Posted on 03/26/2014 12:33:35 PM PDT by AU72
In a stunning ruling that has the potential to revolutionize college athletics, a federal agency said Wednesday that football players at Northwestern University can create the nation's first college athlete's union.
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 legally unionize.
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Yeah, who cares about college sports? Let them all play intramurals on cable access. I hope the whole thing collapses.
I think we should decouple sports from education, like what is done in every other country in the world. Want to play in the NHL from Canada, you do not go to McGill or the U of Toronto to get there. You play Junior Hockey, considered pro by the NCAA, from the age of 15-16. Live in the UK, and looking to play for Chelsea. Again, there is no soccer scholarships for Oxford, Cambridge, or the U of Edinburgh. You tryout for Chelsea’s youth teams at 14-15 and work your way through the system. Everywhere else, school is for learning, and sports clubs are for sports, pretty simple.
If Sports scholarships become Taxable I don’t see how an academic scholarship would escape the same fate.
It is a choice, but the athletes and Northwestern are choosing to take a stand. However, being at Northwestern, they are likely never to see money for their work, but football players at the powerhouse schools will see the money when they are compensated for their work and for the merchandizing that is made off of their names.
Certainly, you would expect money if a private company like EA Sports used your name, picture and biographical data to sell their product.
Why should college football players not be allowed to own their own name and likeness?
“The students will have to take loans to pay income taxes on their scholarships.”
I’m sure the student athletes at Northwestern understand the fact that they will have to pay taxes on earnings and they understand that paying taxes on some earnings in better than not having any earnings to pay taxes on.
As for compensation for merchandising using their image, first off, they probably as adults over 18 signed away their rights. O’Bannon of UCLA admits he did, but argues it should be invalid because he did not read the document. The solution would be for the companies who use their images to put money in escrow and then compensate the athlete after he graduates or leaves the ranks of college athletes. Once he receives the money, he becomes ineligible to play that sport in college.
I wasn’t aware of this company and looked them up. It appears that the have games where the user can apply a ‘face’ of a famous favorite player on one of the game avatars. One of the games is NCAA football but they have others such as Tiger Woods golf.
This is really sketchy and seems to be stretching the privacy and ‘branding’ laws,but I assume it is legal since it is the player that is applying the face and using it in the game.
It looks like a legal rip off of every sports figure in their games since the loop hole must be that the game player is the one appropriating the image.
If, however, the courts would rule that sports figures whose faces are used in this game should be compensated, then the NCAA should keep its hands off since it is not compensation from the schools involved.
Irony. Liberals not wanting other liberals to unionize.
That sounds like the proper solution. As it is now, pro scouts have their eyes on kids in high school so it’s not like they’re going to lose track of them when they decide to go to college or not. Heck, they’d be free to sign an offer sheet and play on a farm team or Arena League until they are strong enough to handle pro punishment.
Minorities hardest hit.
You’re wrong all over this thread .the majority of sports at the majority of schools do not make money. The majority of schools do not turn a profit even after the rev sports are figured in. Small schools lose a TON on football .and everything but basketball. Some schools lose money on every single sport.
That’s BEFORE you make the “programs” pay what would be a realistic share of stadium rents, etc .on stadiums and land bought and paid for by the tax payers of a given state in many cases. If college programs had to “rent” the stadium and the pool and the field and so on, they’d be even deeper in the net/net red.
As demonstrated by some of your health care posts, you have little regard for and almost no understanding of capitalism .
Oh look and now you’re hopping threads and trying to turn it into a flame war. How cute.
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