In March, the National Labor Relations Board ruled in favor of the Northwestern
players wishing to unionize. These student-athletes believe that they are
employees of the University. This ruling also allows student-athletes to hire
representation in collective bargaining, which leads to the payment of players.
Northwestern and the NCAA are both very disappointed with the ruling. The NCAA
believes that student-athletes are just that; student-athletes, not employees.
The NCAA stated that the main purpose for college athletes is to become
educated, not to play a sport.
Kain Colter makes his case for the unionizing of
Northwestern student-athletes
Northwestern student-athletes
The ruling to allow players to
unionize and be paid for performing in a college sport is absurd. The purpose
of attending a university is to learn, if you are talented enough to play a
sport then it is just a bonus. To be able to be a part of college athletics is
a privilege, not a job. Paying a student for being part of an extra-curricular
activity is wrong. If you begin to pay college athletes it could lead to all
sorts of problems. If athletes can be paid by universities for their athletic
abilities, then the university selection process drastically changes. Instead
of student-athletes choosing a school for its academic prestige, proximity to home/location,
atmosphere of the town, and the campus life athletes will simply choose the school
that offers them the most money. Paying athletes could lead to all kinds of
financial troubles for many schools. Because of funding shortages many sports
may be cut because there just simply isn’t enough money to pay all of the
athletes. Also, if these football players begin to be paid for the time and
effort they put in daily, then any student in college could make the argument
that they should be paid as well. Non student-athletes still put in tremendous
amounts of time and effort into their studies, as do band members, and the
students involved in drama, and so on. Obviously, the unionizing and payment of
college athletes causes more problems than it solves.
If you are wondering why I titled
this the Waterboy scandal, feel free to comment below and I will get back to
you!
My studies have shown that had this ruling been made years ago,
the highest paid student-athlete ever would have been Bobby Boucher
#BlogGameStrong
