A National Labor Relations Board regional official ruled on Monday that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.
All 15 members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team signed a petition in September asking to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents some other employees at the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Unionizing would allow the players to negotiate not only over salary but working conditions, including practice hours and travel.
And this will end college sports as we know them, which is unequivocally a bad thing. I know people here are rooting for this, but this will end all sports departments outside of a super league and end the US dominance in most Olympic sports.
I’m still of the opinion that scholarships are payment enough for playing.
A minor league won’t work in the US. It doesn’t work for any other sports here either. The NBA/MLB minor leagues provide no reason to watch the product, and nobody does. College sports are unique in that people will root for historically terrible teams because they have a connection to the team.
Boohoo kids aren’t being exploited for your entertainment, what a terrible world!
They’re not being exploited. They get free degrees, something the rest of us have to pay 10s of thousands of dollars for. That’s not exploitation
Fun fact, the only people who get to decide if they’re being exploited are the basketball players. They seem to want to unionize so, yeah, seems like they agree with me. It’s exploitation.
I can claim my job is exploiting me, despite being paid a fair wage (which I believe a degree and scholarship are) but it doesn’t make it true.
They’re killing the golden goose. Ending college athletics ends almost all their careers. They won’t get paid, there will just be no offerings for them to play anymore.
Sounds like you should unionize if you feel exploited.
I’m not, nor would I want to. Unions are great for certain fields, but not mine, and would hurt more than it’d help me. It has nothing to do with this either.
Just because someone feels some way doesn’t make that feeling an objective truth.
So they get the equivalent of “10’s of thousands of dollars” (appraised by the school), and the schools get to rake in millions on ticket sales + concessions, broadcasting deals and merchandise with the kid’s name on it, and if the kid complains or does anything to make money independently, which is every American’s right, they lose that scholarship and get kicked out of the sport?
Still sounds like exploitation to me.
I don’t see it as exploitation. The players chose to go to that school and play football. They’re being provided benefits worth 10s of thousands of dollars, as well as significant amenities that regular students are not. It’s not my problem that sports makes more money than other extracurriculars. The band, the cheer team and every other sport make that same decision, but don’t get paid either, because the school is providing something of value in exchange for the labor provided.
I also agree with the original premise of NIL, which allowed players to benefit from their Name, Image and Likeness. That is no longer the way it’s being applied, and is pay for play.
Paying the players as employees will end women’s sports. It’ll also kill the significant majority of non Football/MBB programs, resulting in a net loss of sports programs everywhere, as well as the end of the American domination of most Olympic sports.
I say its a good thing, organzied sports are a blight on the society. I may or may not actually support this claim, but I can certainly make it, which invalidates your claim that the end of college sports is unequivocally a bad thing. It isnt.