NLRB Refers To Northwestern's Illegal Social Media Policy in Ruling Student Athletes May Unionize

In a ground breaking ruling earlier today, the regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled today that Northwestern University scholarship football players are employees of the school and are eligible to form the nation's first college athletes' union.  According to ESPN's Lester Munson, the ruling is very well-reasoned.

As part of the rationale as to why Northwestern's scholarship football players are to be considered employees rather than student-athletes the ruling mentions Northwestern's illegal student-athlete social networking policy.  On page 5 it states, "[t]he players must also abide by a social media policy, which restricts what they can post on the Internet, including Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.  In fact, the players are prohibited from denying a coach's "friend" request and the former's posting are monitored." 

Northwestern's student-athlete social networking policy is in clear violation of Illinois Public Act 098-0129.  This act states, "It is unlawful for a post-secondary school to request or require a student or his or her parent or guardian to provide a password or other related account information in order to gain access to the student's account or profile on a social networking website or to demand access in any manner to a student's account or profile on a social networking website."

On August 14, 2013, I wrote that Northwestern will be required to change its student-athlete social media policy before 1/1/2014 because of Illinois' new social media privacy law.  Unfortunately, this did not occur and its illegal policy was utilized against them in analyzing that a student-athlete is an employee and not a student.  

While this ruling may eventually be overturned, it should serve as a wake up call to NCAA schools that highly regulate their student-athletes' digital usage.  Athletic departments that enforce strict social media policies and/or utilize social media monitoring companies may soon have more legal and financial issues to confront than anticipated.  Continuing to deploy social media monitoring companies to watch student-athletes online may encourage other administrative and/or judicial bodies to conclude that student-athletes are not students but employees.

NCAA athletic departments should be careful for what they wish for.  With access comes responsibility.  Strictly regulating student-athletes' personal digital lives will create tremendous legal and financial problems. 

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