WASHINGTON — It was a cold January morning more than a year and a half ago when Kain Colter and the activist Ramogi Huma called a news conference at a downtown Chicago hotel to announce their intention to form the first college sports union.
Colter, a former Northwestern quarterback, spoke of rights and safety protections that he said players needed. Striking the pose of a modern-day Curt Flood, he called the N.C.A.A. a dictatorship.
A labor hearing followed, and a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board sided with the players, setting off panic across college sports and encouraging those seeking a re-examination of the relationship between universities and their athletes, who toil for long hours and help generate billions of dollars.