Less than two months ago, a group of Northwestern University football players, led by former quarterback Kain Colter, took the bold step of petitioning the National Labor Relations Board to be recognized as employees of the university.
After hearing testimony from Northwestern players, coaches and administrators, the Chicago district of the NLRB issued its ruling Wednesday.
In a landmark decision that could be the next step in a process that will forever alter the business of college sports, NLRB regional director Peter Sung Ohr ruled that the Northwestern football players do qualify as university employees.
“The players fall squarely within the [National Labor Relations] Act’s broad definition of ’employee’ when one considers the common law definition of ’employee,” said Ohr in his ruling.
Ohr’s decision means that the players at Northwestern will be allowed to vote on whether or not they want to be associated with the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA) that college athletes’ rights’ advocate Ramogi Huma formed in January before he and Colter brought their case to the NLRB.
“The NCAA invented the term student-athlete to prevent the exact ruling that was made today,” Huma said. “For 60 years, people have bought into the notion that they are students only. The reality is players are employees, and today’s ruling confirms that. The players are one giant step closer to justice.”
Ohr’s decision was based significantly on testimony from players that painted a picture of lives controlled by football and not academics. Testimony from Colter, who completed his final year of eligibility last fall, that the rigors of the football schedule forced him to drop his pre-med major due to time constraints was especially poignant.
“While the football coaches, and the Employer as a whole, appear to value the players’ academic education, it is clear that the players are controlled to such a degree that it does impact their academic pursuits to a certain extent,” Ohr said in his decision.
“This appears to be especially true for the scholarships players as they are sometimes unable to take courses in a certain academic quarters due to conflicts with scheduled practices.”
The regional director also stated in his decision that scholarships that the players currently receive for their play on the field are indicative of employer-employee compensation and not grants, as Northwestern claimed.
Now that CAPA and the players have won their initial case, what will likely be a lengthy appeals process can begin. The full NLRB in Washington, D.C. will be the next to hear the case.
If this ruling is upheld by the entire NLRB, and the firm nature of Ohr’s decision ensured that it likely will be, the Northwestern players will have the right to join CAPA and enter into collective-bargaining with the university over the issue of compensation. No date has been set as of yet for the appeal.
The journey to “pay-for-play” will be far from over if Colter, Huma and CAPA win their appeal, however. In the event that the players do unionize, the school will likely refuse to negotiate with the players and sue in court for an exception saying that they do not have to do so. The case could very well reach the US Supreme Court at some point in the future, but it is not the near future.
Although the bottom-line is that pay-for-play is not yet close to becoming a reality, Wednesday’s ruling is far from insignificant. The decision contradicts years of case law that says players are not university employees and could, if it is upheld, lead to players receiving worker’s compensation for injuries and players having a voice in setting practice and workout schedules.
For its part, Northwestern was not happy with the ruling and intends to fight it as long as possible.
“While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director’s opinion, we disagree with it,” said Alan Cubbage, Northwestern’s vice president for university relations, in a statement.
“Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes.”
There are still some important issues to be discussed. For example, what will happen with public universities? The NLRB only has jurisdiction over private institutions while public colleges are subject to the laws of their individual states. Will only private schools’ teams get to unionize? Will that destroy the competitive balance in the NCAA?
For now, however, CAPA and especially Colter, the athlete who may have set in motion events that will change intercollegiate sports forever, are simply basking in winning the first round of their fight with the status quo.
“For me this was just an opportunity to make things right and stick up for future generations and make up for the wrongs of past generations,” Colter said.
Dylan Sinn is a freelance contributor for CraveOnline Sports. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSinn or “like” CraveOnline Sports on Facebook.
Photo Credit: Getty
