The NLRB decided to punt on the whole union thing for college athletes, and Matt Brown of Sports on Earth explores that here.
The most interesting thing about this might be that the NCAA apparently has decided to stop using the much-ridiculed term "student-athlete."
In the following statement, the term "college athlete" is used repeatedly, and not by accident:
The National Labor Relations Board's decision to reject jurisdiction and dismiss the union petition in this case is appropriate. In its ruling, the NLRB recognized the NCAA continually evolves to better support college athletes. In recent years we have provided college athletes with multi-year scholarships, free education for former college athletes and unlimited meals. Further, college athletes helped Division I change rules in January to provide guaranteed, full cost of attendance scholarships and improve student wellbeing. The NCAA and its member schools are committed to providing the best support possible for all college athletes and will continue to do so in the future. This ruling allows us to continue to make progress for the college athlete without risking the instability to college sports that the NLRB recognized might occur under the labor petition."
Here's more from Brown:
The threat of unionization -- along with the threat of more legal action in addition to the O'Bannon and Kessler cases -- has served as an effective wake-up call for the NCAA and its member universities. They may be changing for self-serving reasons than out of the kindness of their hearts, but the fact is that college athletes are a lot better off now than they were even five years ago, and it's not as if conditions have ever been as terrible as the harshest critics of college sports like to argue.
Things are better now than they were last year, and they will likely be better next year than they are now. While we're still waiting for a decision to be made on the O'Bannon case appeal, the door could be opened soon for compensation for athletes for the use of their names, images and likenesses. The Kessler case, meanwhile, is trying to get rid of a cap on compensation for college athletes altogether.
A few Tuesday links:
-- You think college athletes are basically indentured servants whose rights get trampled by evil things like social media bans during the season? Well, there's some evidence that full scholarships actually, you know, mean something to them.
Really cool snippet with Notre Dame's Brian Kelly giving a scholarship to a walk-on:
-- You might recognize the name Kyrin Priester. He won an appeal to play for Mike Leach this season at Washington State.
Washington State's deep wide receiver corps just got a little deeper.
Clemson transfer Kyrin Priester, who has impressed coaches and teammates with his incredible physical skills throughout the first nine days of preseason camp, has been granted a waiver by the NCAA to play this season, Washington State officials confirmed to Wazzu Watch on Monday night.
The 6-foot-1, 190-pound Priester signed with Clemson out of Brookwood (Ga.) High School in 2013, attended Fork Union Military Academy that fall before redshirting last season. He left Clemson after just one year there and enrolled at Washington State in January and participated in spring drills.
Mike Leach told reporters after WSU's fifth preseason practice on Aug. 12 that the school had filed an appeal seeking to allow Priester to play immediately rather than sit out the standard one year under NCAA rules.
At the time, Leach said he believed the appeal should be granted since Priester's situation was similar to other cases where the waiver had been granted.
-- Grantland takes a look at some under-the-radar sophomores and mentions Mackensie Alexander.
If You Like: USC’s Adoree’ Jackson
You Might Also Like: Clemson’s Mackensie Alexander
The redshirt sophomore corner doesn’t have gaudy numbers and doesn’t add the all-around versatility of Jackson, but the former five-star recruitcertainly has swagger.
“In my opinion it’s not even close,” Alexander told reporters this week. “I think every guy that talks about Mackensie knows I’m the best corner in college. … My numbers, you look at everybody else’s numbers. I don’t care who they are and what league they play in. If you can play, you can play.”
Extreme self-confidence: Check. Disregard for numbers: Check. Referring to oneself in the third person: Check.
Forget for a second whether those grandiose claims are true4 and just enjoy the refreshing honesty. After all, what else do we expect these guys to say?
Grantland, by the way, was in town yesterday. Holly Anderson made a stop on her August tour. Interested to read her dispatch from Clemson camp.
-- Man, another setback for Justin Scott-Wesley. Hate it for the kid.
Georgia senior receiver Justin Scott-Wesley had to leave Monday’s practice after hurting his right knee. The severity of the injury was not immediately apparent.
Scott-Wesley fell to the ground while in the middle of a route during drills. He got up in pain and walked over to the fence, where he was met by a trainer. Scott-Wesley walked off the field on his own power, accompanied by the trainer.
Any knee injury, minor or major, will be a worry for Scott-Wesley, who tore his ACL in October of 2013, and had arthroscopic knee surgery in early July. He returned in time for the start of preseason practice on Aug. 4, and in fact had been practicing without limitations.
-- The movie Straight Outta Compton sports a White Sox hat blooper.
“Straight Outta Compton” has been widely released for just a few days, but already keen-eyed sports buffs have noticed a factual error in the movie.
The opening scene is set in 1986, but Eazy-E is wearing a black White Sox hat with a logo the team didn’t fully adopt until 1991. (The Sox did wear the black uniforms a few games late in the 1990 season.)
-- Apparently "Clemsoning" is still a thing for The Washington Post.
“We play Clemson 12 times.”
That Yogi Berra-like quote has served as the Clemson company line heading into the 2015 season. It also hints that the toughest foe the Tigers will face this season may not be on the opposite sideline, but rather their own.
The refrain has been so often echoed by Head Coach Dabo Swinney and his players that it has earned a special distinction: a Daboism. During ACC Media Days last month, the Tigers often invoked the phrase as they addressed an upcoming season with great expectations, given the team’s status as the preseason ACC favorite. And there was no shortage of opportunity, given the Tigers’ recent tendency of climbing to the precipice of greatness before tripping back into the sea of also-rans — a circumstance that has occurred so often, it spawned another term.
“Clemsoning,” is defined by the Urban Dictionary as “the act of delivering an inexplicably disappointing performance, usually within the context of a college football season.” The term bears Clemson’s name because the Tigers have proven to be masters at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. Last season, Clemson fell to undefeated Florida State after repeated missed opportunities to lock up the win. Even after losing its seven-point, fourth-quarter lead, Clemson had chances to take down the then-No. 1 team in the country. Instead it fumbled well inside of field goal range with less than two minutes left.
-- And we close with some funky soul from Vulfpeck:
LW
