PD Editorial: NCAA gets bodyslammed by labor ruling

In that contact sport known as government regulation, college football just got knocked on its assets.

The decision by a National Labor Relations Board official that football players at Northwestern University are the equivalent of employees and therefore can form the nation's first union of college athletes is a blockbuster.

When combined with a November ruling by a federal judge in California tentatively backing a class of athletes seeking compensation for the use of their names and likenesses, it marks the beginning of what could be a losing season for the NCAA.

In the mind of NLRB Regional Director Peter Sung Ohr, this issue wasn't close. Given that football players at Northwestern are highly regulated in where they live and what they eat, are required to attend practices, meetings and games for up to 60 hours a week and are compensated - in the form of scholarships - they "fall squarely" within the broad definition of an employee, he ruled.

At the same time, those who are celebrating this as an end to college football's iron-fisted control of student athletes need a time-out.

First, this ruling only applies to athletes at private universities, as the NLRB has no authority over state-run institutions. And second, this is only the opening minutes of what is likely to be a long, drawn-out battle. The case will now go before the National Labor Relations Board in Washington. After that, it will likely be heard in federal court.

We don't know whether this decision will stand up on appeal. But it should. It's hard to look at the relationship between college football players and the NCAA as anything other an employee-employer relationship. For some athletes, it's more controlling than that.

Ohr made clear that he based his decision on the fact that Northwestern, as with other colleges, put a higher priority on football prowess than academic success. He noted that the university presented no evidence of scholarship players being "permitted to miss entire practices and/or games to attend their studies."

Furthermore, scholarships can be withdrawn if a player decides to quit a team or is injured. Given that kind of leverage, it's hard not to see the justification for preventing players from unionizing, as Northwestern's are expected to do

within 30 days

.

College football, which has become a multibillion-dollar industry, has only itself to blame, given its insatiable appetite for revenue and its unrelenting policing of athletes themselves.

But wait. What do college football players have to complain about? Aren't they receiving a free education while being groomed for a potential career in the lucrative National Football League?

The fact is, less than 2 percent of college football players ever play in the NFL, and of those who do, only a small percentage ever benefit from large contracts and/or long careers.

Those players seeking to be represented by the College Athletes Players Association say a specific goal is to make sure that those - both current and former players - who suffer sports-related injuries have their medical expenses covered.

If the NCAA is going to seek a middle ground in hopes of negotiating a settlement, that's the place to start, along with giving players more assurance that their scholarships won't be taken away if they're hurt or choose to do something else during their college years.

But if colleges and the NCAA dig in their cleats and refuse to budge, they could be in for a long, deserved beatdown.