College Athletes now allowed to form a union
.....where is the outrage from the right?
posted over 10 years ago
HICAGO — A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled Wednesday that a group of Northwestern football players were employees of the university and have the right to form a union and bargain collectively.
For decades, the major college sports have functioned on the bedrock principle of the student-athlete, with players receiving scholarships to pay for their education in exchange for their hours of practicing and competing for their university. But Peter Ohr, the regional N.L.R.B. director, tore down that familiar construct in a 24-page decision.
He ruled that Northwestern’s scholarship football players should be eligible to form a union based on a number of factors, including the time they devote to football (as many as 50 hours some weeks), the control exerted by coaches and their scholarships, which Mr. Ohr deemed a contract for compensation.
“It cannot be said that the employer’s scholarship players are ‘primarily students,’ ” the decision said.
The ruling comes at a time when the N.C.A.A. and its largest conferences are generating billions of dollars, primarily from football and men’s basketball. The television contract for the new college football playoff system is worth $7.3 billion over 10 years, and the current deal to broadcast the men’s basketball tournament is worth $10.8 billion over 14 years.
The decision could give momentum to those who believe the N.C.A.A. should modify its rules on how athletes are compensated. The ruling applies only to scholarship football players at Northwestern, but the precedent could extend to other Division I scholarship football players at similar private universities. (Collective bargaining at public universities is governed by state law, not the N.L.R.B.)
“It’s another brick being taken out of the castle the N.C.A.A. has constructed,” said the ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, a former college basketball player. “It’s not going to stand forever, and we’re getting closer and closer to it tumbling.”
A Northwestern spokesman, Alan K. Cubbage, said in a statement that the university would appeal the decision to the five-member N.L.R.B. in Washington, a process that could take months.
The N.C.A.A. was not a party to the labor proceeding, but it said in a statement that it was “disappointed” with the ruling. “We strongly disagree with the notion that student-athletes are employees,” Donald Remy, the N.C.A.A.’s chief legal officer, wrote.
The newly formed College Athletes Players Association is focusing its efforts on Division I football and basketball players, and it is unclear if scholarship athletes in nonrevenue sports will benefit from the ruling.
The players group submitted the petition to the N.L.R.B. on behalf of the Northwestern players in January, and an often testy hearing followed last month. Lawyers for the players association and Northwestern argued the question of whether the players were students, employees or a hybrid.
Kain Colter, a former Northwestern quarterback and the face of the movement, testified that he was steered away from difficult science classes and denied his dream of pursuing a career as a doctor. Northwestern defended what is considered a sterling academic record: 97 percent of its football players graduate, the highest rate among universities in the top division of collegiate athletics.
The ruling centered not on the treatment of players, but on the university’s relationship to them.
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