An NCAA Union?

As the college football season fades away, and college basketball begins its ascendancy, an interesting step has been taken by the football players at Northwestern University. They've decided to begin taking steps to form a union. While college sports are a multi-billion dollar industry, their demands, as noted on the NCPA website, appear reasonable. Primarily, they address safety concerns, medical costs borne by athletes, and easing transfer rules, among others, and absolutely nothing about TV revenue sharing or any of the other refrains you tend to see from outsiders opining on the subject. Unsurprisingly, based on comments from Donald Remy, the NCAA's chief legal officer, they aren't exactly on board.

This union-backed attempt to turn student-athletes into employees undermines the purpose of college: an education. Student-athletes are not employees, and their participation in college sports is voluntary. We stand for all student-athletes, not just those the unions want to professionalize.

Let's ignore the obvious fact that all employment is voluntary and think about the bigger picture: How would unionized college athletes affect the NCAA? According to Jonathan Mahler of Bloomberg, the NCAA is being incredibly myopic.

College sports are a multi-billion dollar business. If the athletes who make it popular and lucrative -- after spending countless hours training, traveling and playing -- aren’t “employees,” then what does the word mean? There is growing scientific evidence about the dangers of football, yet the young men who fill their schools’ stadiums and coffers, selling branded merchandise and ensuring generous TV contracts, shouldn’t be given medical coverage and insured against long-term disability as the groundskeepers and athletic directors and coaches are?

NCAA president Mark Emmert continues to prattle on about the sanctity of the “student-athlete,” the amateur. At this point, he might as well be Nicolae Ceausescu touting the glories of communism to a square filled with citizens in the throes of democratic revolt. Northwestern’s proposed union gives him and the NCAA a life preserver, a way to maintain something pretty closely resembling the lucrative status quo, including its asymmetrical power arrangement.

While calls to unionize college athletes aren't exactly a mainstream demand, Mahler makes an interesting point that if there is a sudden ground swell of support, an arrangement like this would serve the interests of the NCAA. He goes on to make a cogent connection to the current environment of professional athletes:

Every major U.S. professional sports league would seize such an opportunity. Players unions and collective bargaining provide legal cover for the leagues to perform invaluable tricks -- salary caps, revenue sharing, drafting players out of college instead of launching bidding wars for their services -- that would otherwise blatantly violate antitrust law. During the last NFL labor dispute, the players decertified their union precisely to gain more leverage against the owners. The league, in turn, asked the court to reinstate the union, fearing its demise would result in players earning what the free market would bear. “I’m not quite sure why the NCAA hasn’t embraced the same philosophy,” said Boston College sports economist Warren Zola.

The cover from anti-trust lawsuits seems reason enough for most. Especially given the NCAAs current court fight regarding revenue gained from selling the likeness of athletes. One that doesn't appear to be going well for the league. So, why aren't they budging here? Mahler again has a rather cogent answer:

Because it’s the NCAA. Rather than accepting -- never mind embracing -- a chance to incrementally reform the status quo, it appears willing to blow the whole thing to bits. If the NCAA is lucky, it will fail and Northwestern’s union will be certified by the National Labor Relations Board. If, however, it succeeds in thwarting the Northwestern players' limited requests, it will leave itself open to much more ambitious efforts down the road. Universities may soon be paying a lot more for the next Johnny Manziel than just tuition and gas money.

So, what do you monkeys think about all this? Is the NCAA making a smart decision here?