Andy Staples explains why Dartmouth ruling could lead college athletes to unionize

Big news hit the college sports world Monday as a regional official of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) ruled that athletes at Dartmouth College are employees. The ruling came after all 15 members of Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team signed a petition join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union.

It’s not the first time college players have come together asking for the right to unionize. Northwestern football players tried to get classified as employees in 2014, but were ultimately unsuccessful as the NLRB declined to exercise jurisdiction in the matter.

However, the Dartmouth players’ ruling now opens up the door again for conferences to consider allowing athletes to unionize. On3‘s Andy Staples explained on his Monday podcast why it has to be something weighing on the minds of SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti.

“If you are Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti, remember we talked much of the show yesterday about those two trying to get together to chart a new path for college sports,” he said. “They basically said, ‘look, the NCAA, the old structure is not gonna get it done. Nobody seems to care that we’re up against a deadline here.’ I’m sure those two called one another today and were like, ‘see? More stuff.’ I wrote this for SI back in 2014. …I wrote then that there might come a point where the schools and commissioners would be begging the athletes to unionize because they might wanna have a collective bargaining agreement so that the athletes can stop taking them to court. I actually think they’re at that point.

“The presidents of the university still don’t want them to be employees. I imagine if you’re Greg Sankey, if you’re Tony Petitti, your school presidents are telling you, ‘we still don’t want them to be employees.’ But if you are them, you are telling those school presidents, ‘we may not get that choice. So if we don’t get that choice, how do we handle this?'”

Allowing athletes to unionize would be beneficial for the way college sports is changing at the moment. With new wrinkles such as NIL and the transfer portal, things have been described as the “wild west” in their current state. A union could potentially provide solutions to those programs.

Under a union, administrators would be able to bargain with college athletes to create a salary cap much like in pro sports. It could also allow them to put limits on how often a player is able to transfer.

“Do you want a salary cap?” Staples asked. “Do you want rules that govern player movement so that they’re not free agents? Players aren’t free agents every year now, they’re free agents every week. They can go and hold schools hostage for NIL money. If you wanted a situation where they could move once every two years or once every three years, there’s a way to do that.

“The way you do that is you bargain with them. You get them to agree to it and then they can’t sue you. That’s what the NFL has. That’s what the NBA has. That’s what Major League Baseball has.”

It’s undeniable that college sports is starting to look like the pros more and more these days. Sankey and Petitti have even teamed up to create an advisory group to improve college athletics. The Big Ten and SEC are continuing to grow in power, with the conferences now containing the majority of college football powers.

It’s starting to feel not a matter of if, but when college athletes will be allowed to unionize, and this situation at Dartmouth could be what sparks change at other places. In the end, it should prove a positive thing that create more organization for the sport.

“The players have it as good as they’re ever gonna have it right now,” Staples said. “They have all the leverage in this situation. There will come a point where the schools wise up and they’ll either negotiate with them or they’ll figure out a way to make rules that will not get them sued into oblivion.

“If the players end up having a representative associate that bargains for them, I don’t think it would be a particularly strong union. I don’t think it would be as strong as the Major League Baseball or NFL or any of those unions.”