Today’s Northwestern football union vote is getting a lot of local and national media attention, but in the bigger picture, it’s actually small potatoes. The NU football players are employees by legal definition until ruled otherwise by the Federal level of the National Labor Relations Board. The results of today’s secret ballot, which we will not know for at least a few months, do not change that status at all.
Even if the Northwestern football union vote goes against the interests of CAPA and collective bargaining advocates everywhere, it still doesn’t change the fact that the myths of “amateurism” and “student-athletes” are now deceased for good.
Kain Colter, Ramogi Huma, Ed O’Bannon, CAPA, Shabazz Napier etc. they’ve already won in the court of public opinion.
here’s the audio file of my segment today on the Northwestern football union vote on KOZN 1620 The Zone. I was on “Game Time with Nick Bahe.”
NCAA President Mark Emmert has done enough to lose the battle for hearts and minds as Colter and company have done to win it. Every time Emmert speaks publicly he says something that makes himself look even more smug and clueless than you already regarded him to be. Every Emmert interview is like a “Hangover” movie, each new one that comes out is somehow even more of a disaster than the last one. Even though that doesn’t seem possible.
UPDATE: statement from CAPA on today’s Northwestern football union vote.
UPDATE: statement from the University on today’s Northwestern football union vote.
The NCAA is a broken, fatally-flawed system of exploitation.
It’s days are numbered.
Even the architect of that system, former NCAA Legal Chief Walter Byers, referred to it as a “neo-plantation mentality” in one of his final public appearances. When you have an $11 billion dollar television contract for the NCAA Tournament, and the players don’t see even a tiny slice of that pie…well, defending that system is an intellectually bankrupt position to hold.
When the biggest rock star in college athletics history, Johnny Manziel, can’t make a dime off his likeness and his personal brand, while Texas A&M rakes in hundreds of millions of revenue off his likeness and builds a new Aggies Mahal…well, defending that status quo is a morally bankrupt position to hold. The debate about whether or not athletes in the revenue producing sports are being exploited is long over. Now we can debate what to do about it.
I’ve said in the past that Pat Fitzgerald had been painted into a corner with the Northwestern football union vote. I was wrong.
Yes, he’s in a tough spot. I’m sure he’s had some sleepless nights, but he’s gained from this. He will gain from this, with all the national publicity Fitz’s program has garnered…well, you know what they say about publicity.
And there’s been a ton, A TON, of positive press about life as a Northwestern football player. Dan Persa, Trevor Simeian, Colin Ellis, Kyle Prater and many many more have been extremely vocal about how great they have/had it in Evanston. How do you think that’s going to affect Pat Fitzgerald’s recruiting efforts? If you’re a high school kid picking a college, and there’s this program in Chicago’s north shore that is getting all this pub about being a sweet deal…you’re going to be interested. Maybe Pat Fitzgerald wasn’t represented in the light that he’d prefer on The Daily Show, but how many college football coaches are featured on The Daily Show???
Regardless of the outcome of the Northwestern football union vote, the only losers will be: Emmert, NCAA Legal Chief Donald Remy and dinosaurs with socially regressive opinions (people like Dan Dakich). Upon first glance, the extremely well compensated conference commissioners, University Athletic Directors and very well paid college coaches stand to lose when the NCAA inevitably reforms.
Not true.
There’s a way they can spin things in this brave new world that’s coming in order to benefit their interests. They just need to figure it out as we enter into uncharted waters. Hey, they make a ton of money, so obviously they’re smart enough to navigate the new landscape! As long as the television dollars, and the ticket sales, and the licensing fees are there, then almost everybody wins. Regardless of how this all plays out, all those revenue streams will remain in place.
College sports consumers aren’t going to be abandoning the games they love just because the NCAA is restructured.
Again, here’s the audio file of my segment today on the Northwestern football union vote on KOZN 1620 The Zone. I was on “Game Time with Nick Bahe.”
Paul M. Banks owns The Sports Bank.net, an affiliate of Fox Sports. He’s also a frequent guest on national talk radio. Banks is a former contributor to NBC Chicago and the Washington Times, who’s been featured on the History Channel. President Obama follows him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)