The question I started with was that about Tuberville and others trying to impose restrictions on the movement of players without the players in any way getting a say in it.
That somehow pivoted to "contracts" which just didn't make any sense to me.
A company does an NIL deal with an athlete they can put damn near anything they want in a contract, player leaves early they claw back money etc etc BUT all this stuff you read from fans about ways to punish the player for leaving cuts both ways. The more restrictive the agreement, the more unappealing to the athlete. Your position in the market place is a huge factor in compensation strategy.
As far as contract with the school-if I am an employee and a union member then whatever rights non union people have can be bargained "away" presumably in return for something else. Again though, practical reality-why on Woody's green earth would a player join a union right now? They have all the leverage and are 1 year free agents. It's heaven for them.
Lastly before anyone gets all old man shaking their fist at a cloud on these damn kids and their leverage-for the vast majority of CFB history the schools had a 1 year renewable contract on the "student" athlete. They could revoke a scholarship if they really wanted to and in some places (SEC) you had that type of roster manipulation well into the 21st century. So again, abuse leads to restrictions and nobody was on message boards crying about how ridiculously unfair that was to the players. No one had their vag clenched about ruining the game, integrity of the sport and all that bullshit.
Fans, coaches and most especially administrators LOVED the old indentured servitude model and just want that back so it looks like the "game they grew up with" yadda, yadda, yadda. It's just a lot of talk. It's gone. You can't restrict wages or movement of workers by collusion. Players are workers just like you and me (and especially
@Thump mom) This was settled over a hundred years ago. SCOTUS ruled on it. It wasn't particularly vague.