<p>I am wondering how this will shake things up going forward. At the moment, all I can see in the near future is litigation - the various appeals (all the way to the Supreme Court, some reckon), the possible taxation claims because if you are an employee earning a scholarship 'salary', then the IRS is due its cut etc. Also, can the universities sue the coaches who broke (break?) the NCAA rules on the maximum practice hours for students (the footballers won because they were able to prove that they HAD to practice 40-50 hours a week)? All a bit of a mess, it seems.</p>
<p>However, apart from all that, how will this affect non revenue sports? Some pundits say it will mean the death of them, but I am wondering if this is not the beginning of a true amateur competitive landscape where you are admitted to your school based solely on your non-athletic prowess, and the schools compete in their sports based on what talent they happen to have...</p>
<p>It is certainly a bit worrying all around, but how will it all play out, I wonder...</p>
<p>It is an interesting development. Along with Unions come collective bargaining, strikes and lockouts. Just like any industry, I suppose some programs will opt to become Union and others won’t. Could add a whole new wrinkle to the already complicated recruiting landscape if some are ‘union shops’ and others aren’t.</p>
<p>The ruling by the NLRB only applies to private institutions, and would not apply to state schools. In addition the players needed to show that the football program generated revenue to be considered employees so non-revenue sports should not be affected by this ruling.</p>
<p>There are only 17 private FBS schools. Many include Miami and Notre Dame would be unlikely to vote to unionize. Northwestern will appeal this ruling and a former president of Northwestern has suggested that if the players are successful in forming a union that the school will simply shut down the football program. It will be interesting to see how this story develops.</p>