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Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh used the platform provided by his team’s national championship victory to advocate for player rights on Tuesday, calling unionization “the next step.” Speaking the morning after his team’s 34-13 College Football Playoff National Championship victory over Washington, Harbaugh made an impassioned case for continued player empowerment.
“The thing I would change about college football is to let the talent share in the ever-increasing revenues,” Harbaugh said. “We’re all riding the same train. And the ones that are in the position to do the heavy lifting, the ones that risk life and limb out there on the football field are the players. And not just football players, student-athletes. The organizations are fighting hard to keep all the money — the universities, the NCAA, the conferences. And it’s long past time to let the student-athletes share in the ever-increasing revenues.”
As CBS Sports’ Dennis Dodd noted last week, the NCAA faces several major lawsuits regarding compensation of athletes. That’s not including an ongoing administrative process with the National Labor Relations Board that could lead to the unionization of athletes, at least at certain schools.
“There needs to be a voice for the young people, the student-athletes,” Harbaugh said. “Right now there is no voice. I mean, there are armies of attorneys, and I’ve seen them at the NCAA, I’ve seen them at the universities, the conferences. And then if they don’t have enough firepower legally, they go out, hire the tall-building law firms and they get more firepower. But there’s no voice for the student-athletes right now, and it just needs to change. That’s a wrong that needs to be righted.”
NCAA president Charlie Baker proposed in December that schools be…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/college-football/news/michigans-jim-harbaugh-advocates-for-unionization-while-calling-on-players-to-receive-revenue-shares/
Author : David Cobb
Publish date : 2024-01-09 17:08:33
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