Football players at North Western university are employees of the school for the purpose of collective bargaining. The ballots cast have been impounded pending review by the full board. This,the track record of i suspect the board. Her stance that iraq i suspect the board will rubberstamp the decision. Schools, organizations, students in the public are searching for answers to countless questions. What issues would Union RepresentingCollege Athletes raise at the bargain table . Perhaps the union would seek to bargain over the number of games. What players go on strike . With student athletes on strike attend class . How would they provide Financial Support to the union . Would dues be deducted before scholarships . Are students expected to pay outofpocket . We know many student athletes struggle financially. Where will smaller colleges and universities find the resources to manager to manage labor unions . Schools ready to make some difficult decisions, such as cutting support to other Athletic Programs . Other policiesll affect our Higher Education system . Our College Campuses prepared for our College Campuses prepared for micro unions . Anl students be able to make informed decision about joining the union in as few as 10 days well attending class and going to practice . These are tough questions and should be discussed before students and administrators are forced to confront a radical departure from longstanding policy. Players the concerns of that progress is too slow, but forming a union is not an answer. The challenges facing student athlete should be addressed in a way that protects the athletic connect in the integrity of Higher Education. The recent decision takes a fundamentally roach fundamentally different approach. I urge the obama board to change course and encourage stakeholders to get to work. I look forward to todays discussion. I recognize mr. George miller. Thank you. Hearing were having a to better understand what is happening in College Athletics, to wear out the grievances that have been raised by the Northwestern University and around the country. The nostalgic days when student and one were Students College sports was about , thoseg sportsmanship days are pretty much over. The last four decades, colleges and universities have perfected the art of monetizing athletic way of the best football and basketball teams. They have created nothing less than a big sports empire. By a consumed in driven multibilliondollar television, radio, multimedia deals, branding agreements, prime time sports shows, and Celebrity Coaches with seven figure salaries. The athletes have become commodities within these empires. They are overscheduled and overworked. Their courage to put their education on the back burner in favor of success on the field. They are encouraged to put their education on the back burner in favor of success on the field. You want to know what happens to them if they suffer a catastrophic injury on the field. Will they lose their scholarship . And the chance of an education and a career . How much of their health care will they need to pay outofpocket . They are reading about new studies and longterm effects of head injuries and they want to know if the schools and coaches are doing all they can to prevent brain injury on the field. Will their health come first . Desire to winams trump the Health Concerns of the individual player question mark they are raising questions about the adequacy of their scholarships and the restrictions that leave them with little to no support. Why are some of the teenage finding themselves unable to afford enough food to beat her books for their classes will the university enough food to eat or books for their classes . Fairt to discuss a transfer policy. How can policies be changed to support the player success in academics him and not just athletics . The Labor Relations board decision regarding northwestern documents and allconsuming eyepopping demand of the College Football player in todays megaprofit driven ncaa world. The daily life of a Football Player revolves from practice and preparation. A 50 hour a week amendment. Commitment. You can see the sample schedule displayed here on the screen. Underneath the screen, excuse me. Players are expected to report the training room by 6 15 a. M. On monday morning. By 7 00, various meanings. Hatton helmets until noon. At night that they meet with coaches to review game films. Conditioning, weight lifting, playbooks to study. From the beginning of the august Training Camp through the grueling 12 week season two postseason and to midjanuary, winter warmups to february winning edge week, mandatory spring workouts, highstakes football preparation, nonacademic edit chick nonacademic commitments become the priority. Business empire of College Sports is doing very well. The revenues are up 32 in the last six years and many universities are hiking tuition and fees, turning to underpaid overstretched adjunct faculty. They are making more and more money and the athletes are getting less and must. A classic, this is labor dispute. The empire is holding all the cards, making all the rules, capturing all the profit. The hardest working most valuable components in the system are left with little to say, little leverage, and no blocking or tackling but themselves. By banding together, these athletes can when the kinds of things Union Workers have demanded across the country. I say about avoiding serious injury on the job, medical benefits, meaningful input into how they will balance their work. With their academic needs and their other responsibilities. The respectful treatment and care they so richly deserve. I look forward to hearing from todays witnesses. All Committee Members will be permitted to submit written statements. The hearing record will remain open for 14 days to allow statements and other extraneous materials. It is my pleasure to introduce our distinguished panel. In light of my feelings voice and a very long resumes of our witnesses, i will be brief. Starting to my left, we have ken starr, the president and chancellor of Baylor University. Bradford livingston is a partner in chicago. Andy schwartz is a partner at os kr in emeryville, california. Is director of athletics of stanford university. Mr. Patrick eilers is managing director ed Madison Dearborn partners in chicago and former minnesota viking. I could not stop. Before i recognize you to provide your testimony, let the remind everyone that the fiveminute lighting system the system is pretty straightforward. You will have five minutes to give your testimony. The light will be green. After four minutes, it will turn yellow. I would hope that you would be look to wrapping up your testimony when it turns red. Lees wrapup as expeditiously as you can. Please wrapup as expeditiously as you can. We are here for you to give us the benefit of your expertise. Of thebe respectful other witnesses and wrap up your testimony. The arable kenh starr. The honorable ken starr. Thank you, mr. Chairman. It is not a to be here and to discuss this very important issue. Be here andhonor to to discuss this very important issue. Served as president and cto of Baylor University since june of 2010. It is located in waco, texas, and it is a private christian university. It is ranked as a High Research comprehensive university and it is a vibrant Community Home to over 15,000 students. Baylor is a Founding Member of the big 12 conference. We sponsor 19 varsity teams. We are blessed at baylor to have student athletes who succeed both in the classroom and on the Playing Field. Over the past three years, Baylor University has been the most Successful Division i row graham and combined program in combined winning percentage is for football and basketball. These accomplishments do not count ultimately in terms of what we emphasize. As commencement approaches next weekend on our campus, we are celebrating our academic accomplishments. We gather together a monday evening to do exactly that, to honor our student athletes performance in the classroom. During the prior academic year, 86 of senior student athletes at baylor received an undergraduate reand many have gone on undergraduate degrees and many have come on gone on to pursue graduate degrees. Our student athletes accumulated a gpa of 3. 27 and 347 of our student athletes were named the big 12 commissioners honor roll. These are remarkable times for. Aylor and its Athletic Program the reality is that even in these best of times, College Athletics, including a baylor, is not a profit generating activity. It is that it does not generate profits for baylor, nor for the vast majority of institutions of Higher Education. The Regional Directors recent in the Northwestern University case has characterized our student athletes as employees. This is an unprecedented ruling. In our view, it is misguided. Term student athlete israel on our campus and we would invite members to come to our campus and see for themselves. It is a relationship which provides College Education and beyond. At baylor, student athletes are first and foremost students and they are expected to be. We are far removed from a professional sports franchise. We are dedicated to each and every student welfare. At baylor and across the nation, student athletes benefit from a wide array of services that are specific to designed to maximize their potential as students. And to prepare the student athletes for their journeys in life after college. And programss contribute significantly to their ultimate academic success and may include academic advising, degree planning, career counseling, any institutions provide very high quality academic support, such as tutoring service, computer labs, and study lounges. We have study hall. Student athletes receive specific financial benefits, which help them progress toward degree completion. These benefits are very familiar , tuition, room and board, fees, books, and other elated expenses. What is the purpose . The purpose and offering Financial Assistance is to encourage our student athletes to carry on and to complete their Academic Work and the vast majority do. The nlrb has expressed a view that the legal issue of employee status is ultimately a matter of congressional intent. We agree with that. In this instance, the regional director has mechanically applied a rigidly wooden task drawn from the common law. Absence of any congressional intent to include College Athletics is an employment then you as an employment venue. It does create a dichotomy. Notes thatn Northwestern University is nonsectarian. But the nlrb has been struggling. Someould reasonably expect private religiously affiliated universities to challenge the boards authority to be regulating Institutional Missions expressly granted in the religious view. The second disparity is the decisions implicit exclusion of state institutions and. Ntercollegiate athletics this will likely create many discrepancies among the nations universities. Thank you. Ester livingston, you are recognized. [inaudible] good morning. As the Supreme Court has noted, principles developed for the industrial setting cannot be imposed blindly in the academic world. I fully support the purposes in allowing them to leave the freedom to choose whether or not to form a labor union and bargain collectively, the nlrb has recognized the problem of attempting to force a Student University relationship into the traditional employeeemployer framework. The universitys primary mission is to educate its students. Student athletes are neither hired by a college are providing services for calm and patient. Athletes are students who are participating in programs with a dual role as both student and athlete treating these participants as employees changes them from students who are student athletes to professional athletes who are also students. Even if student athletes could be considered employees, the employeendefined, status conflicts with the remaining principles contained in the act. Consistent with labor agreements, a College Athlete union could negotiate over the scheduling and duration of his times, distribution of playing time, scholarship allocation and player position. The broad range of statutory wages, hours, and other terms of conditions described. They could likewise negotiate over academic standards. The number and form of examinations. Grievance procedures to challenge a professors grade. Unlike with statutory requirements, the college cannot refuse to bargain. In thentual differences conditions under which collegiate teams practice and compete will guarantee competitive and balances. It College Football players are employees, they make it clear they may work in its inappropriate and an appropriate bargaining unit. Difficulty wouldve proving the remainder of the Football Team shares interest is a labor union seeks to represent just the teams offense or just the quarterbacks. Different potential union roles modest compared to what will happen with College Teams compete under different work rules negotiated with respective nutrients unions. Any team is a private employer under the jurisdiction that can thereby be covered under a single collectivebargaining unit. The major professional sports leagues have their own collective harkening agreements that cover the league and all its teams. Those agreements provide a level Playing Field. Unlike professional leagues, the same amount be true and college folk all. College football. It is almost certain the regime for recognizing and bargaining with unions will not apply to the remaining 85 that are public universities governed by state laws and beyond the nlrb jurisdiction. Some states regulate Public Sector employee collectivebargaining. Limit it to certain subjects are types of employees. Other states have no laws. A bill before ohios house of representatives clarifies the strand athletes student athletes are not employees. Can i get legislators indicate they will introduce legislation stating connecticut legislators indicate they will introduce legislation stating that they are, in fact, employees. Every college team must fend for with employee athletes. Athletic departments that can afford it may be able to hire the best employers. Institutions are not as may attract lesser talent. The resulting patchwork of createting statuses will competitive imbalances. The national Labor Relations act is not an appropriate vehicle to address student athletes concerns, athletic conferences, or the ncaa. Treating the student athletes as employees is simply unworkable. Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts with you today. You, mr. Schwartz, you are recognized. Thank you for allowing me to testify. I name is Andy Schwartz and am an economist who specializes in antitrust and the economics of College Sports. Im a partner with a firm called os kr. Nlrb authorized an election for northwestern football athletes and to start i want to provide a few facts. Scholarship foot ball athletes devote 4060 hours a week during a fivemonth season. Received no academic credit. They are not supervised by faculty. Foot wall is not a direct part of the curriculum. This panel is focused on unintended consequences of unionizing College Football, so i want to explain that the biggest threat to College Sports is the pricefixing cartel called the ncaa. 351 division i schools stifle healthy economic competition through collusion to impose limits on all forms of athlete compensation. College football is an enormous the Popular Consumer product. It generates passion from fans and billions in revenues from schools, broadcast television networks. It reported 3. 2 billion in revenue in the most recent federal filings. Departmentsthletic generate more revenue than almost all nhl and nba teams. Former ncaa president explained that maximizing revenue was the only responsible path for College Sports. How as why that is vibrant business should behave. There is an economic darkside which is pricefixing. Togetherrust laws were to ensure that when sports leagues and athletes form partnerships, negotiations are fair. Given the onesided power imposed by collusion, it is not surprising the players have turned to labor law and to unionization for a modicum of bargaining power. Other American Sports involve negotiating with the union to achieve a competitive outcome. Leagues usually encourage unionization. The nfl went to court to demand they remain a union. As an economist, i focus on the athletes free market value, which is high. They are focused on enhancing ,etter medical