17: NCAA Issues with Joe Nocera

In this episode, Peter Ott discusses current challenges to the NCAA’s structure with Joe Nocera, an award-winning sports-business columnist for the New York Times. Joe’s most recent book, co-authored with Ben Strauss, is entitled Indentured: The Inside Story of the Rebellion Against the NCAA. In this interview, we discuss his research and opinions about problems with how the NCAA operates. You can follow Joe on twitter at @NoceraNYT.

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NLRB Rejects Northwestern Unionization Effort

Today, the National Labor Relations Board made a surprising decision that was actually a bit of a non-decision. The Board unanimously ruled that it could not rule on the issue of college athlete unionization because labor law only allows the Board to look at private-sector workplaces and only 17 of the 125 schools eligible to play in a college football bowl are private universities. The Board says that “asserting jurisdiction over a single team would not promote stability in labor relations across the league.” This decision has the practical effect of preventing Northwestern University football players from being able to unionize.

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