The 17 schools that could be affected by the decision, in alphabetical order, are Baylor, Boston College, BYU, Duke, Miami, Northwestern, Notre Dame, Rice, Southern California, SMU, Stanford, Syracuse, TCU, Tulane, Tulsa, Vanderbilt and Wake Forest.
The ruling expands a 2014 ruling by NLRB regional director Peter Ohr that Northwestern football players are employees. The latest ruling, by NLRB general counsel Richard Griffin, only affects football teams because the original ruling only dealt with football at Northwestern.
Basically, the ruling means BYU football players have "new rights and leverage" if they want to form a union, for example, and are allowed to "engage in concerted activities for the purpose of mutual aid and protection.