Three years after winning the right to receive advertising revenue from their images, NCAA players could create a new revolution within college sports. On Tuesday, the Dartmouth men's team voted to join a union, a first in NCAA history. This decision, obtained by an overwhelming majority (13 to 2), does not necessarily imply the creation of a union for the team's players. But it opens the door to a new upheaval in the consideration and status of players at the university level.
“ Today is a big day for our team »reacted the leaders of the movement, third-year players Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthill. “ Dartmouth seems stuck in the past. It is time for this era of amateurism to end. » This unionization could allow players to defend themselves to assert their rights, in particular regarding their remuneration to evolve within the university, one of the oldest in the history of the United States, located in New Hampshire.
Dartmouth University opposes it
However, it is not to Dartmouth's taste, while its president explained on February 6 that he considers his players as “ students“. “ We don't give out athletic scholarships, we have student-athletes here, and we think our students should be considered that way. » explained Sian Beilock at CNN.
This vision of things is not shared by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), responsible for regulating unionization in the private sector in the United States. For the NLRB, Dartmouth players can be considered employees since the university ” has the right to control the work done by its men's basketball team, and that the players do this work in exchange for compensation » such as equipment, payment for transport and rooms or educational assistance.
US basketball and football bring in nearly 8 billion to the NCAA
The Ivy League, the conference where Dartmouth and several private universities in the Northeast of the United States such as Harvard, Yale and Princeton play, “ is where this whole scandalous model of near-unpaid work in college sports was born, and that's where it will die » proclaimed Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, the union chosen by the Dartmouth players.
The NCAA refused for a long time the idea of being able to pay its players, before a decision from the American Supreme Court in 2021 left it no other choice. The entry of a union player into the world of university sport could once again shake up the institution, while the vast majority of athletes are unionized once they move on to professionals. University sport in particular generates colossal revenues. As proof, the two main university disciplines, American football and basketball, had generated $7.9 billion in revenue in 2022 according to a report published by the NCAA.
