{"id":12081,"date":"2024-03-05T18:24:24","date_gmt":"2024-03-05T18:24:24","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Labor-victory-for-Dartmouth-basketball-players-only-start-of-path-to-a-union-deal-54281035\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=12081","title":{"rendered":"A victory for college athletes \u2014 but only a step"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A Dartmouth Athletics banner hangs outside Alumni Gymnasium on the Dartmouth College campus in Hanover on Tuesday.<\/figcaption><\/figure>
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FILE – Dartmouth’s Robert McRae III (23) takes a pass from Jackson Munro (33) as Duke’s Jaylen Blakes (2) defends during the second half of an NCAA college basketball game in Durham, N.C., Nov. 6, 2023. A National Labor Relations Board regional official has decided that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes. (AP Photo\/Ben McKeown, File)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Dartmouth
Dartmouth basketball players Cade Haskins, left, and Romeo Myrthil pose at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Dartmouth basketball players vote Tuesday on whether to form a union.(AP Photo\/Jimmy Golen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Dartmouth
Dartmouth basketball players Romeo Myrthil, left, and Cade Haskins talk after voting at Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H., Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Dartmouth basketball players vote Tuesday on whether to form a union.(AP Photo\/Jimmy Golen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>
\"Dartmouth
Dartmouth basketball player Cade Haskins leaves after voting in Hanover, N.H., Tuesday, March 5, 2024. Dartmouth basketball players vote Tuesday on whether to form a union.(AP Photo\/Jimmy Golen)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/figure>

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A ruling that gives the Dartmouth basketball team the right to unionize has far-reaching implications for all of college sports \u2014 from the quaint, academically oriented Ivy League to the big-money football factories like Michigan and Alabama.<\/p>\n

The players voted 13-2 on Tuesday to form a union on the campus in Hanover after a bid by the school to reopen the case was denied.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s not time to cut down the nets just yet.<\/p>\n

Although a recent ruling by a National Labor Relations Board official put the players on the path toward a union, they have a long way to go \u2014 years, maybe \u2014 before they would be able to sit down with the school and negotiate a collective bargaining agreement. The bid is being closely watched.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to see how this decision will impact college sports nationwide,\u201d Dartmouth players Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrthil said in a statement after NLRB Regional Director Laura Sacks agreed that they are employees of the school. \u201cWe believe that other athletes will recognize the opportunities this ruling presents and will be inspired to follow suit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here is a look at what happened \u2014 and what\u2019s next \u2014 in the fight for college athlete rights:<\/p>\n

How did we get here?<\/h2>\n

The NCAA has long maintained that college players are \u201cstudent-athletes\u201d \u2014 a term designed to perpetrate the pretense that education comes first. But in Power Five leagues like the Big Ten and Southeastern Conference, football is a billion-dollar business that looks more like the NFL than the glee club or other extracurricular activities on campus. <\/p>\n

The amateur model is under attack on several fronts, including a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that opened the door for athletes to be paid; in response, the NCAA loosened rules to allow players to profit from their celebrity. The NCAA is also facing at least six antitrust lawsuits.<\/p>\n

In a different NLRB proceeding, football and basketball players at Southern California say they are employees of the school, the Pac-12 Conference in which they play and the NCAA. That hearing resumes later this month.<\/p>\n

At Dartmouth and its Ivy League brethren, though, the \u201cstudent-athlete\u201d paradigm might actually be accurate.<\/p>\n

Dartmouth doesn\u2019t give out athletic scholarships, the school says the program loses money \u2014 the players dispute that \u2014 and athletes are expected to prioritize their academic responsibilities before sports. The school says playing on the basketball team is not a job; it\u2019s like participating in the orchestra or Model United Nations.<\/p>\n

But the players argued that the school exerts enough control over them to make them employees, and Sacks agreed. <\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by the Dartmouth men\u2019s basketball team, and the players perform that work in exchange for compensation, I find that the petitioned-for basketball players are employees,\u201d she wrote.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next?<\/h2>\n

The outcome of the election was never in doubt, considering that all 15 members of the team signed the petition last fall asking to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents some other employees at the school. But even with the team\u2019s vote to move ahead, there are other hurdles.<\/p>\n

Assuming Dartmouth doesn\u2019t recognize the union, the matter goes to the full NLRB. In a previous case involving the Northwestern football team, the board overturned the initial ruling (on a technicality that doesn\u2019t apply here ). That appeal took about 15 months, though the Dartmouth players hope for a quicker ruling because it\u2019s a presidential election year with the possibility that the makeup of the board will flip Republican in January.<\/p>\n

Even if the full board affirms Sacks\u2019 decision, the school could turn to the federal courts \u2014 a process that could delay the resolution for several years, long after the current athletes have moved on. If the players ultimately win \u2014 or if Dartmouth drops its opposition \u2014 only then would they be able to negotiate on a collective bargaining agreement. <\/p>\n

And all that does is give them the chance to argue they are worth more to the school than free gear and lunch money.<\/p>\n

What do they want?<\/h2>\n

The Dartmouth players want to be paid $20 an hour, like the cafeteria workers on campus, with the school paying their health care premiums.<\/p>\n

But should they win, the implications are likely to spread throughout college sports.<\/p>\n

Other teams on campus could choose to unionize. And rather than cede to Dartmouth the recruiting edge of a salary and benefits, the rest of the Ivy League could be prompted to accept unions as well. (The other option would be to boot Dartmouth from the Ivy League \u2014 which seems an unlikely, and temporary, reprieve.)<\/p>\n

And if Dartmouth basketball players are ultimately deemed employees, that makes it much more difficult for schools with big-time sports \u2014 where they have even more control over their athletes, and the money at stake is into the billions \u2014 to prop up the \u201cstudent-athlete\u201d model. Those future NFL and NBA stars could make millions more if the NCAA business model ultimately goes away. <\/p>\n

While the NLRB\u2019s jurisdiction only extends to private institutions, like the Ivies and some Power Five athletic programs like Northwestern, Southern California and Notre Dame, it\u2019s likely that pay-for-play at some schools would create a recruiting imbalance and force the public schools to come along, causing the collapse of the NCAA\u2019s amateurism model. <\/p>\n

Is there any way out?<\/h2>\n

The NCAA has asked Congress for legislation that will prop up the amateur model and exempt it from antitrust rules that prevent most businesses from working together to cap spending on workers. Dartmouth could also drop its objection and, through the collective bargaining process, determine the free market value of an Ivy League basketball player.<\/p>\n

Or Dartmouth could stop treating the players like employees and downgrade the teams to club status, like the glee club and the other self-funded student organizations that look more like hobbies than jobs.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A ruling that gives the Dartmouth basketball team the right to unionize has far-reaching implications for all of college sports \u2014 from the quaint, academically oriented Ivy League to the big-money football factories like Michigan and Alabama.The…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":12082,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=290]Jimmy Golen[\/Author] AP Sports Writer","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,508],"tags":[52,111,24,434,446,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[732],"class_list":["post-12081","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-big-green","tag-dartmouth-college","tag-facebook","tag-ivy-league","tag-mens-basketball","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/43078006-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/290"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12081"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12083,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12081\/revisions\/12083"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=12081"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=12081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}