Dive Brief:
- Boston College, Rice University, and Stanford University top the list of the most likely institutions where a union for college football players could take hold, according to rankings compiled by Vox Media's SBNation.com.
- The list predicts which top football programs would be most likely to follow Northwestern University’s lead if the National Labor Relations Board upholds a regional decision to allow football players at NU to establish a labor union.
- The school where a football player union would be least likely is Brigham Young University, followed by Southern Methodist University and Baylor University, according to the ranking.
Dive Insight:
According to SBNation, the list-makers considered how conservative/anti-union each school’s alumni are, how mediocre their football programs are, and how smart their athletes are, matching those criteria to the circumstances that helped develop the unionization movement at Northwestern. Boston College’s ranking was helped by its location in a generally liberal city, with SBNation noting a proposed city-wide "College Athletes Bill of Rights" as evidence. BYU’s ranking as least likely to unionize was due in part to the conservative leanings of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and the football program’s recruitment from some of the least union-friendly areas of the U.S.