Should Alabama football players join the players' union?

[crimbru]

What if the deal would be for $10 million/year -- ?? And what if the owner of that Golf Pro Shop just happened to be a big Alabama booster??

Seriously????? If the NCAA does not have a rule forbidding endorsements/promotions, autograph sessions, and selling your personal affairs; then, who cares if the owner/buyer is a booster or Mickey Mouse? Boosters, memorabilia agents and so on are already doing these type of economic affairs under the table with college athletes so maybe you just want it to stay under the table for some reason? I do not know nor do I care..... Done with the discussion!

 

[CoachJeff]

MLB, by the way, is one of the few leagues in America that doesn't have a salary cap for players.

 

[mittman]

Anytime a group of people see a large pool of money they are going to go after it.

Governments see new tax revenues, labor unions, employees, shareholders, and even customers see profits, even the guy across the street who thinks you have more than you need.

This is not going away. There are some that see the ramifications of the actions, but for the most part it is getting their piece of the pie. The consequences down the line do not matter enough.

I do not see athletes as getting a free education. They work hard for it, but what they do is not worth more than the education, room, board, fees, textbooks, etc.

I HOPE my boss makes a profit and gets rich. I have never been given a job from a poor man. One would hope that the athletes feel the same way about their program. It only makes them better when they can say they came from a successful one.

As others have said, when and if they do this it will cause more problems for student athletes (whether or not that term was invented to skirt labor laws) than help them.

 

[Tide1986]

Small business owner, not union. Would not consider starting a union, but I'm not being taken advantage of like most players are. Why are they attending college for the degree or football?

They are attending to receive an education, some academic and some athletic.

 

[Tide1986]

Here's an interesting analysis:

Don't Expect College Athletes to Unionize Any Time Soon

The question if student athletes become employees will be with regards to whether what they’re doing has become more entertainment-based than educational. If so, the IRS could determine that athletic departments should not be tax-exempt organizations (if they hold their own exemption), or that the athletic department’s revenue should be subject to Unrelated Business Income Tax. That tax could range from 15-35 percent at the federal level and would vary at the state level.

Maybe you’re thinking athletic departments shouldn’t be tax-exempt anyway, so what’s the big deal? The big deal is that most athletic departments generate more money from donations than from all those millions in television money you hear about in the news. For example, in fiscal year 2012, University of Florida’s athletic department reported contributions of $46 million. Its conference distribution, which included revenue from the conference’s television contract and payouts from bowl games and March Madness, totaled $22 million.