The Northwestern Decision

The decision yesterday of an Illinois District of the National Labor Relations Board that "student-athletes" at Northwestern University can be considered "employees" of the University, and, thus, can organize, demand to be paid, receive benefits, etc, certainly has the potential to open a Pandora's Box that could lead to unimaginable results and significantly change college athletics as we know them.  Already, I have read a number of comments from people whose opinions I respect that range from "it's about time" to "this is a big mistake" to "be careful what you wish for".

As I understand it, this decision still needs to be affirmed by the NLRB, will be challenged in the courts, probably up to the US Supreme Court, and it could be years until we see what, if anything, will come of it.

Sometime back in the mid-1990's, I had the opportunity, courtesy of the Blue Cross Clue Shield Association, to spend a week at Purdue University in a BCBSA sponsored continuing education program.  This  was at the time when basketball player Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson was the star jock at Purdue.  Of course, I visited the Purdue campus bookstore to but the requisite souvenir Boilermaker tee shirt, and saw racks of Purdue basketball jerseys for sale with the name "ROBINSON" emblazoned on them.  Did I mention that these jerseys were for sale?  The University was making money by selling the Robinson jerseys, and the Big Dog himself, would not realize one penny from the sale for these items.

It was then that I realized that college athletes, particularly big time football and basketball players, were, and continue to be exploited by the Universities where that matriculate.  Yes, I know that they are getting scholarships, and that you can't really put a price on a good college education, and maybe some of Nick Saban's Alabama football players and John Calipari's Kentucky basketball players actually want to attend class and get their degrees, but we know how it REALLY works at big-time places like that, don't we?

I also know that the dough from football and basketball enables schools to offer athletic programs and scholarship aid to swimmers, track and field athletes, wrestlers, lacrosse players etc, and that those athletes, who have no NFL or NBA waiting for them, really do go to class and take advantage of the educational opportunities that they might otherwise not have received.

So, it is a very complex issue, but the incident of the Glenn Robinson jerseys is the one that made me realize that the big business of big time (i.e., football and basketball) college athletics is, at best, a murky one, and, at worst, a totally corrupt one, and I am not smart enough to have answers for it.  I also know that I will be watching the NCAA Basketball tournament this weekend and next with great interest, and will be a regular watcher, and a ticket buying customer of college football in the Fall, so I am a bit of a hypocrite and am, indeed, a contributing part of the problem.

As I said, it's a complex issue.