Northwestern football players seek to join union

It would be interesting to see which school that might be. For some reason, Vanderbilt comes to mind.

 

That's the kind of school I had in mind, Dick. One with very deep pockets for reasons other than sports that still wants to play in the big leagues.

 

Time for the coaches and ADs to participate in shared sacrifice.

 

Are you suggesting that all athletes get paid both in revenue and non revenue
sports or just revenue producing.

I think if true academic institutions like Northwestern and Stanford are going to
be intellectually honest with there purpose, then the cannot possibly reconcile
paid teams.

If colleges are going to be true to there purpose then the only model that makes sense is the Ivy League / D3 where athletes are given financial aid / merit money.

 

As far as the effect on purity of mission, how is paying an athlete different than paying the school newspaper editor?

 

The right to work state thing also brings up another conundrum. The principle behind it is that nobody can be forced to join an outside organization (union)if they want to work for a specific employer. Since athletes are now being seen as employees, couldn't they claim they don't have to be under an outside organization (the NCAA), in order to work as a college athlete? Meaning they don't have to obey NCAA rules?

 

Ivy League schools are offering a very tangible reward that other schools cannot match, namely, admission itself. As an economic proposition, a Harvard or Princeton degree has much bigger rewards on average than, oh, a Kansas State degree. Nothing against Kansas State, that's just how the world works. Of course, those benefits are long-term, and teenagers aren't famous for long-term thinking.
Look, as I said in another post, college students work at jobs related to their schools or even for their schools in many fields. They get paid. Maybe not much, if they're cleaning test tubes, but if a kid's studying drama on a scholarship and gets a part off-Broadway, he gets paid and keeps the money. Why should sports be different? I don't get it. I don't understand why so many people, as is obvious on this board, have a deep emotional attachment to the idea college athletes shouldn't be paid. What pleasure does that add to the sports?

 

Are you suggesting that all college athletes should be paid ?

 

Precisely. They needed to do exactly what they say their rules are supposed to do: treat athletes as students.

Kids who work for the school paper don't have to register their cars with their adviser or obey a curfew and if the Podunk Press wants to hire them for freelance while they're on the school paper, the kids can do both.

 

I don't follow you.

School newspaper editors typically get paid. And no one seems to think it compromises the educational mission.

That's what I was saying.

 

The thing with your last sentence is that, in order to remain competitive, a non-union school may have to offer a kid as much or more than a union school. Otherwise, the non- union school may find themselves losing out on recruits.