In order to win a fight, you must first make it a fair one.

That may not be something the NCAA has been interested in, but it may finally be forced to as college football players at Northwestern University have signed union cards and filed them with the National Labor Relations Board.

Spearheaded by Ramogi Huma, the president of the National College Players Association and former UCLA linebacker, this petition marks the first formal attempt by athletes in collegiate sports history to unionize and is a long overdue first step in giving college players proper representation as well as an entry point for improving conditions in a commercially bourgeoning NCAA.

The NCAA currently defines its players as “student-athletes,” which, if you’re cynical like me, sounds like a convenient legal workaround to avoid financially recognizing the contribution to a multi-billion dollar industry by college players. Behind this definition, the NCAA holds fast that college players participate in their respective sports voluntarily, and further that to treat them as employees would undermine college’s foremost reward: an education.

In the US, many consider the college game to be the purest expression of the four major sports, where its athletes are unadorned and uncorrupted, more emotional and driven, deeply entrenched in tradition and college identity, and adored by fans and fellow college students who are equally as colorful and animated as the stadiums’ golden-chromed brass section.

There is certainly something to get sentimental about regarding the college game—call it an exuberant innocence—but since the rampant increase of commercialism in the last decade, let alone the last five years, surrounding primetime events such as the Rose Bowl and March Madness, the purity argument has gotten lost in the noise.

To deny that athletes are deserving of recompense for the time they put in to compete on a national stage where their abilities are televised to millions while balancing a full school load is ludicrous. For the NCAA to deny it, especially, tarnishes its brand to an extent that the issue can no longer be ignored.

It should be noted that the NCAA’s system isn’t completely flawed. Money generated from its most profitable sports, basketball and football, helps pay sports scholarships for less popular sports like lacrosse or cross-country. There is also a commendable aspect to what the NCAA considers “voluntary participation,” which speaks of the commitment many college players make with their time, their bodies, and their spirits to their respective schools out of pride, not out of pocket. These sacrifices, however, cannot stand against what’s verging on exploitation on behalf of their schools that operate inside that same NCAA system.

Whatever the future holds for Huma and his band of few, the road to change will undoubtedly be a long one. They should count it a victory, one hopefully among many to come, that they were the ones to finally get the NCAA’s mitts up.

amaenchen@mavs.coloradomesa.edu