mark emmert and dr.mmert i this it's fair to say this was a surprise that was a bombshell with the national labor relation board ruled last week that college football players at northwestern had the right to unionize. now, it's my understanding you think this is basically would be a disaster for college sports. >> certainly like i think many people understand the need for people to take pay attention to be concerned about welfare of student athletes that's what the ncaa was created for a hundred years ago that's what we keep our attention on. i don't think that unionizing student athletes, turn them in to unionized employees of universities is way to improve their success. no, war not particularly -- >> schieffer: what would happen if they declared them to be employees, i guess that would mean their scholarships would be considered wages? they would be taxed? >> i assume so as well. if you look at northwestern, for example, the value of a scholarship tuition fees, room and board, around $75,000 a year we

so president emmert, why isn't this unfair not to compensate these athletes who are creating so muchhink mr. kessler and a variety of other people have framed this question completely wrong. basically what is being argued here is should student athletes whether they're basketball players or any other sport be unionized, employees of a university or is this fundamentally about students playing the game and receiving the most important thing that's going to set them up the rest of their life, a good sound education and the opportunity to get that education. obviously, universities and colleges believe that these are student athletes, that these are young men and women who should continue to be students and not be unionized employees. those are two very different -- >> reggie love has a different view. the argument here is that mark is underlining the student part of student athlete. isn't there some myth associated with that, that this is an amateur athletic experience? >> look, when you look at the coaches' salaries and look at the amount of money that universities are able to bring i

mark emmert is, of course, the president of the ncaa, and we're very pleased to have you on a big day march madness here in our studio. of course, secretary of education arne duncan who himself played basketball for harvard and much to the delight of my son was this is year's mvp in the nba celebrity all-star game. arme, you made big news at home. welcome to all of you. this is a -- it's a controversial issue. it gets to be a heated issue. i want to frame it this way. this is a comment from jeffrey kesler who is the lawyer representing some of the athletes and he laid out the issue this way. the one thing people should recognize is how fundamentally unfair it is to look at a team in the ncaa tournament where the coach is making $5 million, the school is generating hundreds of millions, sponsors are cashing in, administrators are cashing in and the only group not receiving any benefit are these athletes. most of who -- it was a typo there, not on our part -- most of who will not graduate and most of who will never be a professional athlete. this is their one opportunity to be recognize

emmert? give me a break.board ruled in favor of the football players at northwestern university last week saying they are employees. yeah, they do lose their positions, they get fired. it's an unprecedented victory for college athletes. smart athletic directors are going to embrace this. they should jump on it right away to use it for a recruiting tool. we'll protect your son, mrs. johnson. anti-union groups say that student athletes are looking to be compensated or the paid to play. they got it all dead wrong. that's not what this is about. the national collegiate players association has long championed for the rights of college athletes. the group help northwestern football players in their fight to unionize. the players have legitimate concerns which they need addressed. this rule willing give them the protection they deserve. it's going to be interesting, and this is going to be a firestorm there is going to be other colleges that are going to be coming on board to this. 17,000 players are signed up with

mark emmert is here exclusively, president of the ncaa as well as arne duncan, education statement. ronnie love who played for duke and was a personal aide to president obama. when we talk about this issue, whether there's something that can be done to close this income gap. all the money that college sports is generate 'yet the athletes don't get a piece of the action. is that fair or unfair? that's the debate. >> i'm sure title 9's going to come up with that as well. >> it is, because you would have to have parity with paying the male athletes with the female sports as well. >> thank you, david. "meet the press" in ten minutes on nbc 4, and you can catch david every sunday at 10:30 right after "news4 today." >>> dietary supplements are sold everywhere, from drugstores to the grocery store, but doctors warning, if people are not careful, they have a warning for you this morning. coming up, we're going to explain. >>> then, right after "meet the press," it is an all-new "press pass," an in-depth conversation with some of the biggest newsmakers. . >>> it is a $30 billion-a-year busin

education secretary arne duncan, ncaa president mark emmert along with former duke basketball playergie love, also former assistant to president obama. and we have more tonight on an p extraordinary scene that took place in recent days in colorado where firefighters found themselves witnessing a rare event, a fiery whirlwind fed by an invasion of tumbleweeds. and all of it was captured by a firefighter with a camera. we get more tonight from nbc. >> reporter: it was supposed to be a controlled burn but this was anything but. when a dust devil kicked up in a wildlife refuge near denver. >> how many times do you see that? >> not real often. >> reporter: picking up hundreds of fiery tumbleweeds and placing firefighters directly in their path. >> there's nothing we can do except get out of the way and wait for it to calm down, i thomas rogers has been fighting fires for seven years and was behind the camera when the bust devil spun out of control. >> it was definitely interesting to see. i'm a fire buff as well as a weather buff and here i had a weather event and fire event coming togeth

we'll talk to mark emmert the head of the ncaa. all that and an all-star panel of analysts.

mark emmert is the president of the ncaa. he joins us now. around back and forth on what should be done. i think i'm with you. these guys, they're going to have potentially great careers from what happens in march madness, and a lot of the money that is raised that doesn't flow into the coffers of tv executives, it does great things for the schools and other people coming up in the system. watching these guys compete, it doesn't look like they need money to have the heart to compete like they do. it looks like they're doing it for the love of the game, which is what makes us all riveted to what's happening. am i right? >> well, i sure think so. the excitement and energy of march madness, this really magical sporting event, is driven in large part by the fact these are student athletes. they're not, you know, professional athletes. they're not what some people are arguing they should become, unionized employees of the university. in fact, they're young men playing for their school just like all the other now 450,000 student athletes in the nca