College football players won't be allowed to unionize

Northwestern football
(Image credit: Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images)

Northwestern University football players cannot form a union, the National Labor Relations Board ruled Monday in a binding decision that shut down the students' fight to change the nature of college athletics. The unanimous decision overturned the board's March 2014 ruling in favor of the players, which the university had appealed.

Unionizing "would not promote uniformity and stability in labor relations," the board's opinion read. Most of the NCAA's football schools are public, including all of Northwestern's Big Ten competitors, which wouldn't be subject to the same guidelines, Bloomberg News reports.

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Julie Kliegman

Julie Kliegman is a freelance writer based in New York. Her work has appeared in BuzzFeed, Vox, Mental Floss, Paste, the Tampa Bay Times and PolitiFact. Her cats can do somersaults.