University officials did not immediately respond to an Associated Press request for comment.
The players' statement, issued Saturday night, aligns them with campus groups, including one called Concerned Student 1950, that have been protesting the way President Tim Wolfe has handled matters of race and discrimination on the overwhelmingly white, 35,000-student campus.
Student groups at the state's flagship university have complained about the use of racial slurs on campus. Also, a swastika drawn in feces was found recently in a dormitory bathroom.
The statement from the football players included a photograph of 32 black men. Among them was Jonathan Butler, a black graduate student who is nearly a week into a hunger strike to call attention to racial problems on campus.