As I mentioned in my “Show Me the Money!” blog last week, back in March of 2014 the Chicago District (Region 13) of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that Northwestern University football players qualified as employees and could unionize and bargain collectively. Although this decision was later overturned, the national level NLRB’s final holding specifically targeted unionization efforts at private schools – leaving the door wide open to revisit this issue at some point with respect to public universities.
Although the Regional decision was reversed, I was interested in Peter Sung Ohr’s (Director of Region 13) analysis, especially with respect to athletic scholarships. He noted that although student-athletes don’t officially receive paychecks from universities, they do receive “a substantial economic benefit for playing football” in the form of scholarships. He also focused on the extent of control exerted by coaches on players (something that has been touched on quite a bit in academic literature) and the amount of time players spend on football related activities, ultimately concluding that receiving scholarships in exchange for playing football amounts to a contract-for-hire between employer and employee.
I was inspired to write my 3rd sports/ tax paper, Northwestern, O’Bannon And