Back in June at the height of national unrest, a coalition of assistant coaches from the Big East, including Villanova’s Kyle Neptune, created an organization referred to as Coaches for Action. 

Soon after the organization’s creation, 21 minority assistant coaches from the Big East stood together calling for social justice. The CFA lobbied for a permanent stay in the league.

The coaches’ objectives included BLM patches on jerseys, increased voting information for athletes and a minority scholarship. 

The Big East came out with an announcement on Thursday declaring its support of both the Black Lives Matter movement and the CFA alliance. 

“We applaud the initiative and leadership of CFA,” Big East commissioner Val Ackerman said. “And their efforts to shine a light on the challenges that out Black student-athletes, coaches and administrators face on a daily basis.”  

The 11 schools in the Big East conference voted unanimously in support of the Black Lives Matter patches to be displayed on both the men’s and women’s basketball jerseys for the 2020-21 season. The Big East has continued to issue tweets and other social media posts in support of the CFA and the larger Black Lives Matter movements.

Neptune is starting his seventh season with the Wildcats and continues to advocate for his players and for social justice movements. 

“The patch is great,” Neptune said in an interview with ESPN. “But moving forward, the goal of the group is to do things beyond that. The opportunities are endless.”

While representing the University community, Neptune and his partners at CFA strive to become social justice leaders for the basketball community as a whole.

Butler University has gone a step further in their support by beginning the #BUnited campaign, during which they record and publicize crucial conversations relating to social injustice. Following the announcement from the Big East, its basketball team released their first conversation where players and coach LaVall Jordan discussed various social issues and posted the video to their twitter (@butlerMBB).

Neptune and the CFA aim to create more conversations about racial inequalities across America in hopes of continuing new initiatives in support of Black Lives Matter and national equitability.