After NLRB loss, attorney for would-be Northwestern football union points to lawsuit against NCAA
Although the National Labor Relations Board refused this week to oversee a union-organizing effort by Northwestern University football players, those on the losing side of the case haven’t lost hope of a bigger payday.
Among other possible options, they are looking to an ongoing federal antitrust case against the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Reuters reports. The suit says that the NCAA and the largest athletic conferences should have to compensate athletes with shares of their earnings.
“That’s the key litigation,” said attorney John Adam, who represented Northwestern players in the NLRB case.
The NCAA declined to comment on the ongoing antitrust suit, which was filed by attorney Jeffrey Kessler in federal court in New Jersey. However, the governing body of college sports has said that the system of rules it has developed is critical to the success of the amateur sports system.
Concern that having different rules for one team would be detrimental to college sports as a whole underlay the NLRB’s refusal this week to accept jurisdiction in Northwestern’s suit seeking certification of football union election results for the school.
