Northwestern University Athletes Lose Bid to Form Union

Northwestern University football players cannot form a union, the National Labor Relations Board ruled, overturning a March 2014 decision and ending the players’ bid to change the college sports landscape.

Among the board’s findings in a unanimous 16-page opinion was that certifying the players’ petition “would not promote uniformity and stability in labor relations,” and that allowing Northwestern players to bargain with a single employer over policies that apply throughout the National Collegiate Athletic Association would potentially upset the balance of competition.

In what NLRB officials called a “very narrow decision,” the board declined to address whether the players are employees at Northwestern and ruled rather on whether granting their petition would serve the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act. Of the 125 football programs in the NCAA’s Football Bowl Subdivision, the top echelon, just 17 are private schools and Northwestern is the only one in the Big Ten Conference.

The unionization effort, along with recent lawsuits seeking to increase college players’ rights, had the potential to upend the business of college sports. Schools in college football’s top division turned a $1.4 billion profit on $3.4 billion in revenue in the fiscal year ended June 2014, according to data schools submit to the U.S. Department of Education.

The NLRB’s decision leaves no recourse for Northwestern players to appeal.

“That is it,” Doug Allen, a labor-relations professor at Penn State University who was assistant executive director of the NFL Players Association from 1982-2007, said about such an outcome prior to the NLRB review. “That’s a final and binding result.”

Eligible Voters

There were 76 scholarship players at the Evanston, Illinois, school who were eligible — though not compelled — to vote in April 2014 over whether to form a union. They did vote, needing a simple majority for approval, though those ballots now will be destroyed without being counted.

A month earlier, an NLRB regional director upheld the players’ right to vote, though the Washington-based board granted the school’s request to review the initial ruling and said players’ ballots would be impounded until it decided. Of the 111 student-athletes who will be on the Wildcats’ roster this fall, from 44 to 47 of them will have voted in the April 2014 NLRB election, estimated Northwestern spokesman Paul Kennedy.

Players’ Issues

The group trying to unionize, the College Athletes Players Association, was seeking guaranteed coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former athletes, sponsorship compensation, an increase in scholarship value and a trust fund to help former players finish their degrees.

Many of those issues have been addressed by the sport’s overseers over the ensuing months, and college athletics have changed significantly.

In August 2014, a federal court ruled that student athletes should be allowed to seek a share of $800 million in annual broadcast revenue. The NCAA has appealed the ruling on the lawsuit filed in 2009 by ex-college basketball player Ed O’Bannon.

That same month the NCAA altered its governance, granting partial autonomy to the five richest conferences.

In January, those conferences voted to give their schools the option of offering scholarships that meet the cost of attendance, estimated to provide an additional $3,000 annually to student athletes. With 36,000 people in that group, it would be a commitment of around $108 million.

Both the Big Ten Conference, of which Northwestern is a member, and Pac-12 Conference now guarantee four-year scholarships. Northwestern has done so since 2011.

Medical Coverage

The Pac-12 also decided in October that athletes injured during college competition would have medical coverage for up to four years after graduating.

Former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter was the face of the unionization push, which was organized by former UCLA football player Ramogi Huma, head of a group that advocates for the rights of college athletes. In January 2014, Colter said on a media conference call that the NCAA system “resembles a dictatorship” that left players without any way to input or negotiate their views.

Colter wasn’t picked in the 2014 NFL draft, though he spent the following season on the Minnesota Vikings practice squad. He was cut from the team in May.

–With assistance from Susan Decker in Washington.

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Topics Education Universities