Northwestern football players unionize?

[RegentDenali]

Can't wait to see the player union vs. BYU and it's honor code punishment and ejections for SAs.

 

[amszete]

Why do people think that pay for play is the only issue that a players union would bring up? Look at the case of Jeremy Bloom. He happened to be the best mogul skier in the world while playing at Colorado. Training for mogul skiing is expensive as hell and he really needed the money from endorsements that would have had nothing to do with NCAA D1 football, and the NCAA stripped him of his eligibility for doing it. The whole thing was a complete load of bs with these hypocrites that are making billions throwing out the whole "spirit of amateurism" garbage. It was literally no skin off of anybody's back and they said no because they were afraid of where it might lead. These are the other types of things that a players union would address.

While I understand your point and what you are trying to get at it - this is change we are about to see could have an irreversible impact on the way revenue generating sports are handled going forward and will further increase the gap between the haves and have nots of college teams.

This is just MO here - but as someone else jokingly put it, once NCAA jurisdiction is out of the equation for oversight of college sports (there is no way in hell they can oversee such a change with unionizing players etc.) prepare to see such sports as mogul skiing, hockey, swimming, etc demoted to club/rec sports. Why? All alumni $$ and other income for athletics could potentially be funneled at an even greater level to the revenue generating sports to support the ever changing climate of unionized type sports. So your point you are trying to make could really have no impact on this sport in the future anyway because of the much broader change this will have on revenue generating sports.

 

[Wheat]

If they are employees, they can be fired.

do you have any idea how hard it is to fire a union employee?????

 

[BucksFanInGA]

Have any of you even read what the "players union" is looking for? Only one of the 11 provisions has anything to do with being "paid" and that is by third party sources (commercials/endorsements/etc)...

 

[mrwallace2ku]

LOVE IT!

This ought to open up the playing field for student athletes even tho NorWestern is a private school.

Mamba ought to like this finding...DOWN goes Stanford as the USW moves into the bay Area.

 

[outofyourmind]

Have any of you even read what the "players union" is looking for? Only one of the 11 provisions has anything to do with being "paid" and that is by third party sources (commercials/endorsements/etc)...

I guess they will be taking the NCAA to court, because this is against the rules.

 

[757Hokie83]

not reading through this whole thread, but one question i have with this is, if they are employees, and the former QB poster boy said one of their main arguments is that their scholarships are their compensation...employees pay taxes on their compensation for their work...do these employees now start getting taxed on the value of their scholarship?

 

[757Hokie83]

If they are employees, they can be fired.

people are cut from teams every year (i.e. fired)

 

[mrwallace2ku]

not reading through this whole thread, but one question i have with this is, if they are employees, and the former QB poster boy said one of their main arguments is that their scholarships are their compensation...employees pay taxes on their compensation for their work...do these employees now start getting taxed on the value of their scholarship?

Good Q...your always thinking hokie. But is not the compensation something other than wages? Can this be taxed?

 

[wazzu31]

I don't understand why if these athletes feel like they are "employees" then why don't they drop out of their free Northwestern scholarship and go try out for a pro team in Canada?

The NCAA does not have a monopoly on playing any sport out of high school., The NCAA does hold a monopoly for giving these student athletes free exposure, free professional training, free state of the art equipment as opposed to a basketball player going to Europe or a football player going and lighting it up in the CFL.

 

[gohusk]

While I understand your point and what you are trying to get at it - this is change we are about to see could have an irreversible impact on the way revenue generating sports are handled going forward and will further increase the gap between the haves and have nots of college teams.

This is just MO here - but as someone else jokingly put it, once NCAA jurisdiction is out of the equation for oversight of college sports (there is no way in hell they can oversee such a change with unionizing players etc.) prepare to see such sports as mogul skiing, hockey, swimming, etc demoted to club/rec sports. Why? All alumni $$ and other income for athletics could potentially be funneled at an even greater level to the revenue generating sports to support the ever changing climate of unionized type sports. So your point you are trying to make could really have no impact on this sport in the future anyway because of the much broader change this will have on revenue generating sports.

I'm not buying that. They're just looking to be able to collectively negotiate. If a player has an offer to make some money with endorsements that aren't in conflict with his schools contracts then I see absolutely no reason to block the student from doing so. Maybe even allow them to take money from the ones that are in line with them as well. They're already promoting these brands for free anyway. Just put a cap on it and clearly define what is and isn't allowed. Right now the only thing that's allowed is illegal contributions from alum because it's hard to catch.

 

[Oney]

Who's going to pay their Union dues for them? Union's are not free.

And think about the cash cow that this union would be, even if just football, you have 85+ from every university with a football program?

How does it work if the school is in a Right to Work state? Do non-union players operate under the same contract?

I just don't believe conditions are that bad for these kids they need special representation.

There's also a State Rep here in Tennessee trying to pass a bill that the state run schools have to put 10% of their revenue in a trust for athletes to receive after graduation. I don't believe it will pass.

 

[757Hokie83]

Who's going to pay their Union dues for them? Union's are not free.

And think about the cash cow that this union would be, even if just football, you have 85+ from every university with a football program?

How does it work if the school is in a Right to Work state? Do non-union players operate under the same contract?

I just don't believe conditions are that bad for these kids they need special representation.

There's also a State Rep here in Tennessee trying to pass a bill that the state run schools have to put 10% of their revenue in a trust for athletes to receive after graduation. I don't believe it will pass.

from an interview i heard with the former NW QB and poster boy for this, the main "working conditions" they have an issue with is that 99% of them dont go on to play professionally, yet their 4 years in college could leave them with decades of pain management, surgeries, etc. and they feel that the school or ncaa should help with those costs (unless i completely misunderstood what he was saying)

 

[mrwallace2ku]

NCAA "good ol' boy" club gonna see some court time now. Their "monopoly" is running on borrowed time.

Athletes need some end resolutions to decades worth of old complaints.

 

[Oney]

I'd say that's the risk you take. Not to mention, Obamacare has them covered!

 

[nolehusker]

from an interview i heard with the former NW QB and poster boy for this, the main "working conditions" they have an issue with is that 99% of them dont go on to play professionally, yet their 4 years in college could leave them with decades of pain management, surgeries, etc. and they feel that the school or ncaa should help with those costs (unless i completely misunderstood what he was saying)

Another issue is that they don't have the same rules that other students on scholarships have. Let's say there is a student that is on a academic scholarship and has a popular media blog. That person is allow to use their name to go to promote events and receive checks for doing so and for signing autographs. If you're a student athlete, you can't put your name on anything. I read somewhere that there is a recruit for, Miami I believe, that is in a band and if once he becomes a student-athlete they'll have to take his name off stuff. That just doesn't make sense.

 

[Jim Rome is Flaming]

More proof of how spoiled these fucking babies are. They have a sense of entitlement and I blame their shitty parents for it. Fitzgerald had better make them run til he gets tired, or pull every scholarship from anybody that participated in this.

According to Forbes, Northwestern's football program brought in $22,704,959 in revenue in 2013 (third smallest in the B1G). Meanwhile, the school is forgoing $45,120 in tuition per scholarship player. Assuming 85 scholarship players, correct me if I'm wrong on that number, that would come to $3,835,200. If you include room and board, which I believe most schools do, you can add another $1 million to that number. So, expenses from scholarships would consume about 20% of the profit generated by the football program. Maybe that's a bit low, but you have to remember that Northwestern, while near the bottom of their conference, is still in one of the most profitable conferences in terms of football in the country. At the same time, Northwestern has one of the highest tuition rates you can find. Factor in marketing, cost of hosting games, recruiting expenses, travel, coach salaries and you don't have a ton left over.

This really is a tricky problem. If you want to go the route of each player making what they generate in revenue, prepare for every single player to go to Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame and USC. But it seems to be heading somewhere in that direction with this ruling. I'm not sure how it's going to unfold.

 

[trojanfan12]

According to Forbes, Northwestern's football program brought in $22,704,959 in revenue in 2013 (third smallest in the B1G). Meanwhile, the school is forgoing $45,120 in tuition per scholarship player. Assuming 85 scholarship players, correct me if I'm wrong on that number, that would come to $3,835,200. If you include room and board, which I believe most schools do, you can add another $1 million to that number. So, expenses from scholarships would consume about 20% of the profit generated by the football program. Maybe that's a bit low, but you have to remember that Northwestern, while near the bottom of their conference, is still in one of the most profitable conferences in terms of football in the country. At the same time, Northwestern has one of the highest tuition rates you can find. Factor in marketing, cost of hosting games, recruiting expenses, travel, coach salaries and you don't have a ton left over.

This really is a tricky problem. If you want to go the route of each player making what they generate in revenue, prepare for every single player to go to Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame and USC. But it seems to be heading somewhere in that direction with this ruling. I'm not sure how it's going to unfold.

And everything you posted, doesn't even get to the "non-revenue generating sports" that are able to exist and offer scholarships because of the football program.

 

[Irish7478]

According to Forbes, Northwestern's football program brought in $22,704,959 in revenue in 2013 (third smallest in the B1G). Meanwhile, the school is forgoing $45,120 in tuition per scholarship player. Assuming 85 scholarship players, correct me if I'm wrong on that number, that would come to $3,835,200. If you include room and board, which I believe most schools do, you can add another $1 million to that number. So, expenses from scholarships would consume about 20% of the profit generated by the football program. Maybe that's a bit low, but you have to remember that Northwestern, while near the bottom of their conference, is still in one of the most profitable conferences in terms of football in the country. At the same time, Northwestern has one of the highest tuition rates you can find. Factor in marketing, cost of hosting games, recruiting expenses, travel, coach salaries and you don't have a ton left over.

This really is a tricky problem. If you want to go the route of each player making what they generate in revenue, prepare for every single player to go to Texas, Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame and USC. But it seems to be heading somewhere in that direction with this ruling. I'm not sure how it's going to unfold.

I think that's $22 million in revenue, not profit. Take out coaches salaries, travel expenses, and other expenses like equitment and it would be significantly less in profit. And FYI, tuition,and room and board at ND is now $60k, so I'm sure northwestern is more.

 

[Taz_Hokie]

I just can't wait until the players decide to strike on a game and you have 60,000+ fans there screaming at them to get their spoiled asses on the field.