Coaches and administrators opinions on football union

On January 28, 2014 the College Athletics Players Association petitioned that the players on athletic scholarships at Northwestern University are employees of the university. If the claim that the students are employees is supported, the players can unionize. This will allow the players to manipulate the hours they practice reducing the coaches control over the player's schedule.

Northwestern football coach Pat Fitzgerald does not support the unionization of his football players. He believes that this will have a negative result on the realationship the university has developed with the players. He urges his players to vote against the union. He does not see the need for others to intervene with the relationship the players have with the university because the university will provide everything the players need.

“I just do not believe we need a third party between our players and our coaches, staff and administrators. ... Whatever they need, we will get them,” Fitzgerald said in a 2014 Huffington Post article.

Stanford football coach David Shaw also questions the need of a player union in college football.

“I think Northwestern does a phenomenal job providing for their kids, and it's weird to try to unionize but still compliment Northwestern and compliment their coaching staff on being taken care of. Those things don't seem to go hand in hand," Shaw said in a 2014 ESPN article.

The Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner Beth DeBauche participated in a conference discussing the commercialisation of college sports on Tuesday, April 15, 2014. She participated in this conference to give her input on how the NCAA business plan may change to give student athletes what they think they deserve. The student athletes believe they deserve a portion of the large revenue the NCAA receives.

"The landscape as we know it for Division I is going to certainly change in some form or fashion," DeBauche said in a 2014 Associated Press article.

DeBauche admits there must be a change in the format of the business plan in the NCAA. She sees this situation to change the business plan of the NCAA into a positive direction. Many administrative influences on the NCAA like the Big Ten do not see a need for change.

"I have a really hard time envisioning what it would be," Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said in a 2014 Chicago Business article.

The opinions on unionization of these two coaches and administrators are mostly negative. They believe this idea of a union will conflict with the university’s preparation of the players and it will not fit into the business plan set by the NCAA.