Stanford’s Decision to Push Players Union Faces Long Road to Reality

Stanford’s decision to become the first team to organize a player-led chapter of the College Football Players Association is mostly a symbolic stance that isn’t going to change the landscape of college athletics anytime soon.The CFBPA trumpeted Stanford’s decision to form the first chapter, though it’s not officially a union yet as, according to Front Office Sports, the CFBPA is waiting to file a petition for unionization. The application won’t be addressed, according to reports, until there’s a change to the National Labor Relations Board, which isn’t likely to happen until the next presidential election.The CFBPA, in its fifth year of existence, nonetheless said the Stanford football team “has made history” by creating the first player-led chapter. “College football players deserve a meaningful voice in the decisions that shape their athletic, academic and economic futures,” CFBPA Executive Director Jason Stahl said in a statement. “As members of the Atlantic Coast Conference, Stanford players should have the opportunity to collectively engage with conference leadership on issues.”Stanford holds its first practice on Wednesday and begins the season on August 29, playing host to Hawaii. Among the first acts of the new campaign was to vote offensive lineman Fisher Anderson and linebacker Ernest Cooper, both redshirt seniors, to serve as representatives for the team and sit on the CFBPA national leadership committee.Mr. Cooper said Stanford’s decision fits the school’s history. “Stanford has been a pioneer and an innovator not just in football but as a school in general,” he said. “This first-ever current player-led chapter at Stanford is just another example of this innovation. We want to be the leaders in college football and show other schools how they can create a chapter on their campus because we believe this is the future of college football.”Mr. Anderson said establishing a chapter of the CFBPA offers some stability in the chaotic world of college sports. “Over the past five years, college football has been rocked back and forth by the wave,” he said. “When a CFBPA chapter becomes a reality on every college football team, it would put down an anchor where there isn’t one right now for the sport. The chapters can then become the building blocks for conference-wide collective bargaining agreements which would bring sustainability, transparency and player protections to a sport in need of all three.”According to Front Office Sports, Stanford football coach Tavita Pritchard and general manager Andrew Luck, two former Cardinal quarterbacks, declined to comment.The news comes as college football enters another season of unrest over how the sport is governed. From Name, Image, and Likeness funding to eligibility rules to reform of the transfer portal, leaders of college athletics haven’t come up with any sustainable answers.The Protect College Sports Act is up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. The bi-partisan legislation would give the NCAA an antitrust exemption, allow for implementation of spending caps and limit transfers and eligibility. But there’s no timeline for a vote.With the money needed to pay players and coaches increasing rapidly, Michigan’s new coach Kyle Whittingham suggested college football adapt a “NFL minor league model,” where players will become employees and be paid under a salary cap.Speaking on the Rich Eisen Show, Mr. Whittingham, who spent 21 seasons as the head coach at Utah before taking the job in Ann Arbor this season, said, “As distasteful as some of that is, I don’t think there’s any other way that is better than that. And right now, it’s out of control. I mean, we’re going to have probably a dozen teams in the next recruiting cycle with $50 million rosters.”He continued, “There’s such disparity between the have and the have-nots, and I think the only way to get that evened out and level the playing field is to go ahead and pattern it after . . . a minor league NFL model or ‘super league’ if you will. You’ll probably see 48-60 teams survive the cut and be on the right side of the line in the sand and proceed forward.”The suggestion would need the creation of a collective bargaining agreement, something the CFBPA and now Stanford is encouraging.

Stanford’s Decision to Push Players Union Faces Long Road to Reality

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