Something tells me that this will NOT end well.
1 Like
Haven’t read that yet, and the articles may touch on this but I’m just thinking really how much good can a union be when every member could transfer to a non-uninon school every year.
3 Likes
I mean, it’s operating under the guise of a “fraternity,” as opposed to an actual employee labor union (because players aren’t considered employees), but I can’t see this ending well.
Sounds like they plan to add other schools very soon. As with everything else involving college sports currently; I guess we’ll see what happens.
2 Likes
the common football player - especially someone profiting in the system already - would be wise to avoid them - they will tailor the rules to benefit them at Stanford abd you look up they’re benefiting more than the person who thought they were supposed to help them
Interesting - Andrew Luck is their GM, iirc…
I wonder if he had anything to do this? 
The genie is out of the bottle… players get paid now, I am not sure a union would be a bad thing, the reason the other pro sports have rules is because they are agreed upon by the owners and player associations. We currently are living in the wild west, I am tired of every long standing rule of the NCAA being overturned via injunction.
3 Likes
Its turning slowly into the nfl model. Thats fine. Just treat them as employees and not students. If they want to be students let them pay for it.
2 Likes
Instead of paying college kids, they should have opened the UFL type professional leagues to college age kids. That was the very simple solution to all this. They could have either gone to college and played amateur varsity sports or turned pro out of high school and been paid a true market rate. Too late now.
1 Like
Maybe we’ll eventually get conferences based on location, and a newer, bigger version of the SWC will form?
2 Likes
That would take common sense. If you haven’t noticed, that is in short supply.
1 Like
Seems to me this is where it’s all headed anyway…and Stanford is just being a true leader…
The idea of there still being any traditional pure “student-athletes” in P4 college football and basketball has long since flown the coop… In this new era, it seems inevitable that there will be some form of players unions to represent the interests of these collegiate-professional athletes…and yes, they really are already employees.
Show up when you’re told to do so…perform your assigned duties…get paid for the effort…
How else would you better define the role of an employee?
1 Like
Is there any union that forcibly turns over it entire membership every 4-5 years? I am certainly no expert on unions but it seems that most of them are concerned with some combination of job security, money, or benefits. Maybe this would work for individual sports, but the football and the women’s fencing team aren’t exactly on the same playing field and this disparity would create major friction.
2 Likes
Can’t do this because most of the athletes are still legit student athletes and are not making a boatload in NIL.
Nobody wants to watch that… the reason college sports are so popular is the connection the fans feel to the university AND the team…
That connection doesn’t exist for the UFL.
2 Likes
Just look at the G-League for a comparison on what this would look like.
1 Like
So the average NFL career is less than 5 years (3-4 years), and except for kickers, punters & placekickers, the only career position that averages 5 years is QB (because they rarely get to play early in their career). So the average career length in college 
and NFL is about the same…and nobody is arguing that NFL players aren’t employees.
And we should fully expect to see future lawsuits which will allow college football and basketball players to play 6-7-8 years or more; in fact, it seems we’ve already seen some of that.
1 Like
I agree with you but the difference is that a college athlete union would be pushing otherwise healthy members out the door after some period of time. Think of it as the difference between Diego Pavia, who probably would be happy to keep playing college football forever and could find someone to sign him today, and some NFL RB who can’t find a job because his knee is shredded and no one will sign him. Or someone in a non-revenue sport that might be making good NIL because of their social media presence but finds their opportunities much more limited once their eligibility runs out and still has to move on.
1 Like
Well, NFL players are employees–literally.
At least as far as football goes, I am assuming a union would want what is best for the majority of the members and not just a few outliers, ultimately most kids going to college to play football want to play in the NFL someday and will be for limits on eligibility, and every guy that plays for 8 years is taking the roster spot and snaps of somebody else that has a limited time to produce and show what they can do. For every Diego Pavia there are 5 guys who are stuck lower on the depth chart and they will all get a vote.
1 Like