In what seems like a never-ending saga, there was some huge news this week coming out of Stanford regarding collective bargaining in college football. On Monday, a group of Stanford University football players are establishing the first-ever chapter of the College Football Players Association.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that Stanford became the first program to reach the membership threshold required to elect player representatives. According to a CFBPA press release, the chapter is intended to serve as the first building block in creating player representation across college football.
Fifth-year senior offensive lineman Fisher Anderson and fifth-year senior linebacker Ernest Cooper were elected as Stanford’s first player representatives. “Stanford has been a pioneer and an innovator not just in football but as a school in general,” Cooper said in the CFBPA press release.
“This first-ever current player-led chapter at Stanford is just another example of this innovation. We want to be the leaders in college football and show other schools how they can create a chapter on their campus because we believe this is the future of college football.”
“The time is now to do something,” Anderson said to Yahoo Sports. “This is college football and it’s increasingly becoming more like the NFL. At some point, we’re likely going to need a CFBPA. The chapters can then become the building blocks for conference-wide collective bargaining agreements which would bring sustainability, transparency and player protections to a sport in need of all three.”
