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There are 9 comments on YouSpeak: Can College Athletes Unionize?

  1. Let them unionize……..and let pay for their tuition, coaching, use of the facilities, and any other gratuities that they receive from the university.
    It’s just another opportunity for lawyers and other opportunists to capitalize.
    Adopt a division III or Ivy League School philosophy.

  2. Only if that Sport is is bringing revenue to the school. And if so, the amount of revenue should determine how much the student should be paid on top of the free intuition, and other perks the already have. The students should also receive a base payment if their image is used in a video game of item to help bring revenue to the school. The Colleges are making BILLIONS, not Millions and a 4 year scholarship is a drop in the bucket for the College. The student should be able to capitalize on this.

  3. Don’t do it, the student athletes will pay a big price for it. from little league, AAU, junior Olympics, high schools etc. The conversation with an 18 year old regarding payment/ scholarship for his or her passion needs to be an honest one. Many of student athletes are in NCAA violation status, for receiving and participating in illegal activities. phone bills, entertainments, clothes are not included in the scholarship

  4. The term “student-athlete” is used as justification to exploit the participants and repeating the term adds nothing to the conversation. If colleges insist on taking “amateur athletes” and signing billion dollar network contracts in conferences that do not make geographic since then the athletes that drive that revenue deserve some of the cut. If schools want to go back to a small-time environment where “students” aren’t regularly missing class to go to games. If sports are meant to create revenue, and more importantly drive marketing of schools, than let’s not pretend that it is anything different.

  5. Not just no, but hell no. I have no problem with any student finding any creative means to finance their education, but the fact is that they get compensated with free tuition, room, board, and books for heaven’s sake for up to 4 years. That’s about a $250,000 value. The bottom line is that college is about education; the fact that most colleges have sports is what we in New Orleans would call lagniappe.

  6. Let’s not forget that nobody is forcing them to attend BU and play division I hockey under the existing NCAA rules. If they wish to play hockey for compensation, then there is an avenue for that choice. Many hockey players go the major junior and/or “minor” league route to the NHL. The whole college sports/union things sound like they want the best of both worlds, and don’t we all? But that is not how it usually works.

      1. On this campus, hockey is the only sport that is really competitive on a semi-regular basis or frequency. The others have an occasional athlete or team that is competitive on an elite level (i.e.,Peters in track or Taffur in wrestling) but the bulk of BU’s teams team are aligned on a Division I level (Patriot league) that is mediocre and should be delegated to a lower level.

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