Iowa Waits As Division I Schools Rush to Address Unions
IOWA CITY, Iowa – If there was every a worry that an upcoming University of Iowa football game could be postponed by unionized players holding out for benefits and monetary compensation, fans can rest easy knowing that likely won’t happen in the near future.
With lawmakers and NCAA athletic institutions scrambling to address the ever-pressing issue of athletic unionization, Iowa has been left out of the chaos. University of Iowa Associate Athletic Director Fred Mims said, “our student athletes have the rights to request a hearing to unionize if they wanted to but as of now they have not.”
“Most importantly, this effort by Northwestern has brought to the surface the need to relook at athletics and what issues student athletes are facing. At Iowa and across the country, universities are beginning to assess what they are currently doing [regarding athletic policy],” Mims continued.
Football players at Northwestern University began expressing the idea of forming a players union for revenue earning sports in hopes of getting a players voice on injuries, insurance, and scheduling in late 2012. On March 26, the National Labor Relations Board declared that scholarship football athletes at Northwestern University were employees of the university, granting them the ability to unionize and bargain collectively. The ruling was constructed on the facts that they spend upwards of 50 hours at practice a week, are under direct control from the coaches, and receive scholarships, a form of compensation, for their athletic ability.
Currently, Northwestern University is appealing the NLRB decision and awaits the decision to be released on April 25.
Since the ruling, the political landscape on this topic began shifting quickly. In early April,Ohio Republican state representatives began their campaign set on preventing student-athletes in their state, predominately those at Big Ten football powerhouse Ohio State, from unionizing. Lawmakers added a clause to a budget bill stating, “students attending state universities are not public employees based upon participating in athletics for the state university”. Other state lawmakers are expected to follow Ohio’s example in the coming months.
Currently in Iowa, Right to Work laws would grant student athletes at state funded universities to effectively form players unions and grant them to collectively bargain. The law specifically guarantees that, “no person can be compelled, as a condition of employment, to join or not to join, nor to pay dues to a labor union”.
As of April 17, 2014, the University of Iowa had not issued an official statement on where they stand as a department on unionization but members of the organization have made their personal stances clear. Larry Wieczorek, Director of Track and Field at the University of Iowa, questioned the ethics of a potential union, asking, “what happens if the football team unionizes and a local electricity plant union goes on strike? Will the football team not play because they will honor the strike of the power plant workers who power Kinnick Stadium?”
“There’s a lot of grey area in an athlete’s union. Most players see a union and think of the benefits they will get from it, but it’s more than that,” continued Wieczorek.
While the Northwestern University players union has stated they aren’t seeking monetary compensation for their performances, the unionization has made the argument for paying college athletes much more discussed.
Iowa sophomore lineman Mitch Keppy spoke about the unionization stating, “I don’t really care [about unionizing] but it would be nice to get paid.”
As the NCAA and proponents fight over whether college athletes will ever be paid, one thing remains constant at Division I schools: the money.
During the span of the 2012-2013 school year at Iowa, Iowa athletics made total revenue of $106.7 million and had net revenue of $29.86 million. Of the total revenue, football income made up $55.65 million, or about 52 percent.
Despite some support for athletic payment, other athletes don’t agree with compensation. Haley Hansel, a University of Iowa, weighed in on the topic saying, “All student athletes put the same amount of hours and energy into their sport regardless of the sport. It could be frustrating to be a part of a union and watch them [revenue making paid players] reap exclusive benefits.”
(This article was published April 18, 2014 for the classes Introduction to Multimedia Storytelling & Introduction to Journalistic Reporting and Writing)