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 ...
Duane The Rock Johnson played DE for U of Miami. He was a Senior when a Freshman named Warren Sapp showed up on campus. Sapp started that year. Would the Unionized Seniors go on Strike?
Unionization, the kiss of death.
They already go to the highest bidder, they just bid under the table. It’s amazing how many boosters own cars they “lend” to the athletic department, and all kinds of other sneaky payments. Nobody is going to be getting LeBron money, but they will be able to get the scholarship stipends most people on academic scholarships get, and they’ll be able to trade autographed pictures of themselves for haircuts. Just like every other time unions have been formed the bosses have nobody but themselves to blame, they decided on a system where everybody but the athletes make money on what the athletes do, and made it so even the smallest compensation risked the athlete’s career. Eventually the athletes were going to call them on it.
If student athletes are employees, then their free tuition and other benefits such as meals, rooms, etc. are wages and taxable, no? Given the cost of these items, it puts most big time college football players in the category of $50,000 per year wage earners without even receiving a cash salary.
They would have to bargain for a lot more money in cash just to be able to pay their taxes.
If they get cut from a team for non-performance, won’t they be entitled to unemployment benefits?
There will be a lot of unexpected ramifications of this ruling if it is allowed to go forward.
Actually if they break up the NCAA you’ll likely see a lot of these minor sports come back. The NCAA’s head count interpretation of title 9 is what killed a lot of these small (mostly only male) sports because schools couldn’t keep them and have same number of male and female athlete. If they kill the NCAA title 9 reverts to equal opportunity (as written) and numeric imbalance becomes legal again.
The guy who made this ruling is a complete idiot with an obvious agenda. Its a racist ruling about helping minorities.
At the big schools, everyone makes money off of college football except for the players. The schools make money, the NCAA makes money, the networks make money and even the video game makers make money off of using the players’ likenesses.
The athletes make nothing, while all the others make millions or billions.
Good move for the athletes.
Northwestern is in Evanston/Chicago. Chicago is in Illinois. Illinois is in the Rust Belt aka the Upper Midwest.
So, these ‘intelligent’ Northwestern students, many of whom also grew up in the Rust Belt, now attend a school in the Rust Belt and can see the Rust Belt in ruins all around them and still conclude that unions are a good thing.
Ha ha—seniority rules could really muck up the system.
If enough colleges set up unions for athletes, couldn’t they form another organization, a new league, apart from the NCAA? Maybe that’s where this will go. A core group of colleges will form a league, and play only each other???
If enough colleges set up unions for athletes, couldn’t they form another organization, a new league, apart from the NCAA? Maybe that’s where this will go. A core group of colleges will form a league, and play only each other???
What should the colleges expect? Over the past years they have destroyed rivalries by cutting up conferences to squeeze every last dime out of football. When conference chairmen go on bragging about how much money they got from the last tv deal, don’t be surprised if the players that make it possible come knocking on the door for their cut.
The athletes (1) Do have a chance to get an education and college degree, possibly full ride with room, board, tuition, stipends; could be worth some big money over 4 or 5 years. (2) Get a chance for publicity based on their athletic performance, which they would not otherwise have. If they are good, pro-material, this publicity is going to be key to being recruited to the pros.
if the athletes are unionized, seems like it brings a lot of potential for problems and corruption, IMHO.
Wait a minute, if football players can unionize, why can’t regular ole students? Can they form fan unions? Where does the democrat party money laundering scheme end?
Does this mean if the Wisconsin football team unionizes that their dues will not automatically be collected since it is a state school and Gov. Walker signed that legislation.
Might come back, be pretty expensive however. Football pays the freight for every other sport. Even baseball does not carry itself in most colleges.
Do you think that companies like EA Sports should be allowed to sell video games which use individual players’ likenesses without compensating the athelete for the use of their name, image and biographical data?
“In a stunning ruling that has the potential to revolutionize COMPLETELY KILL college athletics.....”
As far as I am concerned, “college athletics” has no place in an institution of higher learning. When I went to UC Berkeley (yeah, I know it’s a $hit hole run now by a Communist) we never had a football team that was worth spit, because academic standards at the time eliminated all the morons with size 44 coveralls and size 4 hats. But now Cal’s “athletic director” earns a million bucks a year and the school drools over TV revenue and all that ancillary crap that has attached itself to “college athletics.” Colleges and Universities should give up being the farm teams for professional sports. You can’t get a degree in football and that fact that these morons get to come to a good school, do as little as possible to stay in (with a lot of cheating most likely and “help” from the faculty) and take up space that could and should be occupied by those who are really seeking a post-secondary education.
At the end of the day, all the schools end up as analogs of Penn State. And yet the “beer bellies” will crank up here on FR and trash what I’m saying because to would take away their weekend entertainment. You know, you guys who still think “Joe Pa” was a saint and that Penn State did all that it could to stop the “shower activities” of one of their “coaches,” you know one of those guys who “builds character” in our young. Flame Away!
I agree with you. Will they have to be paid overtime for all of their travel/practice/game hours over 40 any weeks? Will they get certain paid holidays when they will not play under any circumstances?
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