College athletes can unionize, federal agency says

Uh oh NCAA and its sports media industry partners!

Looks like all the wealth being created around the conduct of inter-collegiate athletics may have to now be shared with the actual young people who play the sports.

Story here.

I've always thought that both the NFL and NBA took advantage of a form of government subsidy in that in effect the "minor leagues" of these two professional sports leagues are completely paid for by the schools that operate elite programs for NCAA football and basketball.

Not to mention that many university employees make large amounts working in the Athletic Departments at the elite schools and many local business people also profit greatly off the hard work of these select students.

Young students who (until perhaps now! LOL!) could not really receive any form of compensation or even some form of limited stipend while attending school on a sports scholarship playing for a program that brings in $bazillions for the universities and their broadcast partners and the local business communities in the college towns.

Major League Baseball at least operates their own Minor Leagues and invest their own funds in player development.  But MLB isn't off the hook completely either as most franchises enjoy the use of taxpayer subsidized facilities and other public subsidies.

This will be very interesting to see how this is going to work out; it may ignite a new look at labor unionization in other industry sectors as imo its going to play out like a constant soap opera in the sports media and will get a lot of attention.