Allie Rooney ’15
Sports Editor
According to some of its players, the National College Athletic Association has become a “dictatorship” that mishandles athletes’ rights and fails to provide them with long-term health care or educational assistance. These players want to be recognized as employees of the schools that they play for and are attempting to unionize.
A journalist with Marketplace recently interviewed Professor of economics Andrew Zimbalist for story on this topic. He stated that “the players are looking for a niche that says yes we are employees, yes we can collectively bargain, no we don’t want to get wages, we only want to get better benefits and a seat at the table.” In his opinion, these athletes are not in need of any wages.
Zimbalist’s article in the March 27 edition of The New York Times argued that athletes receive an education in exchange for playing on a team. According to Zimbalist, many of the players cannot read beyond a primary school level and these athletes are being compensated in the form of a scholarship. With the three most common majors among Division I football players being business, sociology and communications, skeptics question the quality of the education they receive. These players take classes that will keep the graduation rate of the school at 50%.
The idea of a possible unionization started at Northwestern University, one of the 351 NCAA Division I members, with the football team and its quarterback, Kain Colter. On April 25, members of the university’s football team voted on whether or not they should unionize. The results of that vote will not be public anytime soon.
According to Victor Matheson, an economics professor at the College of the Holy Cross, players were urged by their coaches and other members of the community to vote no. Matheson also stated that this past year, Northwestern University’s football team brought in $30 million and only about $5 million of that went towards student aid scholarships. Colter stated that he and his teammates were happy with their treatment at Northwestern, but were frustrated by the NCAA’s inability to provide guaranteed scholarships and money for players to finish their degrees, among other things.
The NCAA argued that its athletes are “not employees within any definition of the National Labor Relations Act” and that “their participation in college sports is voluntary.” The organization also stated that “an attempt to turn student-athletes into employees undermines the purpose of college: an education.”
Although Zimbalist argued that “yes, these athletes are primarily employees and they should be allowed to unionize,” there remains the question of whether this will solve the problem. “Will unionization best promote the outcome that we want for college sports? I don’t believe that it will,” Zimbalist said.
If the Northwestern players voted for the unionization, this process will continue to face a few hurdles, Zimbalist stated. There will be an appeal to the National Labor Relations Board and possible appeal to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals and then to the Supreme Court.
