Dive Brief:

• The National Labor Relations Board on Monday declined to assert jurisdiction in the historic Northwestern University case after football players had been deemed to be employees by the regional NLRB director last year, ESPN reported.
• Effectively, the decision is a major victory for Northwestern and the NCAA.
• Analysts expected the five-member NLRB to either back or reverse the decision, but instead, the board exercised its discretion not to take charge of the case and dismissed the representation petition filed by the College Athletes Players Association (CAPA), ESPN reports.

Dive Insight:

In its decision, the NLRB said that "by statute" the Board does not have jurisdiction over state-run colleges and universities, which constitute 108 of the roughly 125 major college teams.

While big-time college sports may not seem to be related to the human resources profession, if the NLRB had ruled in favor of the players, then at least for private colleges and universities, there would have been repercussions for HR departments.

A ruling in support of the CAPA would have affected all private schools with football programs in the NCAA's top tier, as the NLRB governs the relationships between private business and employees, ESPN reported, adding that legal analysts noted that unanimous decisions by the NLRB are rare and likely the compromise result of the board disagreeing over whether athletes are, in fact, employees.