In March, Dartmouth basketball players made history by voting 13-2 to form a union and be classified as university employees. This was the first successful union election by student athletes in U.S. history. After Dartmouth rejected the bid, the two sides began litigation over the future direction. But last Tuesday, well before a contract was reached, the players withdrew their federal labor petition and ended their union activities.
Chris Peck, president of Service Employees International Union Local 560, said in a statement that the players “advanced the conversation around employment and collective bargaining in college sports.” “While our strategy is changing, we will continue to advocate for fair compensation, adequate health insurance, and safe working conditions for Dartmouth's varsity athletes.”
The immediate cause of the withdrawal was almost certainly political. Dartmouth's basketball union faces disadvantage in its future as President-elect Donald Trump is set to fill two vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board after Senate Democrats failed to confirm the current Democratic chairman's reappointment. rather than risk a negative judgment, they chose to preserve their previous victory. It will probably be a more employer-friendly board. Trump also could replace Jennifer Abruzzo, the NLRB's general counsel, who has been a particular supporter of college athletes' collective bargaining rights, and could be sworn in on her first day in office.
Sports economist Andy Schwartz points out that the right to unionize at the federal NLRB level is fundamentally unstable. Even if the athletes were able to win a contract under a new Democratic administration, their victory could be overturned by a subsequent Republican-appointed labor board. Graduate student organization rights. Legal experts expect unions to preemptively drop more pending cases, and the Trump board could overturn recent decisions on union recognition rules and independent contractors. , says.
What will happen over the next four years is not entirely clear. During his first term, the NLRB general counsel appointed by President Trump quickly retracted an earlier memo that suggested college athletes could be classified as employees. However, prominent judges appointed by President Trump, including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, have expressed strong opinions in support of athletes' economic rights, contradicting the traditional view that student-athletes are not workers. I object.
A separate federal complaint alleging that USC athletes should be considered employees also faces an uncertain future. Dartmouth's tactical setbacks highlight how battles over the rights of college athletes often progress over and over again, with organizers carefully picking their battles within a solid system. . The strategic retreat foreshadows a broader shift in how college teams approach organizing in the Trump era, potentially seeking alternative paths to recognition and negotiation.
Amateur models in the professional industry
David Berry, a sports economist at Southern Utah University, said the amateur model, in which universities generate revenue from sports without treating athletes as employees, dates back to the 19th century, when schools first began selling tickets to student contests. He explained that it dates back to .
As my colleague Brian Walsh pointed out, in 2022, college athletics generated $13.6 billion in revenue, more than any other professional sport except the NFL. Individual programs like the University of Alabama football team can bring in more than $120 million in revenue annually. The highest paid public servants in 43 states are coaches at major state universities. However, most athletes are still limited to scholarships and limited living expenses rather than traditional salaries.
Ellen Starowsky, a sports media professor at Ithaca College, argues that the amateur system is increasingly outdated. “To me, it just seems so untrue that we continue to perpetuate the idea that athletes are not the workforce that drives this multibillion-dollar industry,” she told Vox. “These ideas about student-athletes were formed long before the advent of 24/7 television, a global sports entertainment market. College sports do not have a business model that matches the 21st century.”
If college athletes are classified as employees, they will be entitled to pay, collective bargaining, workers' compensation, health benefits, and legal protections under labor laws. But the changes athletes seek through unionization may be more modest than supporters and critics imagine. If Dartmouth players had been able to negotiate, “we could have negotiated new rules, like maybe not having to go home after midnight after a game,” Schwartz told Vox. “Any action that a union could take that would interfere with the university's business practices would be a health, safety and quality of life issue for the athletes.”
Previous attempts to hire college athletes as employees faced major hurdles. A 2015 effort to unionize Northwestern University's football team was a challenge to the “competitive balance” in a conference that even the Democratic-controlled NLRB said was the only private school participating in mostly public meetings outside of NLRB oversight. ” and chose not to participate due to concerns about the issue, which ended in failure. The Dartmouth case, which involved an Ivy League private school basketball team, appeared poised to bypass that particular hurdle before it was withdrawn last week.
Although Dartmouth's players' association effort is over, the broader fight for college athletes' rights continues. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a narrow decision characterizing the NCAA as price-fixing, suggesting future legal challenges could further undermine the NCAA's ability to limit player salaries. did. In a landmark settlement last year, the NCAA agreed to pay college athletes $2.75 billion for the first time, allowing schools to provide direct compensation.
Meanwhile, at USC, players supported by the National Collegiate Players Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, filed a lawsuit to classify football players and men's and women's basketball players as employees. But in the conservative Trump-era NLRB, players could follow Dartmouth's lead and still get a preemptive exit.
As traditional NLRB channels become more difficult to navigate, unions may increasingly turn to voluntary recognition agreements and pressure schools to negotiate directly with players outside of the formal NLRB framework. . Unusual in college sports, such agreements are a way for schools to avoid more costly antitrust lawsuits and for students seeking alternative union avenues at a time when Republican boards dominate. It could become more attractive.
“At this point, it's really an open question,” Starowsky said. “There are concerns that the momentum seen over the past few years may stall.”
The NCAA itself continues to lobby Congress to preserve aspects of amateur modeling despite recent changes to name, image, likeness, etc. [NIL] Rights are beginning to reshape the economic structure of college athletics by allowing athletes to profit from endorsements and sponsorships. “If you're a college football fan, you know the current playoff system isn't very good because players are receiving NIL money, even though we've been told for years that no one would watch it,” Schwartz said. No one feels that way.”
The Dartmouth players' withdrawal may help set a favorable precedent for future organizing efforts. SEIU Local 560 has already signaled some direction, pledging to support the development of the Ivy League Players Association and expand a group licensing program that allows athletes to collectively bargain with brands. Still, collective bargaining may ultimately prove to be “the only viable path” to addressing some of the specific issues facing student-athletes, Peck said. .
The amateur model of college sports has overcome countless challenges since its inception, but the question today seems not to be whether amateurism will change, but when and who will shape its future.
