Trump and top Republicans call for college football season to go ahead, even though conferences are canceling games because they don't think it's safe

• President Donald Trump is urging organizing bodies to press ahead with the fall season of college football despite the coronavirus continuing to spread in the US.
• Several conferences and numerous players have already dropped out of the season. Two of the biggest leagues plan to follow suit Tuesday, reports say.
• Some players have expressed concern for their safety and demanded extra measures to shield them from the virus.
• Other have called for the season to go ahead under the #WeWantToPlay hashtag and are being backed by Republican lawmakers.

President Donald Trump and other top Republican lawmakers are urging collegiate governing bodies not to scrap the fall football season despite coronavirus infections continuing in the US.

"Play College Football!" the president tweeted Monday. "The student-athletes have been working too hard for their season to be cancelled."

In the tweet the president shared the #WeWantToPlay hashtag that has been used by some prominent high-school athletes who oppose plans by schools and leagues to cancel the fall season.

—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 10, 2020

Trump was joined by Vice President Mike Pence as well as Republican senators including Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Marco Rubio of Florida in urging authorities to let the competition go ahead.

The president has had a better relationship with college football than he has with other major sports, and he has been cheered when attending games.

The president's intervention comes after a series of college conferences already canceled games. Two of the five wealthiest conference are likely to follow suit within days, according to reports.

The Big Ten on Monday was on the brink of axing its fall season, sources told the Detroit Free Press, while the Pac-12 is poised follow, according to Pacific Takes, part of the SBNation sports blogging network.

Several players have said they won't be taking part in a fall season, according to CBS Sports.

Others told The Washington Post they felt pressured to play despite worries about their health, fearing a stigma that might hurt their chances of playing professionally.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, a member of the National College Athletics Association COVID-19 Advisory Panel, told CNN that student-athletes couldn't operate in a "bubble" as some professional sports teams had done given their presence on a college campus.

"The bubble seems to work, but you can't do that with students, and I think that people forget that," he said. "It is not necessarily that they're getting infected on the field, but they'll bring what they've contracted in the community on to the field."

Other players have expressed determination to play, and on Monday Trump shared a post by Clemson University quarterback Trevor Lawrence, one of college football's biggest stars.

In the post, Lawrence called for the NCAA and conferences to ensure universal safety procedures are imposed and allow the season to go ahead.