How Might A Union For College Athletes Change Collegiate Sports?

Aired 4/1/14 on KPBS Midday Edition.

GUESTS

Gangaram Singh, Ph.D., is Interim Dean for the College of Business Administration and a management professor at San Diego State University.

Andrew Moscato, is Producer of the documentary "Schooled: The Price of College Sports"

Transcript

Dirk Hansen via Flickr

SDSU Aztecs basketball player Dwayne Polee in a game against the University of San Diego Toreros on December 5, 2013.

Despite its final loss to Arizona, the San Diego State University men's basketball team had a good season.

The Aztecs made it to the NCAA Sweet 16 for the first time since 2011 and only the second time in team history.

The student-athletes can take credit for their contribution to the tournament, but a ruling last month by a National Labor Relations Board director might allow future college athletes to take away a little more.

The football players at Northwestern University recently sued for and won the right to bargain with their school as employees represented by a union. The college is appealing the ruling, saying its student-athletes are already being given free tuition — and they are not employees.

The ruling is another crack in the concept underlying the National Collegiate Athletic Association — that student-athletes should be amateurs and unpaid.