Colter Meets the NLRB- What Does it Mean? by Evan Jones

Kain Colter, senior quarterback for the Northwestern University Wildcats shocked the country with his announcement to petition the National Labor Relations Board to form a College Athletics Union.

But what does that mean?

This isn't another "pay for play" gimmick some football player is grabbing at. Colter and countless other athletes filed a petition to have the right to unionize college athletes. They are looking to be recognized for health benefits and scholarship security.

The problem is the National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) has already labeled college athletes as "non-employees". Therefore college athletes are forced to walk the tight rope of amateurism; and any wavering off the path the NCAA set for it's student athletes and you are at the mercy of the association. The "student athlete" term, made up by NCAA president Mark Emmert is the deciding factor; as long as you are a student athlete, you are not an employee; therefore you have no right to unionize.

Harper College in Palatine, Ill., and it's athletes are a part of the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), although there are many similarities to the two associations, they are separate. Blake Santi, a sophomore at Harper College, and captain of the wrestling team was asked about his thoughts on the student athletes from Northwestern, "I think this going to be a historic moment for student athletes years from now, nothing substantial is going to happen right away, but the message has been sent."

The message being sent is that college athletes are tired of being pushed around. Kain Coulter in his press conference compared to the NCAA to a dictatorship, making billions of dollars on the backs of student athletes. Coulter is not looking for a payroll in this situation he is "just looking for a seat at the table".

"Why the NCAA won't give the college athletes is what confuses me" says David Hughes, a sophomore at Harper College,"They (NCAA) should be in support of the people they represent. All I've seen in the news lately is how the NCAA is making a ton of money, and how upset everyone is with the way they are running things."

"The NCAA denies that it has a legal duty to protect student-athletes, but it admits that it was 'founded to protect young people from the dangerous and exploitive athletic practices of the time'." This was an excerpt from a court filing, filed by the NCAA in August 2011. So even though the association was founded on the principle of protecting the players asses, they're going to protect their own first.

The outlook for the situation remains unsettled. But as Blake Santi stays optimistic on the subject he has these words of encouragement, "Rome wasn't built in a day".