College Football Players Win Right to Unionize

Northwestern University’s football team has the right to form the first labor union in college sports, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Wednesday.

All scholarship players on the Evanston, Ill., school’s football team who have not exhausted their eligibility are “employees,” Peter Ohr, the NLRB regional director in Chicago, said in his ruling. He ordered an immediate election to create a union board.

Northwestern said it would appeal the local ruling to the full NLRB in Washington.

The 24-page decision has the potential to alter the landscape of college athletics, which generates more than $16 billion in television contracts and other forms of revenue. It comes as the NCAA is under attack in separate lawsuits from former athletes that challenge its authority.

“It’s a very significant move,” James Quinn, a senior partner at New York-based Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP, said in a telephone interview. “Given all of the other pressures on the NCAA and member institutions, things are going to change.”

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