While Monday's ruling by the NLRB against Northwestern football players looking to unionize is "certainly a setback for college athletes seeking a bigger slice of a multi-billion dollar pie, it may eventually be seen as more of a delay than a defeat," according to Tim Sullivan of the Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL. College athletes’ "battle for a better deal is being fought on multiple fronts, and the big picture shows the establishment steadily giving ground." The "fringe benefits" for players are "getting better and the pace of change has lately moved from glacial to a gallop." Schools have "recently enacted numerous concessions to address the perceived inequity of coaches making millions of dollars on the backs of unsalaried students." Sullivan: "You’d like to think the advent of unlimited meal plans, 'full cost of attendance' stipends, stronger guarantees of four-year scholarships and limitations on practice-field contact are attributable to a more enlightened approach by college administrators." But it is "impossible to view these initiatives in a vacuum; to pretend that they bear no relation to the pressure applied at Northwestern, in the Ed O’Bannon case, and in pending antitrust litigation" (Louisville COURIER-JOURNAL, 8/19). ESPN's Butch Davis said Northwestern lawsuit was “completely the initiative that jump-started the cost of attendance.” It also made the NCAA and "all the institutions realize, ‘Hey, you know what, we better find a way to get players some money. We’re making tons of money’” ("College Football Live," ESPN, 8/18). In Columbus, Bob Hunter writes unionization was "an idea whose time hadn't come." But that "doesn't mean the goals of the Northwestern players ... weren't legitimate." The ruling is "technically a loss for the players, but that ignores the obvious: In many ways, they already have won" (DISPATCH.com, 8/19). ESPN's Rod Gilmore: "That case spurned a lot of the changes that we have in college athletics, so Kain Colter and his folks should feel pretty good about that” ("CFB Daily," ESPNU, 8/18).
LOOKING AHEAD: In N.Y., Ben Strauss notes College Athletes Players Association Founder & President Ramogi Huma yesterday "was coy about his plans, though he said labor organizing was still an option." He added that there were "other avenues available to those hoping to influence policy, from lobbying legislators in Washington and around the country, to lawsuits, to taking their message directly to the public." Colter, who helped lead the players' effort, said, "The movement will continue. We might change the way we get things done, but what I learned is that when players stand up for what they believe in, they can change things.” Supporters said that one "important aspect of the union case ... was the attention Huma drew as a voice for players" (N.Y. TIMES, 8/19).
