Last week, the National Labor Relation Board ruled that several Northwestern football players should be considered employees of Northwestern University and have the right to unionize and bargain with their employee for better benefits.
The decision could hold major implications moving forward for college athletics as we know them.
The NCAA has long operated under the self-proposed faàade that college athletes are "student-athletes" with an emphasis on the student.
That's what the NCAA wants everyone to believe-that they are this great organization that gives opportunity to these poor athletes that wouldn't be able to go to college otherwise.
However, what you should believe is that the NCAA set themselves up as dictators over college athletics, and they profit off the hard work of so-called "student-athletes," while those "student-athletes" don't see a dime.
I have a few questions for the NCAA. If college athletes are students first, why do college basketball and football coaches make millions of dollars a season while college professors usually make well under six figures?
Next, the athletes competing in the Final Four have been on the road the majority of the last three weeks between their conference tournaments and the NCAA Tournament. If they are students first, then when are they going to class?
The truth is those athletes aren't going to class, and I'm not even saying they should be in class. They're basketball players and have the potential to make millions of dollars being basketball players, so we should call them that and allow them to make whatever money they can.
In what other profession is an 18-year-old restricted from making the type of money they are capable of making? What if an 18-year-old photographer in college could sell his or her photos for $1,000 a piece? Would their ability to cash out be restricted? Of course it wouldn't, but somehow the NCAA has decided it's different for athletes.
The NCAA doesn't want athletes to have a free market like everyone else because that would mean money coming out of their pockets, and they just can't have that. They've concocted a pretty good deal where college athletes do all the work and the NCAA receives all the benefits.
College athletes are often forced to work well over 40 hours a week. They are subject to control by their coaches and administrators, and they have to take drug tests and meet standards required by their schools similar to a contracted worker. They can be expelled immediately if they breach this contract, but they receive no compensation for fulfilling this contract other than a scholarship.
A scholarship is a fantastic opportunity, but the NCAA really needs to back off. They make so much money off these athletes through television deals and advertising. Players should be allowed proper representation to negotiate appropriate benefits for themselves.
The football team at Northwestern has taken a step in the right direction. The ability to unionize should give college athletes the leverage they have always needed to combat the NCAA.
I believe over the next few years the NCAA, barring some major changes, will slowly crumble under the hypocrisy they have operated under for so many years-that it's all about the "student-athletes" when it's really only about themselves.
