Boom.
Per Rohan Nadkarni, Northwestern players and CAPA have won their lawsuit at the National Labor Relations Board in Chicago. As a result, Northwestern players will hold a vote on whether to unionize.
No doubt Northwestern will appeal. No doubt the school will make every attempt to discourage the players from unionization. But it’s going to get more and more interesting for college athletics going forward.
In the end, I suspect we’re going to say the schools had nobody to blame but themselves for letting things develop the way they did.
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UPDATE: The ruling, which is 24 pages long, can be viewed here.
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UPDATE #2: Sports Illustrated’s legal dude elaborates on some of the ramifications of today’s ruling.
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UPDATE #3: The NCAA weighs in. It’s what you’d expect.
“We frequently hear from student-athletes…”? Not in any formal capacity. Which is how you get to today’s ruling.