JBond

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Bye Bye Amateur Sports... I guess a free college education, food, and housing is not enough anymore.


http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2014/...ionize-federal-agency-says/?intcmp=latestnews

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."
 

ThoughtExperiment

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Absolutely absurd. But not that surprising the NLRB ruled that way.

If this were somehow successful, which I still don't think it will be, I wonder how these players feel about killing women's athletics?
 
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Maybe women's athletics should be able to sustain itself rather than relying on handouts from programs that do? Or do you just hate capitalism?
 
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That's not really a reason to not do the right thing, though. And they can "employ" students while still maintaining their insane profitability margins. Less profitable sports can exist the way they always have.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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They exist because football pays for them. Without those big profits, those sports go away.

Why do you hate "handouts" in this case?
 
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They existed before those big profits. And it's not like giving the athletes enough money to get by is going to destroy their entire profit margin (which is enormous, Nick Saban's contract). That just isn't a reason to not do the right thing - which is to compensate the athletes who are risking their health in order to make AD's and schools insane amounts of money.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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Well, Title IX as we know it hasn't been around all that long.

But it sounds like you're talking about a bigger stipend or something, which would be fine. They're talking about being employees. And when that happens, how do you determine how much they make? You think the players will be happy with just "enough to get by" out of that huge profit you're talking about?
 

Jon88

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I think it's time everyone took a break for a minute to get their heads out of their asses!
 
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Well, Title IX as we know it hasn't been around all that long.

But it sounds like you're talking about a bigger stipend or something, which would be fine. They're talking about being employees. And when that happens, how do you determine how much they make? You think the players will be happy with just "enough to get by" out of that huge profit you're talking about?

I guess we'll see. At least they can have a seat at the table now, when it comes to bargaining.
 

JBond

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The NLRB is full of liberal fags. It is quite a reach believe a student who is voluntarily playing a sport (and already being compensated to do so) is an employee. The NLRB has been overturned before and hopefully it will happen again in this case.
 
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