The most likely route to college football players profiting from television dollars is to unionize. That is how major professional athletes in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL negotiate revenue splits and salary caps between teams and players in various sports leagues, so precedent is there. The roadmap has already been laid.

Latest Unionization Effort Derailed

There have been multiple attempts at forming a CFB players union. All have been unsuccessful, so far. The latest effort, however, made it further down the track than others. Penn State University quarterback, Sean Clifford, had even agreed to join. Clifford went in front of a camera, and on record, supporting the “College Football Players Association”.

EXCLUSIVE: College football players are unionizing, and the first chapter will be at Penn State.

The College Football Players Association is already in negotiations with the Big Ten.

Led by quarterback Sean Clifford, players want revenue sharing and better medical care. pic.twitter.com/pwg3JGRZbc

— More Perfect Union (@MorePerfectUS) July 22, 2022

It only took hours for the backpedaling to begin. First, More Perfect Union added a clarification tweet stating, “College Football Players Association leadership clarifies that they aren’t organizing as a union but rather an association to represent players’ interests”.

Then, a few hours later, Clifford tweeted out his own statement, completely distancing himself from the CFBPA, instead expressing a commitment to Penn State and the Big Ten going forward. Clearly, someone had a sit down with Sean shortly after the video above surfaced.

#WeAre pic.twitter.com/TDGBld8awC

— Sean Clifford (@seancliff14) July 22, 2022

It’s not surprising that the Big Ten and Penn State are pushing back against unionization attempts. Of course, they’d like to have full control of the billions of dollars flowing into college football. If they have to set 40%-50% of revenue dollars aside to pay players, there’s going to be less to disseminate to other sports and channels where that money has flowed historically.

CFBPA Blames Tanner Morgan

Everything mentioned above happened on July 22. Waters calmed over the next few days. Until another stone was thrown on Tuesday morning. This time, from the College Football Players Association, itself.

The statement was brash. It pointed fingers at who was to blame for Sean Clifford’s sudden defection from the CFBPA. Those accused included Big Ten commissioner, Kevin Warren, and most notably for Minnesota Gophers fans, Tanner Morgan, who was singled out as a huge roadblock to unionization efforts.

Sean told me that in addition to Kevin Warren he had been intensely lobbied by another star player and friend to give up on the CFBPA. Sean told me that Minnesota quarterback Tanner Morgan told him he would never support the CFBPA Big Ten campaign and this clearly weighed on Sean. – CFBPA Statement (via Ross Delenger – SI)

One other detail. The leader of the CFBPA is Jason Stahl, a former University of Minnesota professor who was, essentially, run off campus after his unsuccessful attempt to do the same thing to PJ Fleck. You can read more about that situation HERE. In other words, Jason Stahl and Tanner Morgan are very familiar with one another.

Jason Stahl, leader of the College Football Players Association, documents in a newsletter how his potential unionization effort at Penn State and within the Big Ten was disrupted by a “campaign” to turn leader Sean Clifford against the CFPA.

B1G media days begins today. ???? pic.twitter.com/5pSANb0JxT

— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 26, 2022

Players need help getting fair share

I’m assuming Stahl typed the letter above, himself. Such assumptions feel like a pretty safe bet, after you read the final paragraph. But before you do, let me reiterate the importance of a college football players association or, at the least, some sort of 3rd party that can help players negotiate with the Big Ten, as a whole.

If Sean Clifford, Tanner Morgan or any other college football player really believes that the Big Ten and the University of Minnesota is going to put player interests above or at the same level as their own, then they’re naive, oblivious, stupid or some of all three.

I’m not a fan of Jason Stahl. He created a lot of the hurdles he now faces, in making the CFBPA viable. Stahl tried to run PJ Fleck off the the University of Minnesota campus. His actions back then, put him in a terrible spot with Big Ten coaches and conference leaders, now.

Stahl vs Fleck (New Episode)

Morgan represented another type of star player I was concerned about — those who hold their head coach as an idol who can do no wrong despite all evidence to the contrary. Morgan had long occupied this role at Minnesota. Despite player after player after player coming forward to describe the environment of player mistreatment and manipulation at Minnesota under head coach P.J. Fleck, Morgan defends his coach every time. Just a few weeks ago, yet another former player of Coach Fleck, Val Martin, came forward to highlight the the environment within Minnesota football. He described his personal experience and posted testimonies from other players. Morgan, as always, publicly defended Fleck. – CFBPA Statement

Hopefully, Tanner Morgan has a problem with Jason Stahl and not with the idea of unionization. Major college football players deserve their piece of the massive CFB revenue pie. And they won’t get it without some help.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan

Stahl, if you’ll remember, tried repeatedly to run PJ Fleck off campus while at The U. He blames his dislike for PJ’s culture as the reason for his eventual dismissal. More on that further below. First, let’s talk about the CFBPA and what it wants to accomplish.

The ‘CFBPA’

On July 1, student athletes gained the ability to profit off of their own name, image and likeness (like the rest of America), without being reprimanded by the NCAA. That has opened the floodgates to a Wild West of NIL freedom.

Many believe college athletes will eventually need a players association, much like what their professional counterparts have at the NFL level and across all of major American sports. Jason Stahl and his newly formed ‘CFBPA’ group hope to rise above the other hopefuls to become that entity.

Today is the day that we launch the College Football Players Association! ESPN has just posted a story covering the launch which I'll link here. I'm then going to thread the tweet with lots of information about the new org. https://t.co/BN7TL854yL

— Jason Stahl (@JasonStahl__) July 27, 2021

The College Football Players Association (CFBPA), led by former University of Minnesota professor Jason Stahl, has assembled an advisory group of attorneys, academics and athletes. They plan to start recruiting and signing up dues-paying members this week. Their announcement is the most recent push in an ongoing effort to organize college athletes, which advocates see as the next logical move during a summer of transformative change in collegiate sports.

“This is the next step,” Stahl told ESPN. “If players don’t get organized now, it’s never going to happen. There’s so much we can do right now.”

Along with Stahl, the advisory panel includes former college and NFL football players Gaelin Elmore and Pete Najarian; an anonymous current college football player; attorneys Richard Painter and James Humphries (a former Michigan football player); former University of Minnesota regent Michael Hsu and Ohio University professor B. David Ridpath, who studies college athletics administration and governance.

ESPN

Not in it for the money???

Apparently, the CFBPA isn’t immediately focused on making more money for college football players, but rather, focusing on medical benefits and limiting practice time and activities. That won’t surprise anyone who has kept track of Stahl’s work.

Players will ultimately decide what they want to ask for if future negotiations take place, but Stahl thinks any type of demands for revenue sharing deals are still years away. He said fortifying health, safety and welfare through increased medical benefits or stricter limits on practice time and practice activities will likely be a high priority.

ESPN

For years, Stahl’s been using team injuries and previous medical retirements in a feeble attempt to portray Fleck as a football mad man who doesn’t care about the health of his players. The reaction to the WCCO story was minimal because there isn’t any meat on the bone.

Football players get hurt when they play football and the injury numbers at Minnesota aren’t any different than what you see elsewhere. We talked about Stahl and his WCCO hit piece on our pilot episode of SS Minnesota a few months ago. We’ll interview him on the same show next Tuesday and stream it LIVE to both our YouTube and Twitter pages.

Remember that time WCCO ran the most poorly coordinated hit piece of all time against PJ Fleck? That was the main topic in our 'S.S. Minnesota' Podcast pilot episode. @SStrom_

Listen/Subscribe: https://t.co/hYhc4bbBnt pic.twitter.com/y20gOcQeqI

— Minnesota Sports Fan (@realmnsportsfan) May 12, 2021

Stahl wants to be big time so we’ll see how he handles an honest interview with a couple of small-timers next week. I have so many questions…

The Group

Stahl’s “advisory panel” includes some names you might know, if following this story from the Northstar State. Gaelin Elmore played football for the Gophers from 2013-2016 and Pete Najarian is a renaissance man who currently makes a lot of money by playing with money. He talks about it regularly on CNBC. But in a former life, from 1983-85, Pete was an All-American linebacker at the University of Minnesota.

Also on the advisory panel, with ties to Minnesota, are former U of M Board of Regent, Michael Hsu and U of M law professor, Richard Painter.

Eric Strack | Minnesota Sports Fan