The National Labor Relations Board on Monday dismissed a petition by Northwestern football players who were seeking to unionize, denying their claim that they were university employees. In a unanimous decision that was a clear victory for the college sports establishment, the five-member Board declined to exert its jurisdiction in the case and preserved, for now, one of the N.C.A.A.’s core principles: that college athletes are primarily students.
The board did not rule on the central question in the case — whether the players are university employees — but the decision is a major setback to the union movement, which was led by the former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter and backed by the College Athletes Players Association, a United Steelworkers-supported group that sought to represent the players.