Source: http://www.kentuckylawjournal.org/index.php/2015/02/12/first-and-ten-should-northwestern-football-players-be-considered-employees/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 16:30:31+00:00

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HomeContentFeaturedThe KLJ BlogFirst and Ten: Should Northwestern Football Players be Considered Employees?
Whether it was your favorite football team growing up, your alma mater, or any game that happened to be on the TV, collegiate sports have been ingrained in the American way. But has the time come for us to stop considering the players’ student athletes, and instead refer to them as employees of their respective schools?
But should they really be considered employees? During the initial hearing, CAPA stated that the status of the football players is completely separate from that of their status as a student.[x] It seems as though CAPA considers the status of a football player, and that of a student at Northwestern, fully independent of each other. However, this assumption seems to remove from the analysis that but-for the football player’s status as a student there would be no availability for the players to be on the football team and thus at best the claim of independence between the two statuses should be questioned. Additionally, the separation of the players’ status takes no notice to the collective environment that a college campus provides. A college campus is not simply an academic institution, instead it is a community with students from all different backgrounds involved in a variety of activities, college football is but one sector of the community and is most certainly not the only division with students receiving scholarship-aid. The combination of these different activities and student participation is what creates the collegiate experience, without one of them the experience and environment could be drastically altered.
The idea that the players constitute employees is also based on the level of control that the coaches have in regards to the players’ time. They issue itineraries, determine where the players stay before games, require notification regarding outside employment, require approval for living arrangements, and prohibit gambling and drug use.[xiv] However, there is no consideration of the fact that non-scholarship players can also be subject to this control, for the very reason that they are part of the football team and seen as the face of the university.
Therefore, allowing the Northwestern football team to be considered employees frustrates the purpose behind the NCAA; will potentially create a situation where players will owe money on their taxes; could possible disturb the collegiate environment promoted on college campuses; and also conclude that scholarship-aid is not a large enough factor to differentiate the players from non-scholarship athletes in order to institute a bargaining unit. Thus, in review, if the court follows the common law test for employees determination of employee will probably result. Additionally, if it is found that the Brown University test should be applied the student status of the players and their interrelated status as students would prohibit the determination that they are employees.
[i] Transcript of Oral Argument at 6, In re Northwestern University, 2014 (13-RC-121359).
[iii] Northwestern University v. College Athletes Players Association, Case 13-RC-121359 at 18 (N.L.R.B. Mar. 26, 2014).
[v] 29 U.S.C. § 152(3) (1978) (“employee shall include any employee, and shall not be limited to the employees of a particular employer, unless the Act explicitly states otherwise…”).
[vi] Northwestern University, Case 13-RC-121359 at 13 (N.L.R.B. Mar. 26, 2014); NLRB v. Town & Country Electric, 516 U.S. 85, 94 (1995).
[vii] Northwestern University, Case 13-RC-121359 at 13 (N.L.R.B. Mar. 26, 2014).
[ix] Northwestern University, Case 13-RC-121359 at 1 (N.L.R.B. Apr. 24, 2014).
[x] Transcript of Oral Argument at 7, In re Northwestern University, 2014 (13-RC-121359).
[xii] See 26 U.S.C. § 117 (2001).
[xiii] See 26 U.S.C. § 61 (1984); 26 U.S.C. § 63 (2009).
[xiv] Northwestern University, Case 13-RC-121359 at 16 (N.L.R.B. Mar. 26, 2014).
[xv] National Collegiate Athletic Association, Frequently-Asked Questions About the NCAA (Nov. 25, 2014), http://www.ncaa.org/about/frequently-asked-questions-about-ncaa.

References: v. 
 § 152
 v. 
 § 117
 § 61
 § 63