College athletes take step toward forming union

[wh]

http://www.nwitimes.com/sports/college-athletes-take-step-toward-forming-union/article_71b944ab-97b3-52c1-b83d-b84c0a52a567.html

[valpo64]

That fits the plan to a tee...extra money to live on, get in the union and start negotiating for fringes and even more money.  Oh wait - maybe some credit hours too and if you are an exceptional athlete, they will throw in a degree also.  Get these big BCS boys out of the NCAA as soon as possible.  About the student-athlete..........?

[HC]

This is crazy. These athletes already get loads of perks the rest of the college population doesn't, free to mostly free schooling, personal trainers, meal money, trips all over the country, best dormitories on their causes.....I view these athletes like interns. They are training for their future job. College athletics is an uaid internship in my opinion with plenty of perks. If you want extra money, quit playing sports and get a job and work your way through school like 98% (note percentage just made up) of the rest of the student body.

Edit: my wife tells me I'm the crazy one here. She's (probably) right.

[historyman]

If the NLRB labels them as employees than that is a step towards the universities being minor leagues for professional sports. In my own mind I just can't see the NLRB seeing the "student-athletes," however they end up defining that term, as employees. 

[valporun]

There are a couple of things about this that I harp on: 1) Pay scale- How much do you pay the different levels of player (1st, 2nd, 3rd, FR/SO/JR/SR, manager, student trainer)?, and 2) What does the university do when the non-revenue sports file lawsuits against said union or the university because they aren't getting paid? Much like the talk of the minimum wage hike from what each state has now to $10.10/hour, how many of these sports or roster spots are gone because the school can't afford the scholarships/meals/books/rooms/travel expenses for those non-revenue players to receive pay. I suppose a third question would be, how many sports are lost in the TITLE IX aspect of this "pay for play" idea?
As a student-athlete myself, I would have enjoyed having a scholarship to run at Valpo, but I wasn't good enough for that. I never felt that I deserved to be paid to stay motivated to run, while also studying so I could stay eligible to compete in my sports.

Yesterday, ESPN had a college podcast about the Northwestern issue, and the revenue argument made sense, but Dana O'Neill pointed out that players get injured in every sport, no different than football players, but not every athlete has to deal with a concussion or catastrophic leg injury that could hinder their future work life. How will the NCAA or the student-athletes morally or ethically handle this, if they'll ever think about it? Honestly, I don't see this changing because schools would be quick to drop sports, like everyday employers would be quick to layoff/fire employees because they couldn't afford the pay raise without raising the cost of the product for the consumer. How many of you would want to be paying close to $50-60 to sit in the mezzanine, or over $100 a game for a chairback, just so Lexus, Alec, Jubril, and Clay could get about $1200 each for the season?