A week ago, shocking news broke that football players from Northwestern University were attempting to unionize with the National College Players Association (NCPA).
The NCAA quickly responded to the Northwestern players’ demands with a statement that can be summarized by the first paragraph.
“This union-backed attempt to turn student-athletes into employees undermines the purpose of college: an education. Student-athletes are not employees, and their participation in college sports is voluntary. We stand for all student-athletes, not just those the unions want to professionalize.”
Like it or not, the NCAA’s position seems legally valid, even if they are right for the wrong reasons. Athletes receive no wages and are only given scholarships. Ask yourself, are any students attending college on an academic scholarship employees of their school?
It feels slimy, but as long as the status of student-athlete is legally upheld, athletes don’t really have any right to be considered employees by the government and therefore can’t unionize. Of course, the status of student athlete was invented by the NCAA for this exact legal purpose.
However, arguing over this legal debate obscures a pretty simple fact: These Northwestern players are not asking for what the media has led us to believe they are, they’re asking for things they should already have.
We heard from college sports analysts and former coaches (but curiously, not many former players) that the status of a student-athlete is a privilege and these are just unreasonable demands from an ungrateful collection of physical specimens who have no idea how good they have it.
These players are not asking for compensation. They are not asking for their positions as athletes to be considered a full time job. They are asking for basic medical, academic and scholarship support.
Go look at the NCPA’s demands under the “Missions & Goals” tab on their website. You’ll see demands such as “increase graduation rates … prevent players from being stuck paying sports-related medical expenses … prohibit universities from using a permanent injury suffered during athletics as a reason to reduce/eliminate a scholarship.”
Here’s a question: How is any of that stuff unreasonable?
Here’s a better question: How come athletes even have to ask for some of these benefits?
If a football player lives the rest of his life with neurological complications, he deserves help from the university he was playing for while sustaining this trauma.
If a player needs money, he or she should be able to get a job without worrying about compromising their student-athlete status.
If a player can lose his or her scholarship for non-academic and non-conduct reasons, they deserve to keep that scholarship.
I don’t really see anyone disagreeing with those statements.
This group of Northwestern players is going to have a tough time being legally recognized as a union. But the fact that the athletes need a union to demand some basic rights and protections (that I imagine many college fans thought they already had) is pathetic.
The NCAA shouldn’t see this group, led by senior quarterback Kain Colter, as an adversary. It should see the group as an opportunity to show that it cares about its athletes and is willing to work with them to eliminate the negatives of being a student-athlete.
How would you feel if the Badgers made a move to unionize? Do you agree with Jack or is he crazy for thinking the system can ever change? Email jfbaer@wisc.edu and let him know.
