The conventional wisdom seems to be that athletes should never step outside their roles as entertainers to pontificate. That attitude is a stereotype of the dumb jock who is too busy jamming smart, adorkable kids into lockers to know anything about the world around them except what Coach tells them.

Those days are over, folks.

The 30 football players from the University of Missouri whose threat to boycott their season forced the resignation of the school’s president, who had insufficiently addressed racial issues on campus. Their actions had had a ripple effect across American campuses, from Amherst to Yale to Claremont McKenna. The shame is that until Missouri’s football boycott threatened to cost $1 million in default fees, University officials had been impassive.