National Labour Board drops decision in favour of athletes.
http://washingtonexaminer.com/article/2546346
A regional director for the National Labor Relations Board ruled Tuesday that football players at Northwestern University have a right to unionize, a decision with potentially major impact on college athletics.
In a 24-page ruling in the case, NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr said that because the players received scholarship money and were subject to special rules that did not apply to other university students, they were in fact “employees” of the college, and not “primarily students.”
“Thus, I direct an immediate [union] election in this case,” Ohr ruled.
The ruling makes sense to me. For all intents and purposes these are professional athletes, being paid to perform on the field, in the gym, arena whatever. They don't give full athletic scholarships for you to get "A" on your exams, you're there for the sport you play.
Probably one of the greates ripoffs in American history. Watch the NCAA try and force Northwestern to fold their program to frighten the kids at other schools…
Probably one of the greates ripoffs in American history. Watch the NCAA try and force Northwestern to fold their program to frighten the kids at other schools…
The leverage players will have will be to go on strike I guess.
I would be sure that the University will also be appealing this ruling.
There does however need to be a change in scholarship and students receiving a stipend is something that many say is not enough.
If the football team goes on strike do they cancel games? Do they bring in scab players?
It needs to be addressed but they are not employees.
The NFL is reaping the benefits of the NCAA as a minor league system.
Should the NFL pay each school for the right to draft their students and have that money go to the football players?
Should the NFL start a minor league 18-22 year old league where players do not have to attend Universities. Every other sport gives Atlhetes a way to go besides going to University
This will drag on in the courts for years and how many players will be willing to strike and miss the opportunity to be seen by pro football scouts???
Are you kidding me ? Some of the big 10 schools make more revenues from their football team than they do tuition. How are they not “employed” ? If you can pay a coach 4 million a year, there is lots and lots of money being made on the backs of these kids. And they have the balls to destroy the kids life when he gets a free bespoke suit made or gets a free car rental. The hipocrisy is epic.
precisely why NCAA athletes need to form immediately broad alliances/partnerships with other divisional schools preceding any form of retaliation and intimidation by Administrative heads.
When student athletes have empty fridges while NCAA accredited schools generate hundreds of millions off their backs, there is a serious problem.
They could go on strike I guess…But the deal is that they get free tuition as long as they are playing football…
You dont want to play,…then pay a couple hundred bucks a day for your education.
Or go home and miss school while you are on strike
Bottom line here is that if you want to call them employees…fine but the reality is that they are paid quite well in tuition and living expenses
And that is exactly correct. The deal is full scholarship for playing football. If the players do not like that deal then they will not have to play. whether right or wrong they are not employees. Should they be getting some of the Big Pot that the schools are collecting from the games of course they should.
How much???
If they are employees then they will need to be prepared to pay taxes on their paycheck.
Should they have profit sharing like the NFL players ok as well. Do they want it as employees then be prepared to pay taxes etc.
Or would they rather have a profit share stipend each month. If they do have profit sharing can it be given as a stipend or would it have to be taxable money.
Very far away from what the answer is is what my point is.
The best alternative would be a fair stipend for living expenses as part of your scholarship and the NFL gives those who do not want to go to school an option of a minor league system for players from 18-23 the ages of college students should be if they play for 5 seasons and can be moved to the NFL after being 3 years out of HS as it is an issue of safety having an 18 year old playing against grown men
First thing they need to let them have sponsorship. It makes no sense that Olympic athletes are allowed to get sponsored but College athletes are not.
I think they would be happy to pay taxes if they get some revenues.
There are other issues like keeping their scholarships when they get serious injuries that end their ability to play football. Or limiting the amount of time devoted to football as opposed to their studies, it isn’t all about money.
too many ncaa players are bought and paid for already...sponsorship or any such program simply increases that. Athletic sponsorships are meant to reward good players by essentially giving them a free education. Consider it a trade in services. They have the opportunity at a free top end education at an age when the average person struggles to pay rent in low end jobs or on student loans.
There are issues that the NCAA has does not have common sense about and now it is in the open change will be on the way but to make a student athlete an employee is not going to happen.
Having injured players keeping their scholrasships and continued medical treatment makes sense.
The players are not starving. A seven day a week meal plan at the regular campus dinning or a special dining area for football players. These meals are of the all you can eat buffet.
Clothing for players are certainly provided for all of their athletic needs if other clothing needs to be provided than so be it.
Housing for players is completely paid for with the dorm living life. If a player decides he want his own aptartment then paying for it like every other college student comes with it.
If Scholarships need to inlcude walk around money make it happen and make it a reasonable stipend. Every other college students that want extra money get side jobs that do not pay them thousands of dollars a month so if football players are unable to get jobs do to their commitment to practice and work oout sessions than again a reasonable stipend makes sense but they are not going to et paid 100K a year in cash, thats ridicoulous.
Airline flights home for holidays or family emegencies need to be part of the scholarlaship so be it. I am sure an airline would love to be the official airline of a major colleg athletic program and with a bulk of flights the costs would be low for the school if organized correctly.
The other alterantive is for the NFL to start spending their billions on a junior minor league for players who do not want to attend college but are not physicaly mature enough to play with men. players will be pro athletes and teams can sign them right out of HS if they want.
For the players however don't expect to be on National TV each week as there will be no market for junior age minor league football but the NFL can afford to pay these players and develop them like baseball does in the Carolina league etc.
I haven’t read anywhere, anywhere that they are looking to get paid like professional athletes. They want to have a say in their working/living conditions. If they want to do an autograph signing and charge for it , its their god given right to their own identity. Even the most basic rights that you take for granted they don’t have the same. If Nike wants to sign a kid its none of the NCAA’s business. Funny no country talks about freedom more than the US and very few countries suppress freedom as much these days.
It seems that more Canadians than more of my own countrymen, until perhaps only recently as in the last NCAA football season since about the time Johnny Manziel made the ‘pay me’ gesture, understand the lack of fairness of the status quo.
One clarification I have read from a labour attorney is that this ruling applies only now to athletes in PRIVATE universities not public. I don’t know why that is the case, but it’s coming from a labour attorney and the ruling is being appealed anyway.
And then I noted this comment from CFL Steve,
'The best alternative would be a fair stipend for living expenses as part of your scholarship and the NFL gives those who do not want to go to school an option of a minor league system for players from 18-23 the ages of college students should be if they play for 5 seasons and can be moved to the NFL after being 3 years out of HS as it is an issue of safety having an 18 year old playing against grown men
I have a few thoughts on and differences with your position.
Best alternative no - better yes. There will be no ‘best’ system when the players are compensated more fairly and openly, but it sure will be better than the current shamateurism with millions rolling into the pockets of various media, university, and certain connected alumni cronies.
I agree with you for a minor league system of no more than 5 years, but no way is the NFL going to pay for it. They tried that with the World League of American Football, and it’s not going to happen again with such an NFL subsidy. And then of course the UFL failed too.
3 years removed from high school is the status quo and the whole argument I have against those who claim that a scholarship, room, and board is a fair trade-off for the best of the players. As if they have an alternative? The CFL? C’mon! That’s the same self-serving rhetoric and garbage that has been pandered to line the pockets of any number of guys but the players for decades and the heart of the scam at hand now.
If a player is 18 years old, if talented enough he should be able to play where he wants to play pro football. If he’s too small or not big enough yet for a position, then of course the pros are not going to be interested anyway.
The market will take care of itself in this regard without such a stupid rule that in the end was set up only to protect the status quo and not to protect such players. That’s utter nonsense, and if you believe that I have a few bridges to sell you too perhaps.
This is a fine example of utter bunk and propaganda that only defends the status quo has lined the associated pockets of any given number of men other than the players for decades. More comments along these lines are in the previous post.
Ah, but is it okay to deprive a man of his rights to profit from his own likeness off the field and then also profit also from his likeness off-the-field, above and beyond the on-field profits of course, because he’s on your campus? As if any of what prevails in the status quo, assuming that the average star athlete really is a student first as is laughable if you have been to most any big sport American university campus, is marketplace or ethical reality? C’mon you can’t be serious.
Were you an elite athlete that lost potential earnings by the NCAA’s draconian rules ? Or were you one who got a scholarship in another sport because the football players who are exploited brought in the bacon for your free ride ?
You think getting a degree in lawn management or landscaping or any other number of programs created specifically to allow young men who should not be in University and really have no ambition of going to College instead of allowing them to earn a living playing Pro sports a fair trade ? :lol:
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I played football, and I was good enough to be a starter, be drafted, and play after i finished school…all with a top notch education. If you want to call that elite, so be it, if you don’t want to, I am fine with that as well. Football has been the only “job” I have ever had, other than what I do now…raise my kids and make an amazing living via investing…an ability that was developed because of the education I was graciously afforded via my scholarship.
Most people that I knew in the system got “real” educations, like easily well over 90%, and the ones that didn’t were generally people that figured they would play some NCAA, then coast to a golden paycheck in the NFL…40% of those guys showed their attitude and laziness, didn’t get the game time, and lost their free ride, and obviously never went pro. Another probably 50% thought they would play pro after, busted hump, 80-90% of those guys either never got a pro shot, or were done in the first camp. The remaining 10 or so percent, yeah, they probably shouldn’t have been in school, and were there for a crack at making money…and that was usually DURING their time in the NCAA…see, a lot of those guys knew that might be their only crack at making money…but you know what, they still walked out with a hell of a lot better education than they ever would have had a hope for w/o that scholarship, and had an education that allowed them to do more than flip burgers, or some other lower paying job, and in some cases it likely kept them out of crime. I never ever once saw a single player who put in actual effort come out behind education wise. the odd idiot who took useless classes…well, that’s on him, but they were few and far between.
as for this:
Who’s stopping them from playing pro? You don’t need to be drafted to play in the NFL. I mean hey, good luck, but you don’t need to. Go play JRs, then some semi-pro, eventually arena or something…nothing stopping someone from getting there that route. No, they choose to take the smart route and do NCAA…and most of them wake up while they are sitting on the sidelines and are lucky to get ST time in their first year and take class seriously.
If you think there is some strange abundance of people who don’t get decent educations and try to cake walk through school, you are mistaken. They are out there, but not even close to the proportions you seem to believe they are.
As for my time and my school making money off me while I played…you know what you are getting into when you sign-up. Pretty much any scholarship candidate has a tour before they sign on the dotted line. I for one was more than happy and actually damned proud that I worked my butt off for my school, and that they made great money and got to use that money for continual improvement of campus and recruiting not only more talented athletes, but academics. College is about betterment, whether that be sports, a new skill set, academia, or just you as a person…I am pretty proud that the money they made off of me helped contribute to that.
hope that answers your question, even if it was not actually a question, but snide remarks