Northwestern football players seek to join union

Booster largesse might plunge if they no longer got a tax write off for cutting a check to the booster club.

 

This will be a lot of fun, won't it? You just know a bunch of players won't report income, much like the HoF baseball players who didn't report their autograph income.

And, I can just imagine how disruptive a bunch of 18-22 year old kids, with money in their pockets for the first time, will be on a college campus. Star athletes already think they're big shots on campus. This will only add to it.

 

Northwestern must be thrilled at the amount of money that it's
going to cost them to litigate the NLRB decision that effects all
major universities. I wonder if they will be asking for donations to
offset their legal costs.

 

Northwestern has the 10th largest endowment of any US University, at over $7.8B. I think they'll be ok.

 

Still though Northwestern is the school left holding the bag for all
which at some level has to irritate them a tad.

 

Just curious, if the players on the football team at BCS Univerisity unionize - forming the local chapter of whatever the larger union is - would the parent union force a team to go on strike (and thus forfeit game(s)) for better pay or benefits?

 

Or not cross a picket line if say the food workers union was on strike.

 

Take it out of their AD bonuses.

 

No, I was thinking more of the hundred-dollar handshake and off-the-books no-show job -- which I guess means largesse could plunge because now everyone would have to report taxes.

But you bring up a good point that even if the athletic department created a special fund to pay its employees, boosters aren't going to get a tax writeoff for that.

 

I wonder how the NLRB would have ruled if this had
been one of the service academy football teams bringing
the complaint.

Since post college military service is a requirement would
the NLRB have considered the scholarship a loan paid back by service.

 

Cadets get paid a monthly stipend. Last I saw it started at $900 per month.

 

Well, they have to keep their rooms clean and do push-ups, so their purity is still intact.