Allowing collegiate athletes to unionize is a slippery slope. Many believe it will benefit student athletes throughout the country.
In all actuality, it is likely that it will only harm sports programs at every college in the United States.
On March 26, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the players of the Northwestern University football team are school employees and therefore are eligible to unionize.
On April 25, the players of the team held a secret vote as to whether or not to unionize.
The results of this vote are being kept secret for now, but when the decision is revealed, shock waves could be sent through not only college football but also all college sports.
Many Northwestern players say they want better representation of their wants and needs and that this is the best way to get it.
Players say they want better medical coverage during and after college.
While health coverage is a legitimate concern, present and future health plans are being worked on in every level of the sport without the influence of collegiate player unions.
Even some players on the team, such as redshirt senior and co-captain of the Northwestern Wildcats Brandon Vitabile, don’t want to unionize. Vitabile said, “Before January, when this all started, we didn’t hear of anyone on our team who asked for something and didn’t get it… so I’m not sure why we needed to change anything.”
The end game of this unionization is turning the players into salaried employees. Players claim that they are being exploited so that the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the universities can make huge profits.
But the state of college football players is privileged, not deprived as some are making it out to seem.
Many of these players are already getting paid in the sense that they have received scholarships.
Tuition at Northwestern is almost 47,000 dollars.
Over four years that is almost 200,000 dollars, and this does not even include room and board, which is typically provided as well.
By exchanging scholarships for salaries, colleges would have to increase spending on athletics by a significant amount to even equal the amount of money they are shelling out on scholarships.
Scholarships are not taxed but salaries are.
Having to pay college athletes would either hurt the athletic programs or spending would be taken from other aspects of universities.
Because not all programs turn a profit, would athletes in these programs not get paid?
This would create even more problems and lawsuits. Unionization does offer certain benefits, but ultimately would end in the deterioration of many college athletic programs.