Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire So much for 'college' sports

The Nat. Labor Relations Board has ruled the Northwestern Univ. football players are employees, not students, so they can unionize. I think a lot of us have considered them that way for a long time but this is going to change a lot of things about so-called college sports. It won't take any time at all before this is expanded to all sports and all colleges.

Northwestern University football players can unionize, federal agency says
Published March 26, 2014
FoxNews.com

In a ruling that could revolutionize college athletics, a federal agency ruled Wednesday that college football players at Northwestern University can unionize.

The decision by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board means it agrees football players at the Big Ten school qualify as employees under federal law and therefore can create the nation's first college athlete's union..

The Evanston, Ill-based university argued college athletes, as students, don't fit in the same category as factory workers, truck drivers and other unionized workers. The school plans to appeal to labor authorities in Washington, D.C.

"While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it," a statement from Northwestern University read.

"Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes."

Outgoing Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter took a leading role in establishing the College Athletes Players Association, or CAPA, which would take the lead in organizing the players. The United Steelworkers union has been footing the legal bills.

Colter, whose eligibility has been exhausted and who has entered the NFL draft, said nearly all of the 85 scholarship players on the Wildcats roster backed the union bid, though only he expressed his support publicly.

CAPA attorneys argued that college football is, for all practical purposes, a commercial enterprise that relies on players' labor to generate billions of dollars in profits. That, they contend, makes the relationship of schools to players one of employers to employees.

In its endeavor to have college football players be recognized as essential workers, CAPA likened scholarships to employment pay -- too little pay from its point of view. Northwestern balked at that claim, describing scholarship as grants.

Giving college athletes employee status and allowing them to unionize, critics have argued, could hurt college sports in numerous ways -- including by raising the prospects of strikes by disgruntled players or lockouts by athletic departments.

The NCAA has been under increasing scrutiny over its amateurism rules and is fighting a class-action federal lawsuit by former players seeking a cut of the billions of dollars earned from live broadcasts, memorabilia sales and video games. Other lawsuits allege the NCAA failed to protect players from debilitating head injuries.

NCAA President Mark Emmert has pushed for a $2,000-per-player stipend to help athletes defray some of expenses. Critics say that isn't nearly enough, considering players help bring in millions of dollars to their schools and conferences.

CAPA's specific goals include guaranteeing coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former players, ensuring better procedures to reduce head injuries and potentially letting players pursue commercial sponsorships.

For now, the push is to unionize athletes at private schools, such as Northwestern, because the federal labor agency does not have jurisdiction over public universities.

During the NLRB's five days of hearings in February, Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald took the stand for union opponents, and his testimony sometimes was at odds with Colter's.

Colter told the hearing that players' performance on the field was more important to Northwestern than their in-class performance, saying, "You fulfill the football requirement and, if you can, you fit in academics." Asked why Northwestern gave him a scholarship of $75,000 a year, he responded: "To play football. To perform an athletic service."

But Fitzgerald said he tells players academics come first, saying, "We want them to be the best they can be ... to be a champion in life."

An attorney representing the university, Alex Barbour, noted Northwestern has one of the highest graduation rates for college football players in the nation, around 97 percent. Barbour insisted, "Northwestern is not a football factory."

I quit watching sports years ago. It's all about the money, same as everything else. Decent sports stops high school.

I think they deserve to get high pay half of what the pros get. But now they can afford that education they couldn't on a scholarship. So I'd suggest the cost of sports players in college go up 20 times. No more scholarships for sports.

Those band members are on scholarship, too.

Athletes can be given scholarships to play ball, and white sorority chicks to lay with their balls, but nothing of value.

Smaller schools won't be able to afford it. The bigger and powerful will become more so. I quit watching the pro game years ago. Still like college.

So is the Cheer team but say those ball players will be in the big bucks so lets addopt the liberal position on this crap the paid players can now afford to pay these people scholarships.

At least I don't give a [bleep] anymore.

What will be interesting will be the tax consequences for player if paid. Could be a nightmare taking into consideration instate vs out of state games etc.. At least they can get a Roth IRA set up:)Might be all that they have left in the end.

Best thing NW could do now is first - scrap the football program TODAY.. Second, appeal the decision - if they win, back to football. If they lose kick every one of those players OUT of school and let 'em find their eddykachun elsewhere.

Since college football is nothing more then farm teams for the NFL why not let the NFL pay to union wages?
Personally I'd prefer to have the college sports use people who got into the school with high SATs, good high school academics, and plenty of examples of good citizenship. Rather then the scouts driving thru the ghetto looking for huge trainable thugs.

Jim

I can't wait for the first game day strike over some minor annoyance. Colleges need to eliminate football and let the NFL find the players as best they can. They have about ruined it by protecting players from hits anyway, and it won't be long before it is flag football. miles

In the 80s SMU got the death penalty for paying players, so now it's ok? Maybe all they had to do was unionize and they wouldn't have got into trouble?

If it stands, it may have a lot of unintended consequences. If the football team unionizes and gets a salary, why not the women's volleyball team? A lot of smaller schools may just get out of whole intercollegiate athletics business. It would be a good excuse to get rid of athletic programs that are a financial drain and a distraction from the core purpose of an educational institution.

On the flip side, how much money does the universities make while the kids tear their bodies up? Everybody makes money from college football, except the players.

If you get paid to play, that play should be tied to performance. If the team doesn't win, pay is cut, if a player misses a tackle, drops a ball, gets too many penalties, or throws an interception - pay is cut. And, as mentioned, taxes will have to be paid on that income, and the concept of actual scholarships be abolished. Can't have yo' BBQ ribs and eat them, too.

Doubt if Northwestern's football team really brings in THAT much money to begin with.

If colleges have to pay their football players it's going to take a lot of money from other programs. Say goodbye to some of the less popular college sports programs.

You play because you love the game. If you don't understand that, then you've never seriously played a sport. You might use sport as a vehicle to get into college, but you still play because you love the sport.

"Tear up bodies?" That doesn't start in college. I know a pair of 12u baseballers that are "torn up" right now. One with an ankle broken in 2 places and the other with a broken radius and ulna. They need to be paid?

Some of you forget that football funds all other collegiate sports programs with the sole exception of Men's basketball at a select few schools. That means ALL the the Title IX Women's programs.

You forget that is is expensive to run a football program. If Texas A&M wants to travel to FL to play US, that's a $100,000 trip. Fortunately, their cut of the gate will cover that and more, but it shows you the "cost of doing business".

Same with Bowl Games, who seem to have enormous payouts but also have enormous expenses. A dozen or so years ago, Jim Donnon of UGA caused an uproar when he wouldn't take the full UGA marching band to Honolulu for he Hula Bowl. He said the $500,000 payout didn't cover the expenses to have an extra 100+ fly along and stay in Hawaii.

The football money allows things like having Big Ten schools send their women's softball teams to do a tour of Florida schools during Spring Break, because it's too cold to play in the Midwest this time of year. They do it with women's golf too. Are you starting see where this money goes?

I say strip the money out of it, and take the athletic scholarships away. Play for the pure love of the game. If the NFL wants a farm system, let them make there own. That will solve this controversy about paying players. Walk ons play for the love of the game and nothing else.

Education ain't free. Playing ball is how they pay. Of course some of them that go, do not get one. They should make their money by using their education, that they got for "free". miles

Will tax payers want to see their tax dollars subsidize college player payroll at state schools when their payroll gets to big and they can't afford it? This isn't going to fly, the bigger schools will buy the best players, the smaller schools will fold and the fans that can't stand pro ball will go away. Who in their right mind will want to watch college football when their will only be a hand full of teams?