Every solution brings its own set of problems. The talk about making players employees is increasing, and my guess is it’ll happen in the next 5-10 years, maybe a lot sooner than that. And that’ll come with a whole new set of problems. UNL employees have their salaries published, and that’s probably true at most public schools.
Making them employees is fine as long as everyone is also prepared to let them unionize.
Two great games yesterday. I hope Monday’s game will also be very competitive.
I didn’t realize Michigan’s last NC was 1992 - I believe that was the one they keep crying about because they had to share it with NEBRASKA!
Washington’s only (?) NC was in 1991 so it’s nice to see 2 teams who haven’t won in a long time in the final game.
I’m not sure who to root for though - Washington from the now defunct pac 12 or ugh the despicable Michigan with their alleged cheating issues.
Michigan claims the 1997 NC as well.
I don’t see how that ball, which is already rolling, could be stopped. Right now they’re using unionization procedures to get themselves declared as employees, which seems like the wrong order somehow.
But will each school be a separate bargaining unit or will there be some group that bargains on behalf of the schools, like the NFL does with the NFLPA? Is the NCAA in position to do that, and what happens to smaller schools that aren’t under the NCAA umbrella?
These will certainly be interesting times, like the old curse.
The NCAA wouldn’t represent the students. They would represent the schools, if anything. I would imagine the athletes would have a group like the NFLPA representing their interests. Perhaps one for each sport given the unique needs of each.
Oh, there’ll be a fight to see which union(s) get to represent which athletes, but a central bargaining authority representing the colleges seems desirable. I just don’t know if the NCAA is set up to do that. And will public universities and private universities be bargained with separately?
Another possibility is that only a few major revenue sports would fall under the ‘employee’ umbrella.
Mark, as state employees they would be covered by the union that statutorily exists in every state already. That might present it own set of challenges, as public employee unions don’t seem particularly well suited (culturally anyways) to dealing with this kind of situation.
I work for the state of Tennessee and there is no union that I belong to.
John Killmar
I worked for a state college in Oklahoma and was never in a union either.
I’ve split the discussion of athletes as employees into a different topic.
I don’t see how unions used to representing maintenance or clerical workers are going to understand the issues and needs of teenagers and young adults making one or more orders of magnitude more than maintenance or clerical workers over a short career.
RE: unions…I thought they were 100% in states. But given that OK and TN are both deeply committed to fascist principles I’m not particularly surprised.
Yes, I worked for OU and even had to sign a loyalty oath to the state of Oklahoma. This was difficult for a Nebraskan living in Texas.
I’m not sure this discussion is headed in the right direction.
Mike Nolan, List Manager
Not to get political, but I thought the 2018 supreme court ruling in Janus vs AFSCME gave workers the option/right to decide whether or not to join a union. I didn’t think a state government could force a worker to join or not to join a union.
To keep this Husker related, how could this impact NIL and players in the future. Could it actually be different in each state? That would most likely impact a player’s decision on where to go to school.
Tommy Thompson
Just call me “Pa”
Go Big Red
Go Cardinals
That’s why I wondered who would act as a central bargaining authority for the schools. I can see where private universities and state schools might wind up with separate contracts because states can pass laws regarding athletes at state schools, and several already have.
I’m not a labor lawyer, so I don’t claim to understand Janus, but according to articles in the WSJ the unions have been making it difficult to withdraw from the unions. (But that’s hardly just a union tactic, trying to cancel an online streaming service can require a lot of effort, too.)
As long as State Universities maintain what is obviously semi-pro athletic teams, there will be the weird tension of are they - aren’t they, and there will never be a reasonable solution until we figure out that a state university is not an appropriate anchor for semi-professional athletics. Universities, particularly public universities, have very specific missions and commissions to pursue knowledge to benefity their constituency. And as much as I love CFB, I don’t see how having athletics furthers the mission of UNL, or any other public university.
I think the endstate of this shift will look a lot like Universities forming licensing or marketing relationships with privately or municipally owned teams. Perhaps the the league can impose age rules or other eligibility but they would of course be paying athletes too.
In 10-20 years the landscape of major college sports is going to be unrecognizable.
But will 90,000 Nebraskans show up for such a team, or 105,000 Michigan fans?
It’s already changed so much since I was in college, and the rate of change increased a few years ago.
Some people think brain injuries are going to change football even more, they’re planning on touch football in an upcoming summer Olympics. That may be the future of the college game, too.