Posted on 12/16/2022 6:27:37 AM PST by Steven Scharf
Labor Relations Board Says Student-Athletes Should Be Classified as Employees Andy Berg Dec 16, 2022
The National Labor Relations Board asserted this week that the NCAA is breaking the law by refusing to classify student athletes as employees.
According to Politico, NLRB officials in Los Angeles determined that the NCAA, along with the Pac-12 and University of Southern California are joint employers of athletes.
NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo said Thursday that the NCAA's refusal to classify student-athletes as employees is in violation of the their labor rights.
“This kind of misclassification deprives these players of their statutory right to organize and to join together to improve their working/playing conditions if they wish to do so,” Abruzzo said in a statement. “Our aim is to ensure that these players can fully and freely exercise their rights.”
The NCAA, Pac-12 and USC will have the chance to settle case, which was filed by the NCPA in February. However, if an agreement cannot be reached, the NLRB will issue a complaint agains the three entities.
In a statement, the NCAA disputed the labor agency’s characterization of student athletes.
“Contrary to the claims presented in the NLRB charges, college athletes are not employees of the NCAA, regardless of sport or division,” the governing body said. “The NCAA’s commitment is to student-athletes, and it will continue to vigorously defend any attempts to divide them based on arbitrary standards, as it demeans the hard work and sacrifice of all who participate in college sports.”
That would be a bad thing?
It’s an accurate description of D1 football and basketball players.
I honestly don’t care anymore. Everyone knows 90% of top tier Men’s College Football and Basketball don’t care about schooling.
$$$
Does this NLRB ruling apply to all student athletes, or only those student athletes on partial or full scholarship?
Seems to me that if a student athlete in a non-revenue sport that is also not receiving a scholarship is paying tuition, so in essence is paying the university to play, so the university becomes the student’s ‘employee.’
AND they should be unionized so Democrats can skim their paychecks for campaign contributions.
Pro football should set up its own minor league, and colleges should either eliminate football or eliminate full scholarships for football. Otherwise, what the universities are trying to pull-off is both anti-intellectual and obscene.
College football has been utterly destroyed by TV money. The fake championship to paid athletes, coach salaries, to the destruction of the bowl system, and now they’ll get unions. It’s just another good thing, tainted by the “monetize everything” model.
Looking forward to union thug “college football” every fall. Except the seasons that they decide to strike. Typical commie bullshizit.
Agree. That model has infected just about every aspect of what used to be recreation. Music, sports, you-name-it. Longstanding events that were cultivated by locals ruined when the "suits" took over. Even charity, which used to be the purview of the local church or such as the Salvation Army, now big business / government partnerships.
And it will eliminate any scholar-athlete paradigm we currently think we have.
If they’re employees then grades, etc don’t matter anymore. No more standards.
I honestly don’t care anymore.++ . Me neither.
If your son or daughter is good enough to get a scholarship for lacrosse, soccer, baseball, ice hockey, swimming, etc, it is.
Those other sports may not have bowl games or a 64-team tournament, but those kids work their butts off
Good. Let them get an early lesson on imputed income and taxes.
EC
Here is a better article on the subject from Sports Illustrated.
Significant NLRB Move Will Aid Pursuit of College Athletes Becoming Employees
Although it refers to scholarship athletes, it does not answer the question of whether it would apply to all athletes.
The lawsuit is directed at the University of Southern California, NCAA and the PAC 12. UCLA was dropped from the lawsuit as it is a public institution. (I have no idea why that mattered.)
The article notes “The fact that the main [NRLB] board leans Democratic is a significant note, as liberal decision-makers would lean to granting athletes employment rights”.
The article ends with this ominous message.
“Experts say it is an ideal time for athletes to be deemed employees, given the Supreme Court’s Alston ruling, the implementation of NIL, the NCAA’s restructuring and maybe most important, a Democratic-controlled White House and Senate.
Beyond the NLRB, there are several avenues in which athletes can be ruled employees, including a collective action suit out of Pennsylvania: Johnson vs. the NCAA. In Congress, Democratic Sens. Chris Murphy and Bernie Sanders introduced the College Athlete Right to Organize Act. At the state level, legislation has been introduced to either block athletes from becoming employers of their schools or to grant them that right.”
Universities are the minor leagues of the NFL and the NBA. So yes the students are a type of employee.
“Pro football should set up its own minor league, and colleges should either eliminate football or eliminate full scholarships for football. “
The two major sports that had early professional leagues (baseball and hockey) have minor league systems outside of college.
The two sports where the college version became big before a pro league was started (football and basketball) still rely on college to be their minor league.
The problem is that college football and basketball are much to big now to be replaced.
No, they aren’t. Not anymore than I was an employee since I was basically minor league for the Electric Utility business as an EE.
They get free education, and they don’t even belong in the good schools they go to.
Most NCAAF players do not make it in the NFL or NBA.
Ominous, indeed.
This seems, at least in part, a reaction to the players being promised NIL money and then being shafted. See Texas A&M and the number of their paid players not getting paid, and exiting via the transfer portal.
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