According to Kenny's statements on the radio the other day, he doesn't think student/athletes should receive a salary or get paid for things like jersey sales and the like. He said that talks regarding a Union aren't financially based, they are about having a voice at the university... IF this is the case, I don't know if Kenny is misinformed or uninformed or what but the simple fact of the matter is, they ALREADY have a voice at Nebraska with the SAAC.
Nebraska's Student Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) was implemented in 1987 to ensure that student-athletes have a voice regarding their total student-athlete experience. SAAC is a recognized student organization at the University of Nebraska and consists of at least one team appointed representative from each of Nebraska's 24 intercollegiate teams. SAAC meets bi-weekly throughout the academic year, communicating directly with Director of Athletics, Shawn Eichorst on various student-athlete welfare issues as well as Life Skills Coordinator, Jessie Gardner whom serves as the SAAC's faculty advisor.. SAAC also coordinates a number of events within the athletic department and in the community of Lincoln to promote the importance of education, service and responsible decision making. Nebraska's SAAC has been recognized across the country as one of the most comprehensive, consistent and productive in the country.
The SAAC has a leadership board elected by the student-athletes -
For the 2013-2014 academic year, SAAC will be led by President Sunny Russell (Rifle), with support from Ryan Grassel (Men's Golf) as the Vice President. Mattie Fowler (Softball) will function as the Big Ten Representative and Jake Griess (Track & Field) will serve as the Community Outreach officer.
And each individual Sport elects it's own representatives to the committee. Currently the representatives for the football team are Sam Burch, Trey Foster, Graham Nabity and Johnny Stanton.
Maybe Northwestern doesn't have anything that gives their student-athletes a voice and a union was a way to get one.. but at Nebraska the student-athletes already have that voice, and have had one for nearly half a century. As far as at the school level a Union isn't going to give you anything that the SAAC doesn't already provide... the national level may be a different story if unionization becomes widespread and IF that becomes the case then it may make sense at that juncture to look at folding the SAAC into a Union structure, but right now it's at an individual school level only and Nebraska makes absolutely ZERO sense as a testing ground for unionization at the individual school level, if anything a union forming this early in the process may actually be a step backwards in terms of student-athlete rights here.
Kenny Bell @AFRO_THUNDER80
