Lee, the quarterback at Georgia Tech, and Kain Colter, the quarterback at Northwestern, and members of Georgia's offensive line. All declined interviews this week. In a release on its Web site, the N.C.P.A. listed several goals for its A.P.U. campaign: to show support for players who joined the O'Bannon lawsuit and support for players who joined concussion suits against the N.C.A.A.; to stand by players "harmed by N.C.A.A. rules"; to demonstrate unity among those seeking reform; and to direct a portion of $1 billion in new television revenue to guarantee what it called "basic protections," like "guaranteed scholarship renewals for permanently injured players." The N.C.A.A. released a statement that said it supported open and civil debate. The debate includes current players who expressed their support in public, something Ed Cunningham, a former player who became an analyst and documentarian, said he would have participated in while in college at Washington. College football was not big business then, in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "The players" statement last weekend drew me in," Cunningham said. Now we can see players engaged in a debate that, frankly, it's about time we're having. The time has come to address this economic model in college sports, especially in major college football. Not everyone felt that way. The sportscaster Dan Dakich posted on his Twitter account that "it would be great" if the scholarships of the involved players were pulled. Paul Johnson, the coach at Georgia Tech, said in a news conference that "six guys" did not represent his team, that they should have told him beforehand. He said he asked one player what he hoped to accomplish, and the player offered only a vague answer in response. "A lot of that's being blown way out of proportion," Johnson said. Not to those engaged in N.C.A.A. reform. That the N.C.A.A. itself responded to the protest marked progress for Huma. "It lends credibility to the idea that reform is inevitable and players will be empowered," he said. They will have a say. Look for more A.P.U. this weekend and in the weeks to come.