Published: Friday, May 24, 2024
BOSTON – Despite the NCAA’s historic agreement that allows players to receive a portion of revenue from a pool, unionization efforts will continue.
Chris Peck, president of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team local, said that the NCAA is doing everything possible to avoid free-market competition. This was a first in college sports. “The NCAA’s attempt to find a revenue-sharing solution only reinforces our argument that Dartmouth and the NCAA continue to engage in a disguised form of employment.”
This week, the NCAA and Power Five conferences reached an agreement on a settlement to settle antitrust claims. The NCAA will pay out $2.77 billion in compensation to current and former college athletes who have been unable to benefit from their talents due to long-standing amateurism regulations. The settlement allows – but doesn’t require – colleges to set aside around $21 million each year for sharing with players.
The agreement did not address the question of whether the players were employees, and therefore entitled to bargain about their working conditions, or “student athletes” who participated in extracurricular activities like the Model United Nations or glee club. In the Dartmouth Case, the National Labor Relations Board determined that the schools had so much control over men’s basketball teams that they met the legal definition for employees.
The players then voted by a margin of 13-2 in favor of joining Local 560, the Service Employees International Union which represents other Dartmouth employees, and requested that the school begin negotiations for a collective bargaining contract. However, the school refused to do so, resulting in further court battles. The NCAA also wants Congress to declare players not employees.
In a joint press release, the NCAA and conference leaders called on Congress to pass legislation protecting them from legal challenges in future.
The Rev. John Jenkins, Notre Dame president, said: “The settlement is necessary, even though it’s unsatisfactory in many ways and only offers temporary stability,” he added. John Jenkins. John Jenkins.
Dartmouth’s union says that collective bargaining with players is the best way to prevent continued instability in college sports and to limit antitrust liabilities.
Peck stated that the solution was not to give NCAA members a special exception or add more regulations by Congress, which would further undermine labor standards. Instead, NCAA member institutions must follow the same labor and antitrust laws as everyone else. “Only collective bargaining can provide NCAA members with the antitrust exemption that they are seeking.”