BTN.com staff, April 5, 2014

Northwestern had anything but a typical offseason. The unionization efforts, spearheaded by former star QB Kain Colter, was something few people saw coming, especially at a place like Northwestern. The efforts not only happened, the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled in favor of the players, stating that student-athletes are employees.

[ MORE: AP: Fitzgerald urges 'no' vote on union ]

Northwestern said it plans to appeal the ruling and has until April 9 to do so. Another important date: April 25, the day Northwestern players vote on whether to continue to pursue unionization.

BTN caught up with Pat Fitzgerald to discuss the topic prior to Saturday morning's spring practice. Watch the interview below.

Here are couple important things Fitzgerald said:

"We want to make sure that they have all the information, so that's a process we're starting to work through right now. I'm honored to have that opportunity with our guys and we'll work through it day by day."

"I'm very proud of them for trying to work for national change, I'm incredibly proud of them – I've been greatly outspoken about that. My job is to help educate them, my staff's job is to help educate them, our athletic department our university, and to find other folks who can tell them what this means, potentially."

We also talked to Fitzgerald about his 2014 team: