Big Ten Media Days 2014: Pat Fitzgerald Says Unionization Movement Brought Northwestern Football Team Together

Northwestern University's football team may be in limbo in their movement to form a union, but head coach Pat Fitzgerald said the experience has brought the players together.

According to ESPN, the Northwestern Wildcats' head football coach addressed the issue on the first day of the Big Ten Media Days event. Fitzgerald was the first coach to speak to the media Monday and said there will be "no more unified program in the country."

Fitzgerald has openly sided with Northwestern in opposing unionization in collegiate athletics, but praised his team fort their unity. He said the football team had a cumulative GPA of 3.0.

"We've been through more since probably January than most, and it's been nothing but a positive and nothing more than unifying in our locker room and throughout our entire football program," Fitzgerald said from the podium. "So I think we're a leg up from that standpoint. And as I look at where we go in the future, hopefully that will just be something that we can draw upon."

Kain Colter, last season's starting quarterback, started a petition with the National Labor Rights Board (NLRB) in Chicago to allow the Northwestern football team to form a union. The local division granted their request and the school immediately appealed and requested the union vote results be sealed until the decision is returned.

During the NLRB hearing, Colter argued football took up most of his time and caused him to switch to a less challenging major. Colter wants college athletes to be considered employees, allowing them to form a union and collectively negotiate for benefits.

Fitzgerald praised his players hard work in the offseason and acknowledged that many of them spent it working or in internship, ESPN reported.

"We're committed to developing our young men not only on the field but also off the field," Fitzgerald said. "And to see that we had 46 young men have some sort of internship or summer job between the winter and the spring, and then the summer, with just a few companies like Goldman Sachs and Kraft Foods and Mercedes-Benz and Medtronic - I can keep going on and on - to name a few, to see how we're developing our guys off the field. Really proud of our staff and the job they've done."

Northwestern may not be favored to compete with Michigan State and Ohio State in the Big Ten, but the ongoing unionization effort will keep them in the spotlight.