Who protects collegiate athletes?

College athletes need advocacy, before another life is lost.

They need an independent voice because, as the system stands, athletes speaking out for personal safety would end their positions on their teams. They need an advocate when their voices cannot be heard — and, more importantly, when they are being ignored or silenced.

What happened on Aug. 20 — when Arizona State University hockey player Matthew Mayich collapsed during a high-intensity outdoor workout — was not an accident. Mayich is still in hospital in critical condition.

When established processes and safeguards are alleged not to have been followed, the response cannot begin and end with the institution investigating itself and declaring nothing went wrong. Serious incidents demand transparency, accountability and independent scrutiny.

We should ask ourselves a simple question: Would we accept these conditions in any other workplace?

If the answer is no, why do we tolerate them in training camps, on football fields, in hockey rinks, on basketball courts and throughout intercollegiate athletics?

Why does the business of sport so often seem to take precedence over the people whose bodies, talent and sacrifice create that very industry?

I know this system.

As a former NCAA Division I football player who trained in the desert during summer workouts, I understand the culture.

You follow instructions.

You push through exhaustion.

You do not want to be viewed as weak. You do not want to lose your position, your scholarship or the respect of your teammates and coaches.

You are taught to keep going.

But there must be a limit to the demands and expectations.

No athlete should have to decide between following an order and putting their health at risk. No young person should fear that saying “Something is wrong,” will cost them playing time, a scholarship or their place on a team.

That is precisely why independent athlete advocacy matters.

Professional sports organizations have increasingly recognized — sometimes willingly and sometimes reluctantly — that athletes need and demand independent representation and enforceable health and safety protections.

Players’ associations exist because athletes’ best interests and the interests of the organizations that employ them do not always align.

As lawmakers debate how to protect the future of college sports, the conversation must not focus exclusively on preserving institutions, conferences, competitive structures, and revenue models.

Protecting college sports must begin with protecting the athletes who make college sports possible.

A system without meaningful checks and balances will fail. A structure in which athletes fear questioning authority is dangerous — and an environment in which the people charged with making decisions police themselves — is simply not good enough.

Collegiate athletes need an independent structure whose only responsibility is to advocate for them — not the institution, not the conference, not the television contract and not the business model.

They need a structure empowered to ask the difficult questions: Who looks after the athletes’ best interests when it comes to their health and safety?

Who can an athlete turn to without fear of retaliation?

Who independently investigates when something goes wrong?

Who has the authority to challenge a dangerous decision before — not after — someone is seriously injured?

And who is accountable when established protections and protocols fail?

Those questions need to have clear answers.

Because parents do not send their sons and daughters to universities believing that participation in college athletics could cost them their lives. They expect that the systems surrounding their children will protect them.

The time to build meaningful, independent protections for collegiate athletes is not after another tragedy.

It needs to be now.

College athletes need a voice.

The system needs accountability.

And above all, college athletes need a structure whose sole responsibility is to stand beside them because they should not have to stand alone.

Brian Ramsay is the executive director of the Professional Hockey Players’ Association.