Is a college student who receives an athletic scholarship an employee? A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has suggested a surprising answer to this question. And this answer may soon have implications beyond the world of college athletics.

Last week, the NLRB's regional director in Chicago granted a petition for election filed by the College Athletes Players Association, a group seeking to represent scholarship athletes on Northwestern University's football team. If no request for review is filed with the NLRB in Washington, D.C. - and such a request is likely - the next step will be a secret-ballot election among Northwestern's scholarship football players to determine whether or not CAPA will represent these players in collective bargaining.

So can we now expect Northwestern's scholarship athletes to go on strike before November's Michigan game? Such prognostication is premature.