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Should Alabama football players join the players' union?

N

Nate Harris

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Dec 7, 2003
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That question could arise a whole lot sooner than you might expect. A movement has begun to unionize the football team at Northwestern University. If this thing gets off the ground it could become a front burner issue in college football pretty darn quick.

http://www.suntimes.com/m/25237375-773/northwestern-football-players-lead-movement-to-unionize.html
 
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BamaJama17

BamaJama17

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Sep 17, 2006
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Hmm starting in Northwestern located in Chicago aka the most corrupt city in America. I say not in a million years. These guys don't care about the players they just want the money.


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Chukker Veteran

Chukker Veteran

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When players complain about how they feel exploited given the money involved in their sport, nobody cares to the point of doing anything, as long as it's just individuals doing the complaining.

Note I'm not addressing the merits of the complaint. I'm neutral on the issue because it's so complicated.

If the players are tired of their individual concerns being ignored, I can understand why they might want to stand as a group and see if they can sway policies in their direction.
 
Chukker Veteran

Chukker Veteran

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We have a situation in Tuscaloosa where there has been a questionable arrest of a new football player. The Tuscaloosa Police have taken the stance that the public is not going to see the report, or know the details of what happened.

If the team got together, and said this is not acceptable, we can't look the other way when a team member gets treated this way. Let's see the full report. Put that kind of group pressure on the TPD, I bet they would fold, and then do the right thing.
 
M

mdb-tpet

All-SEC
Sep 2, 2004
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Chukker Veteran said:
We have a situation in Tuscaloosa where there has been a questionable arrest of a new football player. The Tuscaloosa Police have taken the stance that the public is not going to see the report, or know the details of what happened.

If the team got together, and said this is not acceptable, we can't look the other way when a team member gets treated this way. Let's see the full report. Put that kind of group pressure on the TPD, I bet they would fold, and then do the right thing.
Click to expand...
It's certainly coming, and these types of questions make the looking into unionizing a serious issue. I can certainly say if I was earning less than $20k a year, and my boss's boss was making over $4 million a year, I would be pushing for a cut of that insanely large pie. The NCAA keeps your college images and makes money off of it. The Athletic program and University make large sums of money off of the football program. This is a very lopsided system right now with the explosion of coaches' salaries, football stadium sizes, TV contracts, and booster donations.
 
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WMack4Bama

WMack4Bama

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Nov 7, 2008
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There may be a neutral ground. If the big money conferences align and create their own rules (which they've discussed seriously), the athletes will still come out short relative to the amount of revenue that they generate. However, cost of attendance plus some additional spending money would probably be enough to appease those who don't see the bigger picture, and would most likely dissipate this movement.

The problem with this, in my mind, is that the players, for the most part, are dispensable. For every disgruntled college senior, there is an incoming freshman who comes from nothing and would run through a brick wall for 3 free meals a day and an avenue to showcase his talent in hopes of signing a pro contract in 3-4 years. So you know...there's strength in numbers. And unless they'll get the backing of ex players, these numbers will fluctuate and be unstable.
 
derek4tide

derek4tide

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BamaJama17 said:
Hmm starting in Northwestern located in Chicago aka the most corrupt city in America. I say not in a million years. These guys don't care about the players they just want the money.


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Click to expand...
LOL. Yeah, Birmingham and Montgomery are not corrupt at all......
 
L

LTBamaFan

1st Team
Jul 31, 2002
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Elmore, Al.
If this gets off of the ground, how long is it before all recruits want an agent to advise them ? Hence, the end of amateur sports. How about pay scales? Should all positions start evenly?

TOO MANY QUESTIONS! LEAVE IT TO THE PROS,
 
Bama Torch in Pcola

Bama Torch in Pcola

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No. They are offered scholarships to play football and earn an education. If they want to sign on with unions then they should skip college and go to work for GM or some other company that is propped up by the American taxpayer. If the scholarship isn't a sweet enough deal they can always turn it down.
 
A

AgentAntiOrange

1st Team
Dec 30, 2009
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These aren't professionals who were hired. If football didn't make the money it does then the players would have no team, no stadium, and no free college education. Add to that list all of the athletes from all of the other sports as well as many student on non sports scholarships that were paid for by football money or started by people whose main affiliation with the university is the football program. Go ahead and wipe out many of the academic buildings as well as a huge chunk of professors and other employees.

IMHO, the only players that get used are the ones who waste their opportunity and skip out without getting their degree. The numbers on what a degree does to your life and the lives of your children are staggering. That degree pays dividends the rest of their lives. I just think this is such a wrong path to go down.
 
TIDE-HSV

TIDE-HSV

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One problem is that those who are naive about accounting confuse nets and gross. Season before last, the NCAA announced that there were 13 FBS programs which actually were in the black. IIRC, it expanded slightly last year. That points up that it costs a helluva lot of money to run an FBS program. Outside the top 20 or so, schools are actually pumping money into their athletic programs, to keep them afloat. The picture is not what it seems at first glance. I'd add that a lot of young NFL draftees also have a hard time telling the difference between gross and net...
 
A

AV8N

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If players start getting paid, what would stop the schools from eliminating scholarships and making the players pay for their own tuition, books, room, board and of course fees?
 
Chukker Veteran

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A players' union might be easier to take if they didn't focus on money issues, and instead lobbied for the return of attractive "hostesses" to win over recruits.
 
A

Alasippi

Suspended
Aug 31, 2007
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The LSU "Players Union" (team) voted to reinstate Jeremy Hill to the team after he nearly beat a guy to death in a bar fight. I'm going to have to say that I don't think 18-22 year old college players have the maturity level necessary to have their own union.
It does concern me that they don't get some percentage of jersey sales, etc, especially when it's a star player whose jersey is a multi-million dollar seller. I think a percentage should go into a trust fund that they receive after their college career is over. That, to me, is only fair.
But team unions? No. Definitely no. The more college athletics moves in this type of direction, the closer we are to losing collegiate athletics as it was meant to be.
My two cents.
sip
 
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