Ohio lawmakers propose amendment clarifying college athletes aren't employees

According to an amendment to Ohio HB 483, GOP lawmakers are seeking to introduce legal language that would clarify that student athletes are not, in fact, employees. HC0548 states that it "clarifies that college athletes are not considered employees under state law."

Though Ohio presently is not a right to work state, the recent National Labor Relations Board regional ruling that asserted that Northwestern football players were able to unionize would only have impacted private schools, of which there are none currently playing Division I FBS football in the state. There are also presently no chapters of any graduate school unions in the state of Ohio.

Law or not, other than potentially providing previously impossible recruiting alternatives to the private institutions out of state offering them (and of course the potential to in part expedite radical reform to major college athletics as a whole), the Northwestern ruling, at least at face value, was unlikely to directly impact Ohio State. The bill in its own right still faces legislative hurdles before it could become law.

We'll have more as this develops.

(H/T @artrafford)