The National Labor Relations Board's decision this week to forgo ruling on whether Northwestern University football players are employees and have the right to unionize means other universities might not have to deal with similar issues as quickly as they thought.
The decision could also change the direction universities are going, although analysts say they shouldn't take any drastic measures because the courts or Congress will likely have to decide on the issue in the coming years.
Many colleges have already started offering athletes more perks, such as cost-of-living stipends and health benefits. Indiana University introduced a student-athlete "bill of rights" last year.
"I think for administrators, they're going to have to make a determination about whether they want to keep going down that road and whether that helps them in the short term but maybe hurts them in the long term in this argument that they have that college athletes aren't employees and shouldn't be treated as such," says Galen Clavio, an IU associate professor of sports media.
Clavio says if athletes are already getting some benefits, courts might determine they should get full benefits as employees.
Purdue University Athletics Director Morgan Burke says it should be clear they're not.
"I think to cast it in some kind of financial terms to me would be totally inappropriate. It would suggest that we are a business," Burke says. "We're not a business. We are an educational institution."
Northwestern players can't appeal the recent decision but there are at least two other lawsuits making their way through the courts that could impact how athletes are compensated.
Watch what Clavio had to say about the decision in an extended interview with WTIU's Joe Hren below: