Colter Makes His Stand by Mike Leon

Northwestern Wildcats Quarter back Kain Colter has been leading his teammates to try to become the first ever student athlete union. In simpler terms they gathered to petition with the Nation Labor Relations Board to form a union. These young cats are talking business people. As the NCAA members ever so often allow major football conferences to add cost of attendance money to a scholarship, there is finally a school that will no longer wait to challenge that. 

On the morning of January 28^th 2014 the president of the national college players association, Ragomi Huma filed a petition in Chicago on behalf of all the players at the regional office. It didn’t take long for word on the street to get viral, being talked about on every single sports show.

So what exactly are these guys fighting for? The North Western Wildcats football teams are fighting for basic protections. Now everyone’s quickly jumped the gun to believe this is about getting paid, but clearly that is not the case here. They do not want to get paid at the professional level, they want to be covered medically while wearing their traditional school colors and after their days playing for their school. One of their biggest disagreements with the NCAA and might I add is pretty jaw dropping to hear is, that the NCAA does not guarantee any of their medical expenses will get covered in their time playing for the university, and certainly not after they’ve received their degrees. 

Steve Walker a father of two college student athletes, who play for the University of Wisconsin’s football team, admires this group of kids gathering and fighting for change but believes that the students are forgetting the big picture of College of education. They are not employees. “Obviously there’s a lot of things that have to happen before there’s going to be any change.  Just don’t be surprised if this doesn’t go all of the way to the Supreme Court, because Northwestern is most likely going to deny them.”

From all of the voices that spoke in front of the media, Ragomi Huma’s speech on live television saying  “According to a NCAA study, college football players and basketball spend 40 hours a week alone with their sport, while their graduation rate hovers at 50 percent.” Now I’m a huge fan of College Football and Basketball, but I had no idea how much time the students were working on their craft like a professional would be. Nor did I know that in court filings the NCAA denies it has the legal duty to protect student athletes. 

Bizarre don’t you think?

Matthew Rollins, a peewee football league coach, said “Playing a sport in college is entirely a volunteer, but I had no idea how much time these kids are missing class just to go to an important practice prepping for a big game.”

Now many are assuming the University is going to deny the players, but according to quarterback Kain Colter their going to do whatever they can to obtain more rights, and possibly cash in on some of the NCAA’s endorsement deals. Which ultimately means this can go all of way to the supreme courts which could take years. The players feel it isn’t fair that with all of the money the university is getting and with the new T.V contracts they believe some cut of that could go a long way to support them.  

Corwin Evans has played college basketball and understands the mindset of a student athlete.  “I don’t agree student athletes should get a big check every month especially at their young age.    Now let’s say if they need help medically during their time playing for the school I don’t see a problem there.”

On Wednesday morning the Northwestern Wildcats football team will go up against their university.  With their concerns and arguable cases this could lead to a new change in college sports that’s never been seen before.