While college athletes are now able to make money while still in school through name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals, the top coach in college football is arguing for them to get more.
Jim Harbaugh, the head football coach for the University of Michigan, shared last week after his Wolverines won the College Football Championship that he thinks players should be getting a share of the NCAA’s massive profits.
“The thing I would change about college football is to let the talent share in the ever-increasing revenues,” Harbaugh said. “We’re all robbing the same train, and the ones that are in the position to do the heavy lifting, the ones that risk life and limb out there on a football field are the players and not just, not just football players, student-athletes.”
Harbaugh has never shied away from being outspoken. During his press conference, he even suggested that college athletes should unionize in order to get what they deserve.
“For a long time, people say that unionizing would be bad,” he said. “If people aren’t gonna do it, if they’re not gonna do it out of their own goodwill and do what’s right, I mean, that’s probably the next step.”
Talks about paying college athletes for the money they bring into their schools and the NCAA is nothing new.
Last fall, the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing looking to fix the issue of how to compensate college athletes. NCAA president Charlie Baker spoke during the hearing, sharing that students should not be considered employees of their schools or the NCAA.
“To enable enhanced benefits while protecting programs from one-size-fits-all actions in the courts, we support codifying current regulatory guidance into law by granting student-athletes special status that would affirm they are not employees,” Baker said in his opening remarks at the hearing.
Now, another hearing is scheduled for Thursday, with Baker planning to speak again about how students should not be considered employees.
However, the tides may be turning for Baker and the NCAA, as Harbaugh’s comments mark a first for any head coach, something Jason Stahl, the founder and executive director of the College Football Players Association, said was culture-changing.
“I think the cultural winds are shifting here with a lot of administrative stakeholders, and coaches are going to be moving in the direction of coach Harbaugh,” Stahl told The Hill.