stxrunner
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RE: 'We won!' NRLB ruling only pertains to private universities, will this cause a split
(03-27-2014 08:26 AM)MWC Tex Wrote: (03-27-2014 07:25 AM)TerryD Wrote: (03-27-2014 06:54 AM)Captain Bearcat Wrote: (03-26-2014 11:51 PM)TerryD Wrote: (03-26-2014 10:37 PM)BIgCatonProwl Wrote: The state U could be impacted as well, but the one thing the state schools have and the privates don't is the state part, which means the legislatures of the states could possibly past some type of legislation to exempt them. I'm no labor lawyer, but thinking, if it affects the bottom line of a state supported U, they may come up with some legislative scheme to avoid the unionization of State U athletic dept. This thing has a long way to play out, obviously. Greed has no good end, it's a real mess..
Forget the union aspect. That is only one facet.
Think employee. Think about Federal and state laws governing employees.
Think about the 14th Amendment, the Equal Protection of the laws clause and its application to the states.
Think about how many state universities receive Federal funding.
Think about health insurance, workers compensation, Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, wage and hours laws, overtime, etc..
I don't know if this will hold up, expand or shut down. I am not a labor lawyer.
But if you think this only has implications about unions and private schools, I think you may be wrong. It may have wider applications and implications.
A lot of those issues aren't as big of a deal as you think. I'm not a lawyer, but...
Health insurance - they already receive health insurance as part of their scholarship. It's a requirement of registration at most (if not all) colleges that students have health insurance, probably because the school's hospital will have to foot the bill if you go to the ER without insurance.
Worker's comp - this just means that they won't be allowed to drop injured players from scholarship. That's a Good Thing. They won't be able to claim worker's comp for the rest of their lives for major injuries any more than NFL, MLB, or NHL players do.
Hours/Overtime - they'll be salaried employees, so that doesn't matter. They're already limited to 20 hrs /week plus games anyways.
You're right that other things may matter. But the biggest issue I see is that the "employees" will have to pay taxes. And since overall most athletic departments lose a lot of money, I don't see any possible benefits of this for the players other than getting a guaranteed right to negotiate an ironclad 4-year contract.
And by the way, having the right to negotiate it does NOT imply that they will succeed in winning that negotiation. NFL players don't get guaranteed contracts and they've had the right to negotiate it for years.
My main point is that the "employee" status of players, if this holds up (I have no idea), will apply to all players in all universities (public and private) in due course.
The employee aspect of this ruling is far, far more important than the right to organize into a union aspect.
This is very true and something that I realize after reading the ruling. The employee status of players applies to every college and university across the U.S.
However, these athletes have really screw themselves out of the athletic scholarship concept. The will be no athletic scholarships in the future.
Also, if they think they'll be paid the $75,000 in money to cover tuition, room and board and etc, they have another thing coming. They will be like any other employee and say at $12/hr. They will then have to come up with the rest of the cost on their own, either by an academic scholarship or student loan. In most cases they will now have to take a student loan to cover the difference. It's one thing to give an athletic scholarship by the school, it's another when they actually have to pay as a salary to them. Most professors across the country don't make that type of money and don't think that the regular employees of the university won't raise hell about them getting paid less than an athlete that doesn't have a college degree.
The athletes that think that they bring in the University all this money do not realize a how little they bring when compare to the federal grants and aid that they get. Do they not realize that these larger schools actually gets billions (yes, BILLIONS) for research from the federal government and other sources each year. That is where the money really is for an educational institution.
By the way, people wonder why this doesn't apply to regular students is because the definition of employee doesn't fit for a student or grad student (per the numerous of cases before hand). The athletic dept is structure just like any other company with bosses and requirements to define employee. [I did not realize that this has been fought from the 1950's and only now has the turning point now come]
So if the upper courts or Labor Board still hold to the ruling what will be the future of college athletics? Hard to say, because even in D3 where your are not given a scholarship, they will still be considered an employee.
So what will happen is that the athletic dept will have to be restructured in such a way where the definition doesn't hold up...whether that is limiting the number of hours of practice or other the admin structure. But, there still will be college sports but this may now force the NFL and NBA to really develop their own minor league system.
Maybe I'm off-key in my thoughts but this is potentially a real game changer.
Maybe I have this wrong, but if these kids really are 'employees', who says they have to be enrolled in the school at all? They are getting paid to play their sport. The farce of the 'student-athlete' would be truly gone. These guys would be mercenaries for hire just like a regular workforce. Hired by the college athletic departments to play sports.
Ultimately, the money they get would be far, far less than the value of the scholarship. But it wouldn't be forced to be paid to the school. These 'employees' would be free to do with the money what they wish. The athletes who truly use the scholarship to get a free education and better themselves would the ones who come out on the losing end.
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