USC, Pac-12, NCAA subject of complaint by labor board wanting athletes classified as employees
Employee status and unionization may eventually be on the table for college athletes
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More on NCAA Athletes as Employees
- Thread starter Irvin Snibbley
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A terrible development, fraught with unintended consequences if it comes.
I don't like it, but might as treat them like employees. If you don't perform, lose your job. Players can leave on their whim. So they should be able to be fired.
You can bet your @$$ and everything you own that it won't wind up working like that. At the very least, they will have contracts that will need to be honored financially if you let them go. Some of them, for the best players, will be multiyear contracts - with no-cut clauses.
That's not the question. It's whether they should be treated like employees.
I think that what I said in Post #5 covers most of it, except to add that schools will be bound to the athlete to a greater extent than athlete to the schools. Schools don't get a transfer portal for themselves.
When unionization comes - sooner or later it will - then the specter of work stoppages will come with it. But in any case, you're in an adversarial relationship with your own players.
There will be collective bargaining agreements, grievances, arbitrations, federal mediations, things that should not be related to scholastic athletics whatsoever.
Then, there could be the obligation to provide costly benefits - insurance mainly - that would be comprehensive and go beyond the scope of the athlete's participation in his/her sport. Then add to that Worker's Comp., and the abuses associated with it.
The possible ramifications for schools are manifold, undesirable, and costly.
At the point their status changes to employee then athletic scholarships should be scrapped, at least at NCAA schools. Then if athletes truly want to be students at their adopted school, they'll pay their own way and/or compete for academic scholarships. Also, ALL signed athletes should then be paid as employees. There will be no "team" if the supporting team members are treated as second class citizens and don't get paid enough to cover all their expenses (including healthcare) while at the same time the "stars" are able to get DIL endorsements.
I think it's a bad idea, but if it does happen, continuing to offer athletic scholarships wouldn't comport with the new reality.
I think it's a bad idea, but if it does happen, continuing to offer athletic scholarships wouldn't comport with the new reality.
It just unions try to get more money. Can’t get union dues if there is no employee.
Here’s something that may not have been considered
www.on3.com
Potential employee model could dramatically impact international college athletes
If an employee model takes hold, immigration lawyers say thousands of college athletes could be in violation of their student status.
I’ll say it again; I hope all the bleeding hearts who were so upset that the poor, poor athletes couldn’t make $$ off of their name while in college are happy…. I think this is a case study in “be careful what you wish for”.
You're a smart reasonable dude but your argument goes to the downside of them being declared employees, not the reality of the fact that they are employees. It seems you're advocating for the passage of some exemption legislation, not for ignoring the fact that as the law currently exists they are in fact employees.
Bleeding hearts? NIL is pure free market capitalism. You just don't like that they are messing with your fun by exercising their rights.
I'm advocating for a legislated and uniform definition of what it entails and what it doesn't, and not a benefits competition among schools and conferences, in other words, something not as unregulated and out of hand as the NIL is right now. That needs to be addressed legislatively also. Happy Thanksgiving.
They aren't employees. They are students who participate in athletics. They don't perform a task for money, they participate in an extracurricular activity. The simple fact is the NCAA passed down rulings that kept them from doing certain things. If anything they are employees of the NCAA, not of the schools.
Eh not sure I agree. They are playing football for the school not the ncaa. The ncaa is just the governing body.