The NCAA filed an amicus brief to the U.S. National Labor Relations Board on Thursday, supporting attempts by Dartmouth College to quash its men’s basketball players’ unionization efforts.
In a 32-page brief filed by the governing body, the NCAA challenges the decision while contesting athletes being certified as employees would threaten college athletics. The brief also challenges Boston-based NLRB regional director Laura A. Sacks’ decision, citing the decision in 2015 when the national board dismissed a petition by Northwestern football players seeking to unionize.
“It is not an overstatement to say that finding student-athletes to be employees will threaten the existence of athletic programs and, in turn, opportunities for student-athletes at many of the nation’s colleges and universities,” the NCAA said in its brief.
Sacks ruled in February and on March 5 the players voted 13-2 in favor of unionizing, marking a historic next step toward an employee model taking hold for at least some athletes in college sports. Shortly after, as expected, Dartmouth appealed Sacks’ ruling to the full NLRB. The entire process is expected to be lengthy and could potentially take more than a year before resolution.
The situation at Dartmouth is not the only way college athletes could be deemed employees.
The Johnsonlawsuit in Pennsylvania seeks minimum wage. Elsewhere, a Los Angeles-based NLRB judge is weighing whether USC’s football and men’s and women’s basketball players are employees of the university and/or the NCAA and Pac-12. The NCAA and Pac-12 are charged with being joint employers of the athletes.
The National Labor Relations Act applies to private institutions. But because the Pac-12 and NCAA are charged with being joint employers, the outcome could potentially open the door for athletes at public universities to be deemed employees of their conference or the NCAA.
NCAA: Collective bargaining is against college sports model
Meanwhile, the House Committee on Education and the Workforce also voted 23-16 last week to move the Protecting Student Athlete’s Economic Freedom Act to the House floor. The bill is the NCAA’s best chance to stave off athletes being deemed employees. The legislation would codify athletes are not employees of an institution, conference or association. Landing on the House floor is the furthest any college sports legislation has gone in recent memory.
In the brief filed by the NCAA, the governing body also explained why collective bargaining would go against the college sports model. Many industry stakeholders believe collective bargaining is the best way to bring control back to college football.
Collective bargaining is not part of the recently agreed Housesettlement, which will pay $2.77 billion in back damages to athletes over 10 years. The second piece of the agreement is revenue sharing, allowing institutions to pay $20-22 million annually to athletes.
“The traditional model of collective bargaining uses threats, brinksmanship, and economic weapons to extract maximum concessions from the opponent,” the NCAA’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “Such an approach is antithetical to the “educational program” that is integral to intercollegiate athletics, and the relationship between student-athletes as students and the institutions they attend.”
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