December 12, 2019 Legislation / NCAA / Sponsorships

An Unusual Coalition: Five U.S. Senators Spark Bipartisan Effort on Student-Athlete Compensation

A group of five United States senators announced that they will be discussing the drafting of federal legislation addressing the compensation of college athletes. The five senators are: Cory Booker, D-New Jersey; Chris Murphy, D-Connecticut; Mitt Romney, R-Utah; Marco Rubio, R-Florida; and David Perdue, R-Georgia.

As we reported earlier, California became the first state to allow student-athletes to be compensated through endorsements or sponsorships. The NCAA was vehemently opposed to any efforts to mandate payment of college athletes and even threatened to ban California schools …

August 12, 2014 NCAA

Northwestern and CAPA File Opposing Reply Briefs With NLRB

In an attempt to have a regional director’s decision that Northwestern University football players are employees, the school filed a reply brief with the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB”) explaining that its relationship to the student athletes is not economic.

Previously, the regional director Peter Sung Ohr found that under the National Labor Relations Act, the athletes receiving scholarships were “employees” and could vote to unionize. In response, Northwestern argued that since the school is not “in the business of football,” no “economic relationship” is …