This is not new. A few years back the Northwestern football team pushed a plan to unionize with the help of the United Steelworkers. While the initiative ultimately failed, the biggest issue was not necessarily athlete compensation. A bigger issue at that time was long term medical coverage for ex-college athletes who had suffered debilitating injuries during their college playing days.
As it stands right now, if a college player suffers a serious injury at college, their medical care is covered by their college or university so long as they are enrolled at the college as a member of the team, and subsequently at the sole discretion of the college. In a related issue, think about Sedona Prince suing the U of TX for an injury incurred prior to enrolling, claiming that the TX medical staff did not provide adequate care once she enrolled.
Ultimately, the effort to unionize Northwestern and college sports at large was doomed to fail because of the incredibly difficult task of organizing a large group of diverse athletes spread across hundreds of colleges and universities across the country. Opposition from politicians, the NCAA and colleges themselves to athlete unionization efforts will likely be too much to overcome for the limited efforts by some athletes to form a Union.
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