Northwestern Football Union: A Step Towards a Needed Discussion

For anyone who studied feudal times about kings, queens and other royalty as well as any government where there is too much centralized power, the people beneath them start to get restless. They want to rise up, and form a coup trying to dethrone the leader or the king. This is the NCAA right now. A king or queen with too much power. Northwestern Wildcats football's attempt to form a union might be the first of many actions by teams trying to force the hand that feeds. This is a bigger problem for the NCAA than Northwestern.  

Let's face facts, NCAA is a monopoly without question. They earn all the money, do not really share the money without anyone besides the universities and players risk injuries for free. The last part is a murky, gray area topic. There is no right answer. "Just play the players" leads to a whole string of consequences while at the same time "Kids get free education and that's all they need." leads to another strand of consequences. There needs to be an obvious balance, and hopefully, Northwestern's effort to create a union will be a step in the right direction for the NCAA.

This is not a time for the NCAA to dig its heels into the ground. For them to act like this is not a crisis situation would be terribly wrong. If the NCAA does act like a king or queen and basically treats Northwestern like pheasants, it could spiraled out of control for them. Northwestern could possibly go on strike if their demands are not met, and that would easily be the worst case scenario. Northwestern is a part of a power six conference, and a conference that will be welcoming Rutgers and Maryland to their conference next season. NCAA could threaten to seize funding if Northwestern decides to go on strike, but how serious is that?  Not much honestly. 

It is hard to defend the NCAA when Notre Dame announces their plans a 400 million dollars renovation to their stadium. Arizona State Sun Devils recently added a 252 million dollar renovation to their stadium.  There are other stadiums all over the country getting face lifts, and some of these universities could not at least shell out a little coin for the players?  It is not like any of these schools like Notre Dame and Arizona State are going broke any time soon. From afar, it has the look of an institution with its head buried in the sand which is usually relates to a system being broken. While NCAA rakes in more money than ever before, it is a broken system, no question about it. 

Although this is not a foolproof plan by Northwestern as the idea of 'medical protection' after their playing days is flawed. Listening to Kain Coulter, not a likely NFL player, he wants to be medically protected long after playing for Northwestern. If anything, a window would have to be made saying 'Unless it is a direct injury related towards playing football, medical coverage only last two to three years after football.' Because if someone like Coulter blows out a knee playing adult league basketball, there is no reason the university should have to front that bill. It is not a football injury yet Coulter's attitude seems like the players have a medical umbrella until the end of time which cannot happen unless a serious, life-altering injury happens during their time at the university.  Additionally, this could open a can of worms for players dating back to the 1970's and 1980's demanding medical coverage as well leading to more lawsuits. Once again, it is one grand gray area where things need to be flushed out and talked out instead of being struck down immediately. 

While Coulter is acting like this is not an attempt at 'pay for play', it is hard not to see it as such. NCAA talked about opening its door to a discussion just a couple weeks ago, and it needs to continue in order to find the best way to appease both parties. Sportandfashion-news writer and contributor Andrew Kasmarek covered this topic for us last week presenting the 'Trust Fund theory' which I believe is one of the best models I have seen in a long time. It encompassed what everyone wants on both sides of the aisle. Compromises almost never happy, and still when paying players happens, there will be a section of people on both sides of the argument unhappy, that's how life works yet there is no need to be one-sided. 

The biggest hope for Northwestern's attempt to unionize is we see a better, well thought out discussion about payment of players along with medical coverage including concussion protection. If we continue down the path the NCAA is currently going, it is destined to fail and universities will start leaving in bunches to create their own hegemony. Because that's another thing in feudal times that happened when the king or queen's power was too much, a group of people broke away and started their own country. Would not be surprised to see this sooner rather than later unless NCAA acts differently.  

Charlie.