Last week the Chicago office of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the Northwestern football players are employees of the Evanston, Ill. University and have the right to collectively bargain. The Northwestern University quarterback who is behind a push to unionize the school's football team said on Thursday he is "very confident" that his teammates will vote on April 25 to join the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA). Northwestern officials have said they will appeal, But if last week's ruling is upheld — and many college sports lawyers, based on the strong language Chicago regional NLRB director Peter Sung Ohr used in his decision, predict it will survive the university's challenge it will fundamentally transform college sports. ?It ensures that players have a voice,?Cain Colter told The Associated Press last week. Kain Colter, a senior at Northwestern, appeared on a panel and took questions in Washington, D.C., along with CAPA co-founder Ramogi Huma, a former University of California-Los Angeles football player who now advocates for student athletes. Ed O'Bannon vs NCAA. Four-and-a-half years after the case was filed, a federal judge Thursday green-lighted former UCLA Bruin Basketball Player Ed O'Bannon's class-action antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA to proceed to trial beginning June 9. Barring a settlement before then, the plaintiffs will ask a jury to strike down the NCAA's age-old restrictions preventing athletes from cashing in on their name, likeness and image. "We're not asking for any money to be paid," Michael Hausfeld, attorney for the plaintiffs, said during Thursday's summary judgment hearing before U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken. "We are asking for the restraint to be removed ... and then the market will determine how it plays out."
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