Should College Athlete Be Able to Unionize? [POLL]

Imagine getting paid to play college sports. That’s the question being explored in Illinois as Northwestern players are attempting to unionize the football program.  A hearing commenced Tuesday before the National Labor Relations Board’s regional office in Chicago.

“It truly is a job,” former Wildcats quarterback Kain Colter said during his testimony, via the Chicago Tribune.  “There is no way around it.”

Cain explained that his work includes hours of practice and preparation for games.  “[T]he guys on the other side of the ball want to rip your head off,” Colter said.  “The plays are changing every week.  It’s like war.

“I like to think of it like the military/Navy Seals.  They spend months and weeks preparing for operations.  It’s the same thing as football.  We spend months getting ready for our operations.”

Colter may be over the top with his comparison to the Navy Seals but college athletes like employees are working a job that is making a lot of money for the company or in this case a university.

The hearing will continue through Friday, and the local NLRB office is expected to issue a ruling within a month.  The losing party will then inevitably appeal the decision to the full NLRB in Washington, and the situation surely is destined to land in the courts after that.

What do you think? Do you think college players should be able to unionize? Take the poll below.