Various outside parties have filed amicus briefs to the National Labor Relations Board in the case to determine whether Northwestern football players are university employees. 

The University is appealing the Chicago NLRB regional director’s March decision in favor of the College Athletes Players Association. 
The NCAA was among the most prominent groups to file amicus briefs. 

“The regional director’s decision concluding that granting a scholarship converts a student-athlete into an employee is flawed and unsupported by history or careful analysis,” the organization wrote in a 31-page brief. “Over the past several decades, millions of students have received athletics-based aid. This has never been held to transform them into employees under the (National Labor Relations) Act. There is absolutely no legitimate reason that they should be considered such today.”

Six Republican congressmen also filed an amicus brief opposing CAPA, as did a group of college athletes called the Association for the Protection of College Athletes.

A group of economists and professors submitted an amicus brief supporting the players’ right to a union. 

The NLRB ruling that scholarship football players are employees enabled the NU football team to stage a union vote in April, the results of which will be revealed only if the NLRB upholds the original decision.

There is currently no timetable for a ruling on the appeal.

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