A preliminary ruling yesterday by the National Labor Relations Board threatens to undermine the very fabric of college football. And it has nothing to do with the idiotic “celebration penalty.”
An NLRB regional director ruled that Northwestern University football players are considered employees, and as such, can join unions. I can’t wait for the day when college football players go on strike demanding shorter practices, later kickoffs, less conditioning and more interviews with Erin Andrews.
Jokes aside, the push behind all this is the (correct) assertion that the athletes are unpaid contractors who enable universities, and their surrounding communities, to reap millions and millions of dollars. Activists with potentially-lucrative union due dollars signs in their eyes have played the “exploited racial angle” for some time. But who is the victim here?
Division-one College Football recruits freely enter into a private agreement with a University. They agree to perform a task for the university in exchange for free education, room and board, tutoring, medical care, equipment, supplies and God-knows-what-else.
Let’s do some math. Depending on your source, the average out-of-state tuition at most major colleges runs in the neighborhood is $25,000. Most division-one football players spend five years on campus. We start off with $125,000 up front. That includes all of the room and board, books and such.
In addition, athletes are provided with every piece of equipment they will need to compete. That includes a seemingly-endless supply of free shoes, which run well over $100 these days. There are also miscellaneous bits of equipment they get to keep. We’ll conservatively place this value at $3,000.
Not covered in a regular student’s room and board is the limitless access to tutors that athletes have---not to mention unfettered access to state-of-the-art training equipment and the like. Hard to put a dollar value on that. Lets conservatively guess $10,000.
Now let’s say Johnny Football blows out his knee. He gets free arthroscopic surgery and rehab; plus anything else required to recover. I have no idea how much this would cost. In addition, if the injury is career-ending, most colleges will keep him on scholarship to allow him to complete his degree.
Suffice to say there is no way to accurately tally what a college football player gets in return for his services; but it’s not chicken feed. These benefits are clearly known when each high school football stud signs a letter of intent to play college football.
More important than the tangible benefits behind this arrangement is this: The colleges are offering a chance. A chance at a college degree which will immeasurably improve one’s earning potential. Whether or not the athletes take advantage of that chance is entirely up to them.
It is much like life. We are given various opportunities to reach our goals. Some are obvious---others are not. But in each case; our success or failure is almost entirely dependent upon the choices we make.
The university and the athlete are entering into what could be a mutually-beneficial agreement. Since both sides now the terms going in, it seems to be that there is no “victim” here…and there sure as hell is no reason to allow independent private contractors, like the football players, to form a union.
The full NLRB will have to confirm the ruling, which will then undoubtedly be subject to a flurry of appeals and counter-appeals, etc. I have lost all faith in the government and our justice system to arrive at what I feel is the proper decision.
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