Joel Klatt makes case for collective bargaining agreement based on Ryan Grubb situation

In the wake of Ryan Grubb‘s departure from Alabama after just days of being in his post as offensive coordinator, questions have surfaced about whether Alabama had a pretty good idea he was headed for the Seattle Seahawks.

Grubb, of course, declared definitively that he was the offensive coordinator at Alabama despite rumors swirling about his potential interest in the Seahawks job.

It has raised an interesting case study when it comes to potential collective bargaining in college football.

“So, there are reports out that, not that Alabama was in a position to slow play this, but you could make the argument like well why hire Ryan Grubb in the first place?” FOX analyst Joel Klatt explained. “Well, you’ve got to show stability to recruits, current players because of the transfer window. And yet in the back of their mind they know the whole time, well Ryan Grubb probably is getting another job.

“Here’s my question. Do you think that probably was shared with the players? Probably not. So, from the players’ perspective this is a great reason for a collective bargaining agreement. Because this is an instance that you can take to the table.”

A collective bargaining agreement in college football would give players a seat at the table when it comes to negotiating any number of things with the NCAA or the conferences themselves.

Klatt hit on all the things it could impact.

“If we go the direction that I believe that we should in college football, where we organize the players and there is a collectively bargained agreement that starts to put guardrails on things like the calendar, compensation, NIL, the definition of pay-for-play and employment status and what that could mean for health care and so many different things, again, I think it could clean up so many different things,” Klatt said.

“It’s not just from the outside and putting that on players. If you’re collectively bargaining then the players get to bring things to the tables, like saying, ‘I’ll tell you what, we’ve got this 30-day window if a head coach leaves or gets fired, that’s an internal 30-day transfer window just from our school. You could even reduce that even more and say if a position coach or a coordinator leaves, that that coach’s position group also has a 30-day window.”

Why?

Because as things currently exist, there’s the chance for potentially shady play where hires like Ryan Grubb’s aren’t announced until after certain deadlines pass.

“If you’re the Alabama players, wouldn’t you feel like you got duped a little bit?” Klatt said. “Do you think it was shared with the players that yes he’s the coordinator, but he’s probably going to leave and this is what our plan is going to be? Now maybe they did. Maybe they did. I don’t want to speculate in that regard. But my intuition is that was not shared.”

Instead, Alabama’s transfer portal window was closed by the time news broke officially that Ryan Grubb was headed to Alabama.

“So if you’re in a position to collectively bargain and you’re the players, this is something that can be brought up, because those players don’t have an out,” Klatt said. “Food for thought as we’re looking at all of these assistant coaches now take jobs, leave, do different things.

“What happens if you chose that school not based on the head coach but based on your position coach or that coordinator specifically, because of a specific conversation that you had with that man and then all the sudden he’s gone. ‘Hold on, why don’t I have an opportunity to adjust my decision because I made my decision on poor or bad or incomplete information.'”

It’s something worth considering, to be sure.