Northwestern players unionizing

[aces1180]

This is bad news....I have a feeling in 10-years, college athletics will no longer exist. It's a real shame.

http://deadspin.com/northwestern-foo...ium=socialflow

[Fast50Dad]

This is bad news....I have a feeling in 10-years, college athletics will no longer exist. It's a real shame.

http://deadspin.com/northwestern-foo...ium=socialflow

Players win bid to unionize

ESPN.com news services | March 26, 2014
CHICAGO -- Northwestern Wildcats football players and the College Athletes Players Association on Wednesday won their petition through the National Labor Relations Board to form a union and bargain for benefits.

As a result, Northwestern players will hold a vote on whether to unionize, a decision that will clearly impact college football and college sports generally. Northwestern said in a statement that it will appeal the decision.

"While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it. Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students," the university's statement read. "Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes."


http://m.espn.go.com/ncf/story?storyId=10677763

[bisonaudit]

This is bad news....I have a feeling in 10-years, college athletics will no longer exist. It's a real shame.

http://deadspin.com/northwestern-foo...ium=socialflow

This changes nothing. It was a decision by the regional office of the NLRB. There was only an infinitesimal chance that they'd say, "No."

Northwestern will (if they haven't already) appeal the decision to the national level w/in the NLRB. When that doesn't go their way. They'll go to an appellate court. Only then will things get interesting.

Between now and then the only real news on this front will be coming from the NCAA, or perhaps some of the conferences, to the extent that they choose to do something, anything, for their players to at least give the appearance of caring about anything other than the money those kids are making for them.

[Leonardite]

This is bad news....I have a feeling in 10-years, college athletics will no longer exist. It's a real shame.

http://deadspin.com/northwestern-foo...ium=socialflow

I share this feeling. I hope I'm dead wrong, but every day the establishment is crumbling with no sense of what a replacement system is. The irony is that these attacks are being lobbed at the Texas and Ohio States of the world who are hoarding huge amounts of money. But by making them pay, the irreparable damage is going to be felt by the "have-nots" because by implication, it will force every Tulsa, North Dakota State, Augustana, and Concordia to do the same. And every athlete, regardless of sport, will be required to be paid the same under Title IX. I question how many schools will have the resources to do so.

[aces1180]

Interesting comment from the former President of Northwestern...

If we got into collective bargaining situations, I would not take for granted that the Northwesterns of the world would continue to play Division I sports."

Bienen alluded to that when he said a win for the players could lead private institutions with high academic standards -- he specifically cited Duke and Stanford -- to abandon the current model in order to preserve academic integrity.

He compared it to the pullback of the Ivy League schools decades ago, when the Ivy League conference decided to opt out of postseason play and to end athletic scholarships, preserving the emphasis on academics for the players. "In the 1950s, the Ivies had some of the highest-ranked football teams in the country. The Princeton teams were ranked in the top 5 or 10 at that time. They continue periodically to have ranked basketball teams, but they've given up a certain kind of model of sports," he said, adding that "under certain conditions" the same could happen at other private elite universities that "continue to play big time sports."

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/us/nor...tml?hpt=hp_bn1

[bisonaudit]

I share this feeling. I hope I'm dead wrong, but every day the establishment is crumbling with no sense of what a replacement system is. The irony is that these attacks are being lobbed at the Texas and Ohio States of the world who are hoarding huge amounts of money. But by making them pay, the irreparable damage is going to be felt by the "have-nots" because by implication, it will force every Tulsa, North Dakota State, Augustana, and Concordia to do the same. And every athlete, regardless of sport, will be required to be paid the same under Title IX. I question how many schools will have the resources to do so.

I don't think that implication is necessarily true and I don't think that Title IX would necessarily require every athlete, regardless of sport, to be paid. At this point, pay isn't even part of the Northwestern player's platform.

If we wanted to analogize to the American Revolution it's 1765 right now, the Colonists are just beginning to agitate against British rule. There was no replacement system until 1774.

I think your concerns range from premature to completely unfounded.

Unless the NCAA is completely unreasonable, a possibility which shouldn't be discounted, there should be very little to worry about.

[bisonaudit]

Interesting comment from the former President of Northwestern...




http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/25/us/nor...tml?hpt=hp_bn1

Mitch McConnell wishes this were true. (This isn't political, it's about his advertising producer not being able to tell the difference between Duke and Kentucky.)

If the private schools unionize, they're the only ones this ruling would effect if it holds up, and the public ones don't. The exact opposite could happen. To the extent that public schools are unwilling or unable to provide their employees with a competitive package it would give the private schools a tremendous recruiting advantage.

[SDbison]

The day players start getting paid cash to play football is the day my teammaker membership expires. I would encourage all other alumni and fans to do the same. This is college football, not professional sports. Labor unions are a joke these days.

[bisonaudit]

The day players start getting paid cash to play football is the day my teammaker membership expires. I would encourage all other alumni and fans to do the same. This is college football, not professional sports. Labor unions are a joke these days.

I'm not sure why a player at Northwestern should care.

[aces1180]

I'm not sure why a player at Northwestern should care.

Because the alumni and fans of Northwestern might feel the same way and stop donating?