The National College Athletic Association (NCAA) calls collegiate football players “student athletes.” If they play for the Northwestern University Wildcat football team, they ’re also called “employees,” thanks to a 2014 decision by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

The NCAA has been widely criticized by the amount of money made by its member colleges off of the efforts of student athletes yet the college athletes may not earn any income as players other than their scholarship due to their amateur status. In addition to the income issue, players have asked the NCAA to provide medical care for sports‐related injuries after graduation, relax transfer restrictions, and establish a trust fund that can be used for athletes to complete education when eligibility has expired.

After completing a political theory course, Kain Colter, then the quarterback at Northwestern became interested in ways that a union could balance the power between the NCAA and collegiate scholarship athletes. Colter explained “The action we ’re taking isn’t because of any mistreatment by Northwestern. We love Northwestern, the school is just playing by the rules of their governing body. . .Right now the NCAA is like a dictatorship. No one represents us in negotiations. The only way things are going to change is if players have a union”.

Could a union be coming to your college? The current ruling only applies to private colleges since public schools since the NCAA only has jurisdiction over private employers.

Ethical questions: 

If you examine the definitions of an employee in this book or other sources, what criteria seem to apply to college athletes? How do the reasons that employees seek union representation differ from the concerns of the football players? What actions by coaches would be prohibited during the organizing process? In what ways does the income that the university and NCAA earn from the efforts of the athletes differ from income employers receive from the work of employees?