AJ McCarron supports Northwestern effort to unionize college players

At least one prominent name is backing Northwestern’s attempts to organize a union for college football players.

Former Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron told USA Today on Wednesday that he thinks it’s a good thing for the sport to have someone to look out for the players.

“I think eventually they need to do something like Coach Saban said (that athletes should get additional financial support beyond scholarships)… there’s so much money being made by the NCAA, by all these athletes …” McCarron said.

Former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter and the newly-formed College Athletics Players Association announced their intentions to unionize on Tuesday. McCarron hopes that it will eventually lead to a more equitable outcome for student athletes.

“It’s almost a somewhat a bad deal the players aren’t getting some of (the money) especially when the jerseys are getting sold, they’re getting used for video games,” added McCarron. “Personally I think it’s good for college athletes — hopefully down the line they’ll start getting paid somewhere.”

McCarron, the 2013 Heisman runner up, is currently preparing for this spring’s NFL draft.