Northwestern Files Appeal To Overturn College Football Union Ruling

(CBS) -- The issue of a football union at Northwestern University is far from settled, even though first round went to the players.

WBBM's John Cody reports Northwestern University has asked the full National Labor Relations board to overturn a regional decision allowing Northwestern's football players to unionize.

Northwestern spokesman Bob Rowley says the school's attorneys are citing a 2004 decision Brown University graduate students.

"They had filed a petition before the NLRB requesting that they be considered employees and the NLRB ruled that they were in fact students first and foremost and that is the precedent that we are basing our case on," said Rowley.

Rowley says the fact that Northwestern football players have to carry a 3.0 GPA and that 97 percent graduate shows that at Northwestern, they're students, not athletic employees eligible for union membership.

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• Northwestern University