Northwestern football players win pivotal union case. 
 
 Northwestern University football players on scholarship are employees of the school and therefore entitled to hold an election to decide whether to unionize, an official of the National Labor Relations Board ruled Wednesday. 
 
 The stunning decision, coming after a push by former quarterback Kain Colter backed by organized labor, has the potential to shake up the world of big-time college sports. 
 
 The National Collegiate Athletic Association and universities set the rules and cut the lucrative deals with TV networks and sponsors, exerting near total control over the activities of players known as "student athletes." But now those football players, at least at Northwestern, are employees too and may seek collective bargaining status, according to the 24-page ruling by Peter Sung Ohr, the regional director of the NLRB. 
 
 Ohr's decision is "revolutionary for college sports," said Robert McCormick, a professor emeritus at the Michigan State University College of Law who focuses on sports and labor law. 
 
 Experts said the ruling could have wide impact beyond Northwestern's locker room, potentially influencing other players, schools, and state and federal agencies. For example, McCormick said that if college players demand compensation for injuries suffered during training or a game, Ohr's opinion could raise the question of whether they should be treated as employees under the state Workers' Compensation Act. 
 
 The decision also opens the door for athletes with scholarships at public universities to move more quickly to unionize because state labor boards, which govern public universities, usually follow labor law interpretations issued by the NLRB. 
 
 There were many questions left unanswered, including whether a union vote among Northwestern players would succeed, but Ohr's decision is preliminary. Northwestern immediately said it will appeal to the NLRB in Washington, and experts anticipate the case ultimately could be heard by the Supreme Court. 
 
 "Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students," Northwestern said in a statement. "Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes." 
 
 Northwestern's football players are the first in college sports to seek union representation. Behind the effort is the College Athletes Players Association, or CAPA, a union funded by Ramogi Huma, a former UCLA linebacker who has become an advocate for players' rights. CAPA is backed by the United Steelworkers, which is covering the group's legal expenses. 
 
 "This is a huge step toward justice for college athletes," Huma said. 
 
 He said the NCAA invented the term "student-athletes" 60 years ago in an attempt to prevent students from unionizing. Wednesday's decision, he said, asserts the rights of college athletes under labor law. 
 
 The union has said it would seek to negotiate over health and safety issues and does not intend to push for "pay-for-play" wages, which are not allowed under regulations issued by the NCAA. 
 
 Among its demands, CAPA is seeking financial coverage for former players with sports-related medical expenses, independent concussion experts to be placed on the sidelines during games and the creation of an educational trust fund to help former players graduate. 
 
 It also wants players to receive compensation for commercial sponsorships, which it says is consistent with "evolving" NCAA regulations. 
 
 In siding with the union, Ohr said the football players primarily have an economic relationship with the university, which controls and directs their daily activities and compensates them in the form of scholarships, which are worth about $76,000 per academic year if the player enrolls in summer classes. 
 
 "The record makes clear that the employer's scholarship players are identified and recruited in the first instance because of their football prowess and not because of their academic achievement in high school," Ohr wrote. 
 
 Football players with scholarships, he said, "fall squarely" within in the labor law's definition of an employee. Ohr said those players spend many more hours on their football duties than on their studies. Furthermore, he said, the players are subject to special rules and policies that do not govern the general student population. 
 
 For example, he said, freshmen and sophomore students on scholarships are required to live on campus. Upperclassmen, he added, can live off campus but are required to submit their lease for approval to their coach, Pat Fitzgerald. 
 
 "Even the players' academic lives are controlled as evidenced by the fact that they are required to attend study hall if they fail to maintain a certain grade-point average (GPA) in their classes," Ohr wrote. 
 
 Northwestern argued that the term "student athlete" is still appropriate. "We believe that participation in athletic events is part of the overall educational experience for those students, not a separate activity." ||||| Northwestern football players qualify under federal law as employees of the university and, therefore, can legally form the nation's first college athletes' union, the National Labor Relations Board announced Wednesday. 
 
 “We had both the facts and the law on our side,” Gary Kohlman, the attorney representing the players, said in a telephone interview with Bloomberg News. 
 
 It's a stunning ruling, but hardly the final one on the matter. Northwestern has already announced plans to appeal the ruling by National Labor Relations Board regional director Peter Ohr to the full NLRB in Washington, D.C. After that, it probably will go through appellate courts and even the Supreme Court if necessary. 
 
 Outgoing Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter was the driving force behind forming the College Athletes Players Assn., which would take the lead of organizing the players if a union is formed. The legal bills have been paid by the United Steelworkers union. 
 
 CAPA attorneys have argued college football generates enormous amounts of profit on players' labor, which makes the players employees of the schools. CAPA said scholarships are the equivalent of payment, but not nearly enough. 
 
 Northwestern attorneys countered student-athletes shouldn't be categorized with unionized workers such as truck drivers or factory employees. It said scholarships aren't payments, they are grants. 
 
 The NCAA is facing increasing pressure, including multiple lawsuits, challenging its classification of athletes as amateurs. The focus of this particular case is for athletes to unionize at private schools because the federal labor agency does not have jurisdiction over public universities. 
 
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 The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| CHICAGO (AP) — In a stunning ruling that could revolutionize college sports, a federal agency said Wednesday that football players at Northwestern University can create the nation's first union of college athletes. 
 
 FILE - In this Jan. 28, 2014, file photo, Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter, right, speaks while College Athletes Players Association President Ramogi Huma listens during a news conference in Chicago.... (Associated Press) 
 
 The decision by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board means it agrees football players at the Big Ten school qualify as employees under federal law and therefore can legally unionize. 
 
 "Based on the entire record in this case, I find that the Employer's football players who receive scholarships fall squarely within (federal labor law's) broad definition of 'employee," Peter Sung Ohr, the NLRB regional director, said in his 24-page decision. 
 
 An employee is generally regarded by law as someone who receives compensation for a service and is under the direct control of managers. Players argued that their scholarships are compensation and coaches are their managers. 
 
 The Evanston, Ill-based university argued college athletes, as students, don't fit in the same category as factory workers, truck drivers and other unionized workers. Immediately after the ruling, the school announced it plans to appeal to labor authorities in Washington, D.C. 
 
 Alan Cubbage, Northwestern's vice president for university relations, said in a statement that while the school respects "the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it." 
 
 The specific goals of the College Athletes Players Association, or CAPA, which would take the lead in organizing the players, include guaranteeing coverage of sports-related medical expenses for current and former players, ensuring better procedures to reduce head injuries and potentially letting players pursue commercial sponsorships. 
 
 But critics have argued that giving college athletes employee status and allowing them to unionize could hurt college sports in numerous ways, including by raising the prospects of strikes by disgruntled players or lockouts by athletic departments. 
 
 For now, the push is to unionize athletes at private schools, such as Northwestern, because the federal labor agency does not have jurisdiction over public universities. 
 
 Outgoing Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter took a leading role in establishing CAPA. The United Steelworkers union has been footing the legal bills. 
 
 Colter, whose eligibility has been exhausted and who has entered the NFL draft, said nearly all of the 85 scholarship players on the Wildcats roster backed the union bid, though only he expressed his support publicly. 
 
 CAPA attorneys argued that college football is, for all practical purposes, a commercial enterprise that relies on players' labor to generate billions of dollars in profits. That, they contend, makes the relationship of schools to players one of employers to employees. 
 
 In its endeavor to have college football players be recognized as essential workers, CAPA likened scholarships to employment pay — too little pay from its point of view. Northwestern balked at that claim, describing scholarship as grants. 
 
 The NCAA has been under increasing scrutiny over its amateurism rules and is fighting a class-action federal lawsuit by former players seeking a cut of the billions of dollars earned from live broadcasts, memorabilia sales and video games. Other lawsuits allege the NCAA failed to protect players from debilitating head injuries. 
 
 NCAA President Mark Emmert has pushed for a $2,000-per-player stipend to help athletes defray some of expenses. Critics say that isn't nearly enough, considering players help bring in millions of dollars to their schools and conferences. 
 
 During the NLRB's five days of hearings in February, Wildcats coach Pat Fitzgerald took the stand for union opponents, and his testimony sometimes was at odds with Colter's. 
 
 Colter told the hearing that players' performance on the field was more important to Northwestern than their in-class performance, saying, "You fulfill the football requirement and, if you can, you fit in academics." Asked why Northwestern gave him a scholarship of $75,000 a year, he responded: "To play football. To perform an athletic service." 
 
 But Fitzgerald said he tells players academics come first, saying, "We want them to be the best they can be ... to be a champion in life." 
 
 An attorney representing the university, Alex Barbour, noted Northwestern has one of the highest graduation rates for college football players in the nation, around 97 percent. Barbour insisted, "Northwestern is not a football factory." 
 
 ___ 
 
 Follow Michael Tarm at https://twitter.com/mtarm
– Northwestern football players aren't just student-athletes—they're employees of the university who have the right to form a union, a federal official ruled today. How big of a deal is today's ruling by a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board? "The stunning decision has the potential to alter dramatically the world of big-time college sports," writes Alejandra Cancino in the Chicago Tribune. The AP's Michael Tarm uses similar language, calling it a "stunning ruling that could revolutionize college sports." But first things first: The school plans to appeal to the NLRB in Washington, and nothing is expected to change until that decision comes down. Even then, the case could wind up in the Supreme Court. Northwestern's team is the first to seek permission to unionize, and it''s getting help from a players' rights group called the College Athletes Players Association. CAPA, in turn, is getting support from the United Steelworkers union. CAPA's attorneys say that players generate so much money for schools that they are clearly employees, and that they're already getting paid, though not enough, in the form of scholarships. Northwestern's attorneys argued that there's a big distinction between college players and, say, truck drivers, and it called those scholarships not pay but "grants," reports the LA Times. If the NLRB sanctions such unions, expect teams all over to follow suit. Among other things, the unions would likely demand better coverage of medical expenses for current and former players, along with the right to pursue commercial sponsorships.