STrib Op-Ed: U football crisis: A unionized team would have sacked the problem

[justthefacts]

The really dumb part about the column in the OP is that it completely ignores the fact that NFL players have unions and get suspended for things they're not charged for regularly. Hell, OBJ got fined for wearing Craig Sager cleats and then selling them for charity.

Ben Roethlisberger is one of the biggest stars in the game. He was accused of sexual assault, but was not charged. He was given a 6 game suspension, appealed, and had it reduced to 4.

In all likelihood the CBA with the NCAA would give the Universities enormous leeway to discipline players as they saw fit.

The other dumb part about the column, which reinforces the idea that it's just publicity for the author, is how purely hypothetical it is. You know what really would have prevented all this? If college football were played only by robots.

 

[Goldmember]

This whole episode changed my mind about the rights of "the student athlete".
I'm just a fan. But I imagine one pouring their heart and soul into something like this team to basically be set-up by a beauracracy that drags your name through the mud and publicly links your personal brand to rape. All the while you're putting you health at risk to pay their salaries and fat benefits packages.

I don't think it's practical to pay D1 athletes. But it's time for the players in revenue-generating sports to unite to assure that their basic needs are met before that money is diverted to the non-revenue Title IX feeding-frenzy.

And by basic needs I mean their personal brand, likeness, health, and legal rights.