Football Parents at Ohio State hosts a tailgate ahead of an Aug. 31, 2019 football game against Florida Atlantic. Credit: Courtesy of Amanda Babb

Parents of Ohio State football players will gather at Ohio Stadium Saturday, but it won’t be to watch a football game. 

The Football Parents at Ohio State, a group founded in 2003, has taken on a new sense of responsibility in the last month. Along with the protest that is scheduled for Saturday outside Ohio Stadium, FPAOS has been outspoken about its disagreement with Big Ten commissioner Kevin Warren’s handling of fall sports, and the group continues to demand answers and transparency from the conference. 

Amanda Babb, president of FPAOS and stepmother of sophomore wide receiver Kamryn Babb, has seen her duties — which included setting up tailgates and bridging the gap between coaches and parents — shift since she took on the role in January. 



“It just has turned into more of fighting for our players and fighting for all of the Ohio State’s athletics is now what it’s kinda evolved to since the fall season was canceled or postponed,” Babb said. 

FPAOS, which requires a membership fee to join, usually consists of 70-75 percent of the football parents, Babb said.

Among their efforts, Ohio State football parents will be holding a protest Saturday at Ohio Stadium outside the rotunda. 

Led by Randy Wade, father of junior cornerback Shaun Wade, the protest will be the second gathering of parents in regard to the Big Ten’s decision to postpone the fall sports season. 

“We ask other Big Ten associations to join us or do the same at their perspective schools,” Wade tweeted along with the event’s announcement Sunday. 



To Babb, the purpose of gathering is to keep the fight going. 

“It’s to continue the pressure and keep the pressure on commissioner Warren to come up with some of the answers that we’ve been asking,” Babb said. “What happened? We just want a transparent process into how did our fall season get canceled and then at the same time, what are they planning to do for the winter?”

Babb said she did not know what turnout to expect but said that she knows how much support Ohio State football gets and would guess for it to carry over to the protest. 

Babb said the group has worked with other parent groups around the Big Ten to create a more united front. The cooperative efforts between the parent groups culminated in a letter to Warren from Big Ten Parents United

The Wednesday letter called for transparency from Warren and the Big Ten on its decision to postpone the fall sports season as well as input and more information regarding preparation for a winter or spring season. 



“We felt like having everybody kinda united would maybe have a better chance of getting a response from commissioner Warren,” Babb said.

Although the letter was signed off by 11 of the 14 parent groups in the Big Ten, Babb said the three groups, which have had representatives attend previous Zoom meetings, were not present Tuesday when the letter was signed. 

The unified letter is something that Babb said required an unusual pairing of parents that support rival schools.

“It’s been kinda a different experience working across all of the schools that we would typically call our rivals,” Babb said. “I have the team up north, parents from there, and we’ve just been really trying to rally across having a united front.” 

The letter expressed a “total lack of confidence in the Big Ten Conference’s leadership” after an Aug. 19 open letter from Warren was described as “extremely disappointing.”

In his letter, Warren recognized the disappointment that met the decision to postpone fall sports.

“From the beginning, we consistently communicated our commitment to cautiously proceed one day at a time with the health, safety and wellness of our student-athletes at the center of our decision-making process,” Warren wrote. 

Babb said that outside of Warren’s open letter, FPAOS has received no correspondence from the Big Ten. 

“The longer that we don’t hear anything from the commissioner, it just continues to degrade the trust that we would have in the leadership of the Big Ten,” Babb said. 

Although the recent letter from Big Ten Parents United was in response to Warren’s most recent correspondence, FPAOS had previously been busy penning letters of its own. 

Leading up to the postponement decision, FPAOS sent a letter Aug. 9, two days prior to the postponement decision, that expressed confidence in playing the season.

“As parents, we strongly believe our sons want to play the upcoming season and have full trust the university and coaching staff along with medical experts have found a safe way for that to occur,” the letter said. 

The Big Ten’s decision to postpone the fall sports season Aug. 11 was met with yet another letter from the FPAOS — this time addressed directly to Warren.

The letter called for the reinstatement of the season as well as transparency in the decision making process. The Aug. 19 deadline for a response set by FPAOS was met with Warren’s open letter. 

“From when they released the schedule and said they were going to try and have a season on Aug. 5 and then to cancel six days later, I don’t know what changed,” Babb said. 

Although she could not say for certain an exact number, Babb said the latest letter from FPAOS was backed by the majority of parents. 

“I can’t say that everyone’s been aligned, but from all of the feedback I’ve heard from most of the parents, everybody is pretty much supportive or what we’re doing,” Babb said.

In terms of hopes for a fall season, Babb feels the window has passed, but the fight for transparency is still ongoing. 

Although Warren announced Aug. 19 the establishment of the Return to Competition Task Force to put together a plan for the return of fall sports, Babb has concerns about how a winter or spring season would be implemented. 

“As we look forward to winter or spring, I think that in order to provide the most safety for the players in that they’ll have to essentially play two football seasons in one year, they would have to start in January in order to get their bodies a break in between the winter season and then to prepare again in the fall,” Babb said. 

The protest will begin Saturday at 11 a.m. outside Ohio Stadium’s rotunda.