Northwestern Football Players to Unionize?

Very interesting read.  Can't wait to see this play out over the next couple of years.

Supposition.....It costs management to deal with a union and union demands.  Wonder what sports will be cut out of college to deal with this cost?

Amazing!!

Cannot wait to see the results of this!

With the pay for play movement that has been percolating for many years now, plus the looming injury liability lawsuits colleges face from former players... I think you have to really wonder what the future of college football and college athletics in general will be. Then you have the one and done farce of big time college hoops, which I find reprehensible. I just hope the eventual backsplash from all of this somehow elevates college baseball rather than threatens it. One way or another, big changes coming in college athletics and sooner than later. And HS football/athletics isn't far behind. Just wait until your school district gets hit with its first multi-million dollar class action law suit.

This will be interesting over the next few years.  As I see it the players wanted a voice with the NCAA for years to listen to their concerns and issues mostly around $$.  The NCAA has been in business with College Presidents ($$) and Media outlets ($$) and dictating policy to the student-athletes without representation.  The student-athletes latched onto a way to get the NCAA's attention.  This may be the first shot across the NCAA bow, but it probably won't be the last.  We'll see if it works and how it plays out.

I guess it's time for my semi-annual posting of a link to a great article about the NCAA from the October 2011 edition of the Atlantic:

The Shame of College Sports

A litany of scandals in recent years have made the corruption of college sports constant front-page news. We profess outrage each time we learn that yet another student-athlete has been taking money under the table. But the real scandal is the very structure of college sports, wherein student-athletes generate billions of dollars for universities and private companies while earning nothing for themselves. Here, a leading civil-rights historian makes the case for paying college athletes—and reveals how a spate of lawsuits working their way through the courts could destroy the NCAA.

To read the rest of the article, click on the following link:

http://www.theatlantic.com/mag...llege-sports/308643/

I can understand college athletes wanting to do something about selling out their bodies for a college program an being stuck with medical issues and bills for the rest of their lives. But unionization is costly to both sides.

At the high school level I can see football becoming a club sport. The high schools will eventually walk away from the liability payments and therefore the sport as they become too high. There are states with pending legislation banning tackle football for preteens.

I like the innovative thought coming from Northwestern.  Tell me alot about thier character.  I'm for it.

unionizing tells you something about their character? I can't imagine that it would tell you anything good...here is an idea for you, give the scholarship, pay your own tutition and be a regular college student....it is not hard.

Old_School,

I'm not sure what it says to you, but it tells me they are willing to stand up to something they perceive as wrong.   It tells me things may be pretty bad for these "student athletes" and they are very desperate to change it.   That takes guts and character IMHO, because they could be subject to retaliation by their school and the NCAA.

Possibly unionizing was or wasn't the best method to accomplish this.  I don't know.  But they are certainly drawing attention to their issue which is the overall objective.  I do believe some reform is in order for something that was established in the 1930's.   Too much has changed in our society and world in 80 years for this to work for both sides.

I don't want to put words in Old School's mouth, Fenway, but I think what it says to him is that if these uppity commie student athletes aren't grateful for the beneficence of the Universities that make billions (that's with a "b") off of their athletic talents (in exchange for offering "The History of Basket-weaving" courses), then they should rent a rowboat with Alec Baldwin, Senator Warren, the Dixie Chicks,and their komrades and find another country more to their liking. An unintended fringe benefit would be that these ingrates might then have access to a better healthcare system, which could help them better deal with the scary possibility of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (formerly known as dementia pugilistica) 30 or so years down the line.

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this is well put...LOL it really did make me laugh - well done and regardless of your attempts to make a joke it was well put!!!. You did forget a few things they should have Jane Fonda run the cheerleading program...that is obviously part of the show and certainly those poor kids should get a cut because well...not just anyone can yell lets go blue into a crowd of people who really only want see the boobs!!! don't forget the band...they went to band camp and they practice marching every day!!!!!!!! and holy crap what about the mascot...he wears a costume!! kick the poor boy a few bucks!!

on an honest level the players (we are talking about 30 or 35 D1 basketball and football schools only) get a scholarship worth about 50k give or take a year, not bad for a basketweaver, they get it for 5 years (if you want the deal to be a 5 year full, instead of year to year you have a point) plus the chance to make something of themselves that if they actually use it is worth millions...if they chose not use it or aren't able to meet the demands....perhaps they shouldn't be there!!

as far as healthcare goes, there is no better system currently - however given the state of O'bitchcare i am certain that in the very near future there will be a better option in some foreign land shortly!!!

These student/athletes are standing up for what they believe in.  I admire that especially at thier age.  If they fail or are successfull at this remains to be seen, but it will be a great lesson in thier lives.  Stand up to what you believe in.

I'm going to stay away from the politics of unionization. The problem is what is a student-athlete? Is a drooling idiot with a third grade reading ability a student-athlete? Or is he there for the sole purpose of marketing the university (making millions for some) via the football or basketball program? Some of these athletes are being used for recognition for the university.

There are invisible victims in this scenario. It's the student who doesn't get accepted to a certain university because a drooling idiot got his spot. Then there's the student who can't get a needed spot in a class needed to graduate because there's an empty seat in the classroom assigned to a drooling idiot who's skipping class. 

The NFL/NBA (and to a slighlty more limited extent MLB) in concert with the NCAA and it's member schools are operating as a cartel an by so doing hoping to limit the players who provide the labor that makes them billions from getting any larger a cut of that pie than absolutely necessary.  They get away with it, in part, for the same reasons that big law firms or finance firms can get junior associates to work 80 hour weeks, by dangling the chance for a big payday in front of all of them even though they know that for most of them it's a losing proposition.

To translate this into a different real-world scenario, what do you think would happen if all the tech companies in the country got together and decided to draft CompSci graduates while also requiring that people who wanted to be eligible to be drafted go to college.  Then, on top of that, NCAA set rules about what those students could earn on their own while in school, and whether or not they could transfer schools freely? And finally, once drafted, those graduates could only sign with the company that drafted them and were required to work with that company only for a number of years?

Why do people who think union is a dirty word think that it's OK to be anti-capitalist as long as your anti-capitalist rules only effect labor?

President of NCAA Mark Emmert made $1.7 million last year.   So let's  not pretend college athletics is all about the purity of amateurism.

The NW demands are pretty reasonable, IMHO. 

As for unions, Obamacare, etc.  I'm not interested in a political debate, but as a historical point the labor movement had a huge, beneficial impact on this country especially in the early 20th century.