The National Labor Relations Board made a historic ruling on Wednesday when it declared Northwestern football players eligible to unionize because they are employees.

The ruling finally came after years of criticism towards the NCAA for its use of athletes in generating millions of dollars without compensation.

"I couldn't be more happy and grateful for today's ruling, though it is the ruling we expected. I just have so much respect for Kain and the football players who stood up in unity to take this on," the president of the National College Players Association and CAPA, Ramogi Huma, said to ESPN. "They love their university but they think it's important to exercise rights under labor law."

"The NCAA invented the term student-athlete to prevent the exact ruling that was made today," Huma added. "For 60 years, people have bought into the notion that they are students only. The reality is players are employees, and today's ruling confirms that. The players are one giant step closer to justice."

Meanwhile, Northwestern was on the complete opposite end of the argument over whether these student-athletes are indeed employees, and the school responded with a rather defensive statement, which was released on Wednesday.

"While we respect the NLRB process and the regional director's opinion, we disagree with it," the statement read. "Northwestern believes strongly that our student-athletes are not employees, but students. Unionization and collective bargaining are not the appropriate methods to address the concerns raised by student-athletes ... Northwestern plans to appeal today's decision to the full National Labor Relations Board in Washington, D.C."

Although the ruling was a step in the right direction for these athletes, many people are expecting an appeal in the not-too-distant future, as mentioned by Northwestern in the statement. Nevertheless, it marked a historic day in sports.

What do you think about the ruling? Are you happy to finally see that these players could someday start seeing some of the money that they generate each season? Let us know what you think about it in the comments section located below.