The Dartmouth men’s basketball team voted to unionize Tuesday, an unprecedented step that deals a blow to the NCAA’s deteriorating amateur business model.
Although the NCAA has long maintained that its players are “student-athletes” who went to school primarily to study, college sports have become a multibillion-dollar industry that handsomely rewards coaches and schools, while players They are still unpaid amateurs.
Recent court decisions have undermined that framework, and players are now allowed to profit from their name, image and likeness and earn a still-limited stipend for living expenses beyond the cost of attendance. Last month’s decision to make Big Green players employees of the school, with the right to form a union, threatens to upend the amateur model.
In an election overseen by the National Labor Relations Board at the school’s human resources offices Tuesday, players voted 13-2 to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents some Dartmouth workers . All the players on the squad voted.
“Today is a big day for our team,” said Dartmouth juniors Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil, who led the effort. ‘We stuck together all season and won this election. It is evident that we, as students, can also be university workers and union members. Dartmouth seems to be stuck in the past. It’s time for the era of amateurism to end.
Dartmouth basketball players Cade Haskins, left, and Romeo Myrthil are seen Tuesday.
Players on the Big Green basketball team want to be considered employees of the school.
In a statement, the NCAA said athletes should not be forced to accept an employment model.
‘The association believes change is long overdue in college sports and is pursuing significant reforms. “However, there are some issues that the NCAA cannot address alone and the association looks forward to working with Congress to make the necessary changes in the best interest of all student-athletes,” the NCAA said.
The school quickly appealed to the full NLRB, seeking to overturn last month’s decision by the board’s regional official that Dartmouth players are employees and therefore have the right to unionize. Both parties also have until March 12 to file an objection to the NLRB over the election procedures; Barring that, the SEIU will be certified as the workers’ bargaining representative.
“For Ivy League students who are collegiate athletes, academics are of primary importance and athletic activity is part of the educational experience,” the school said in a statement.
‘Classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is unprecedented and inaccurate. Therefore, we do not believe that unionization is appropriate.”
The school quickly appealed the decision to the National Labor Relations Board on Tuesday.
Dartmouth’s Myrthil (left) said: “Today is a great day for our team.” We stayed together all season…’
The case could also end up in federal court, likely delaying negotiations on a collective bargaining agreement until long after current members of the basketball team have graduated.
Dartmouth had told students that unionizing could get the team kicked out of the Ivy League, or even the NCAA. In a statement, the school said it supported the five unions it negotiates with on campus, including SEIU Local 560, but insisted that the players are students, not employees.
“I think this is just the beginning,” Haskins said after voting. “I think this will have a ripple effect on other cases across the country and that could lead to other changes.”
A separate complaint being heard by the NLRB asks that Southern California football and basketball players be considered employees of their school, the Pac-12 conference and the NCAA.
And an earlier attempt to unionize Northwestern’s football team failed because opponents in the Big Ten include public schools that are not under the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board.
Northwestern’s football team previously attempted to unionize, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
Marc Edelman, a law professor at Baruch College in New York, said that even if Dartmouth prevails in its attempts to block players from unionizing, it is unlikely to set a precedent to stop similar moves at higher-profile college sports programs and income generators. .
“It does not seem likely to preclude the possibility of football and basketball teams at schools within conferences like the SEC and Big Ten moving forward with an attempt to form a union,” Edelman said.
That’s why one of the NCAA’s biggest threats doesn’t come from one of the deep-pocketed football programs like Alabama or Michigan, which are largely indistinguishable from professional sports teams.
Instead, it is the academically oriented Ivy League, formed in 1954, where players do not receive athletic scholarships, teams play in sparsely filled gymnasiums and games are streamed online rather than broadcast on television.