Movie Review: 'National Champions' Lays Out the Case to Pay College Football Players

National Champions aims to tell the story of how College Football exploits players. It’s a compelling bit of polemic on behalf of the players as the story gives strong voice to the complaints that many have had regarding the millions of dollars given to coaches and the billions of dollars raked in by universities and conferences that do little to benefit the young men laying their bodies on the line to actually earn that money.

National Champions stars Stephan James as LeMarcus James, a college football superstar. LeMarcus is set to become the number one overall pick in the NFL draft after he plays in the national championship game. However, LeMarcus has decided not to play the big game. Along with his best friend and teammate, Emmett Sunday (Alexander Ludwig), LeMarcus has decided to use the national championship game as a moment to protest on behalf of unionizing College Football and forcing the Universities and the NCAA to pay players.

Naturally, LeMarcus’ Coach, Coach James Lazor, on the verge of his first shot at a national championship, is shocked by the actions of his best player. While LeMarcus has disappeared into the city of New Orleans to sneak around and talk to the media, Coach Lazor is caught in the storm of LeMarcus’ protest. It’s Coach Lazor who has to answer to the NCAA, the conference and the University boosters who demand a return on their investment.

Meanwhile, LeMarcus is reaching out to his teammates to join him with mixed results. He’s also reaching out to his opponent’s best player, played by Andrew Bachelor. If the fellow Heisman Trophy finalist were to commit to not playing in the national championship game, it could be enough to force the NCAA to agree to the demands of the players. If he doesn’t LeMarcus and Emmett could end up pariahs, or at least, the next blackballed superstars ala Colin Kaepernick.

National Champions isn’t entirely one sided in favor of the players, though it is clear where the sympathies lay. Uzo Adoba, former star of Orange is the New Black, plays an NCAA lawyer who does well to explain that if LeMarcus and the players get what they want it may come at the cost of many non-football sports, specifically women's sports, that for many schools are not money makers and rely on budgets made possible by football revenue.

National Champions is quite compelling in telling the story of the players and why they deserve a cut of the massive, obscene, profits of the NCAA. It’s also an entertaining movie with strong, compelling performances and smart choices of supporting players in good subplots including Timothy Olyphant, Tim Blake Nelson, Lil Rel Howery, in a rare dramatic role, and several real life sports celebrities such as Mike Greenberg, Jemele Hill, and NFL star Russell Wilson to add a further layer of authenticity to the movie. Wilson is also an executive producer of National Champions.

As much as I like National Champions, it’s not without issues. A subplot involving Kristen Chenoweth as the wife of J.K Simmons’ coach plays like a very salacious and highly convenient subplot that does more to interfere with the plot than help it. Chenoweth’s broad and brassy performance is at odds with the tone of the film while her relationship with Timothy Olyphant’s character plays like a very convenient plot device.

There are other minor issues with National Champions, but the good far outweighs the bad for me. It could very well be that I like National Champions because I am part of the particular choir that this movie is preaching to, I cannot deny that. I believe College Football players deserve to be compensated by the colleges. Nevertheless, if we are being pandered to, the pandering worked on me. I agree with the idea behind National Champions and I really enjoyed the cast bringing the story to life. If you are on the opposite side of this argument, if you oppose paying college players to play college football, then even the great performances may be lost on you.

National Champions is in theaters nationwide as of Friday, December 10th, 2021.