Northwestern football players seek to join union

Fine, then let them make their own money away from the University.

 

They already get stipends.

http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaa/football/blog/dr_saturday/post/CFB-Explainer-How-do-scholarships-and-stipends-?urn=ncaaf-136534

 

A "union" that includes only football and men's basketball players? Nice union.

 

The writer is using the term "stipend", but what they're talking about is their housing allowance for off-campus. When the athletes and NCAA are talking "stipend", they're referring to money that is above the cost of attendance, which includes tuition, room, board, books and fees.

 

There are just so many holes in the idea, if it were ever to work, a blind eye would have to be cast toward some of them.

 

The NCAA will almost certainly succeed in keeping unions out, but they may rue the day when they see the alternative: each player with his own individual lawyer/agent.

Yah yah, I know the NCAA has a rule against agents, but don't worry, that rule will get blown off the face of the earth as soon as somebody decides to file a serious lawsuit against it.

 

What I would like, in addition to a strike, would be a star athlete who can't go pro, like a Manziel, announce at the end of the season that since his scholarship deal is done for that year, that he is a free agent and will accept the highest bidder, either through a school or a booster.

Sure, the NCAA will squawk majorly, but whoever tries it would have a nice case of collusion if nobody makes him an offer beyond the scholarship.

 

Are there other sports that generate revenue? To have a workforce, there must be a business.

 

I wonder if any of these Northwestern players are getting Pell Grants.
Rarely talked about but the golden goose for many college scholarship
athletes who qualify for up to $5000 annually in Pell grants.

That's pretty nice walking around money if you don't have to pay tuition,
room and board.

 

The only other Northwestern students in a union are those in the Actors Guild...

I would be curious to watch the tension between the outside forces pushing for a union at Northwestern and the Title IX types who want it administered on the letter of the law and not necessarily the most practical answer. (Having the women's basketball team and their 1,113 average game attendance playing in the 16,000-seat arena because of equality among facilities when the smaller, campus gym would probably provide a better home-court advantage)

While the football players may be pushing for a union, the players may not want to hear the truth here. Outside of the top 10-15 players on a BCS football team and the top 4 players on a major-college men's basketball team, none of a school's student-athletes are enough of a draw for a substantial boost to the bottom line. They're - gasp - interchangeable.

For a football team, 85 scholarships. After the top 10-15 difference makers and 30 more players who start or see decent game time, the next 40 players truly are "free rides". The athletic department pays the expense for them and only gets practice time out of them.

 

This is true, but the universities desperately need those top 10-15 players to keep the sport going.

This is the beginning of the end of college athletics as we currently know it. I truly believe that. The athletes are on to how badly their schools need them.

 

The economics of the business have changed so much, grown so exponentially, this is an inevitable and justifiable outcome.