On March 26, as Dartmouth students trudged through lingering piles of snow on the third day of spring classes, student-athletes across the country had more than just the distant promise of better weather to celebrate. In Chicago, a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board ruled that football players at Northwestern University could be considered employees of the institution, giving them the right to unionize and bargain collectively — a landmark ruling for the college athletes’ rights movement.
The decision is just the latest in a string of recent events that have begun to change the face of college athletics. The movement has centered on compensation for athletes, who by NCAA rule cannot be paid due to their status as student-athletes even as their schools profit immensely from their image and on-field production. The decision seemed to shatter this perception, however: “It cannot be said that the employer’s scholarship players are ‘primarily students,’” it read.
Of course, the scope of the case was narrowly formatted, meaning that the board’s decision applies only to Wildcat football players. The University immediately announced that it would appeal the ruling, beginning a process that will likely keep the case in the headlines for the next few months. Even with the tentative nature and limited scope of the NLRB’s regional ruling, the case may have widespread implications for member institutions of the NCAA and for the future of the relationship between higher education institutions and student-athletes. After all, photos accompanying coverage of the ruling often featured not only Kain Colter, the charismatic Northwestern quarterback who inspired the unionization push, but also Ramogi Huma, the founder of the National College Players Association, which aims to change NCAA rules that it feels harm college athletes.
“If there was any question whether this was a national issue or just a Northwestern issue, I think [Huma’s] presence really confirmed that they have national aspirations,” said Alex Putterman, a sports editor for The Daily Northwestern, the student newspaper at the university. “He has no Northwestern connection. He didn’t start out trying to change the system at Northwestern — his goal was trying to change college athletics.”
For the casual sports fan at the College, it’s easy to feel that the Ivy League is a world away from any ripple effects emanating from Evanston, Ill. A policy of not awarding athletic scholarships means that the Ivy League appears to foster a fundamentally different environment for student-athletes than schools in power conferences like the Big 10, the Pac 12 and the SEC.
And many Big Green athletes interviewed by The Dartmouth on the NLRB’s regional ruling echoed this observation.
“I think the Ivy League is a unique situation for varsity athletes,” said Ryan McManus ’15, a wide receiver on the football team. “Because we’re not on athletic scholarships, we’re like every other regular student. Sports are just an additional commitment that some other students might not have.”
Ivy League programs are also differentiated by the fact that they are not perceived as moneymaking ventures, football linebacker Bronson Green ’14 said. Many Ivy sports programs receive considerable funding from alumni donations, but they do not compare to the millions made at schools like Northwestern.
Even sport to sport, distinctions can be drawn, Jeff Keller ’14 said. Football and men’s basketball tend to make more money than other sports due to television and advertising contracts. These so-called “money sports” in many cases help to finance other collegiate sports.
“I think in baseball, there’s not really a whole lot of money being made off of college athletes,” Keller, a baseball infielder, said. “Nobody really feels like they are getting the short end of the stick.”
Given the stark differences between the Big 10 and Ancient Eight, it may seem probable that student-athletes at Northwestern face challenges not seen by student-athletes at Dartmouth. However, Big Green athletes frequently mentioned the challenges of balancing their athletics with their course load — a key concern noted by Northwestern football players during their testimony.
Wide receiver Robbie Anthony ’14, who transferred to the College after walking on to the football team at Clemson University, said that Dartmouth student-athletes work just as hard as their counterparts across the country and often find their days filled with workouts and meetings. But, he added, he feels that coaches are more supportive of academics at Dartmouth than they were at Clemson.
“The reason I transferred was for academic reasons,” Anthony said. “I was an architecture major, and it got to the point where classes were interfering with football. I would have had to make a decision either to change majors or quit the football team.”
Will McConnell ’15, who left the men’s basketball team after completing his sophomore season to focus on his pre-med course load, also noted the difficulty of balancing a busy athletic schedule with academics, while echoing Anthony’s praise of Big Green coaches.
“I never, not in any way, felt pressure to sacrifice academics,” McConnell said. “My coaches were supportive.”
Noting the academic support offered to athletes in the Ivy League, several commentators have gone so far as to use the League as a potential model for how elite academic institutions like Northwestern might evolve in the aftermath of the ruling. This type of thinking has been highlighted by the comments of former Northwestern President Harry Beinen and Princeton senior associate director of athletics Jerry Price. In an interview with CNN, Price said that the Ivy League split from the national model to “draw the line with the commercialization of what football was becoming.”
When considering the Ivy League as a model, some Big Green student-athletes praised Dartmouth Peak Performance as one particular program that might benefit institutions across the country, and also noted that the D-Plan, which allows students to take lighter, three-course loads while in season, was highly beneficial.
“I think the College is recognizing some of the issues facing student-athletes, and they are doing a good job of supporting students,” Green said.
As the case continues to move forward on appeal, many Big Green student-athletes expressed support for their peers at Northwestern, and noted that they will continue to have conversations with their friends at other schools about possible next steps. Others wondered if an increased focus on the inequitable relationship between institution and student-athlete in primetime sports might begin to impact recruiting.
“When I was choosing schools, I knew that if I went to a school with a scholarship program, it would be completely results-based,” distance runner Dana Giordano ’16 said. “You can lose your scholarship at any time, and I thought that would create a pretty stressful situation with some inter-team competition.”
Regardless of how exactly the case progresses, however, it’s clear that the road ahead for student-athletes at Northwestern will not be easy. Already, head football coach Pat Fitzgerald has urged his players to vote against unionization, stating that he does not believe a third-party is necessary for efficient communication.
Putterman, who has covered the movement at Northwestern since the fall football practice where Colter addressed his goals, speculated that athletes pushing for unionization elsewhere might face similar institutional pushback.
“Colleges in general encourage progressive, independent thinking, and encourage students to be leaders and push for change,” he said. “And then when a few players did that, they had to knock it down. Who knows if there is NCAA pressure on member-institutions for them to do that and resist the unionization movement, but I imagine that it would be universal.”
Director of Varsity Athletics Communications Rick Bender and Athletic Director Harry Sheehy did not respond to requests for comment by press time.
