That was exactly the NCAA's argument as to what would happen, so the courts were aware of that possibility.
UNC basketball 2026 transfer portal
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bridgetender
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It's fair criticism until he gets it done. I think he's a hell of a coach and youth has ended his season the last two years. It's tough to label any college team championship or bust, but on paper, they're as good as any team in the country next year and probably better.
CarolinaFever
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Guess the only way to fix things is for the schools to agree to players being employees and set up things like the pros with contracts, collective bargaining agreements and salary caps.
Heelsandeers
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“Fun” discussion this week on whether duke’s bench is better than Kentucky’s current starting lineup. Sadly, the answer might be yes
superrific
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That's what happens when the courts don't think ahead.
superrific
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Or new legislation
superrific
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Which is essentially impossible, as anyone vaguely familiar with labor law would know. That, of course, does not include most of the GOPs appointees and half of Dems' appointees. Or maybe not "essentially impossible" but almost impossible.
They’ve been lobbying hard for three years. The new NCAA commissioner, Charlie Baker, was brought in specifically for lobbying. But no results yet. There is no clear bipartisan answer right now - even though legislation is very much needed. Title IX and gender equity makes the legislative fix all the more important and yet also more politically challenging.
superrific
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Well, duh. Congress' most impactful achievement this year is called the "Hot Rotisserie Chicken Act." They can't get a damn thing done.
The collective bargaining angle is completely unrealistic and doesn't survive minimal scrutiny. Usually you have to answer questions like, "who is the employer", 'who comprises the bargaining unit," "to whom do bargaining duties run," etc. I haven't seen anyone grapple with questions like the adversity of interests between supposed members of the same unit.
It could work if all major schools created a professional league - either by sport or all sports. They could then force the athletes to unionize by engaging in a lockout until there is a CBA.
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Oh the Southern Schools--no
superrific
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You cannot certify a bargaining unit out of "all sports." It would fail basic labor law principles.
I’m not an expert on labor law, but you have certified unions that cover entire industries - writers, auto workers, electricians, etc. Why couldn’t “college athlete” qualify as the basis for a certified union?
superrific
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Because before you can think about a union, there has to be a bargaining unit. And members of the bargaining unit have to have a community of interests.
NLRB Paves the Way for Bargaining Units Composed of Employees of Two Different Employers | Littler
In a widely anticipated decision, the National Labor Relations Board has reversed its 2004 decision in Oakwood Care Center,1 and determined that a union seeking to represent employees in a bargaining unit composed of employees solely employed by a “user employer” (a company that hires temporary...
"Those “community of interest” factors include criteria such as: common functions and duties, shared skills, functional integration, interchange, frequency of contact with other employees, commonality of wages, hours, and other working conditions, permanent transfers, shared supervision, common work location, and bargaining history."
I would argue that swimmers, football players, baseball players and gymnasts have almost no commonality of interests as so defined.
I’d think football and men’s basketball - really the only two that matter - would be sufficiently aligned under that test.Because before you can think about a union, there has to be a bargaining unit. And members of the bargaining unit have to have a community of interests.
NLRB Paves the Way for Bargaining Units Composed of Employees of Two Different Employers | Littler
In a widely anticipated decision, the National Labor Relations Board has reversed its 2004 decision in Oakwood Care Center,1 and determined that a union seeking to represent employees in a bargaining unit composed of employees solely employed by a “user employer” (a company that hires temporary...www.littler.com
"Those “community of interest” factors include criteria such as: common functions and duties, shared skills, functional integration, interchange, frequency of contact with other employees, commonality of wages, hours, and other working conditions, permanent transfers, shared supervision, common work location, and bargaining history."
I would argue that swimmers, football players, baseball players and gymnasts have almost no commonality of interests as so defined.
But if necessary you could have a college football league and a college basketball league - limited to roughly the main Big10 and SEC schools and a few others.
superrific
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Not really. An important aspect of the test is "shared skills," or at least complementary ones. Think about it this way. Suppose you're trying to certify a class of metalworkers and steelworkers. They don't have identical interests, as the applications of those industries aren't quite the same and the workplaces aren't necessarily structured the same way. But let's assume for now that metalworkers can become steelworkers and vice versa. Thus, when the union sits down to negotiate pay, it doesn't have to worry that much about screwing one of set of workers in favor of another, because employees dissatisfied with metal working compensation could become steel workers or whatever.
in fact, in the real world industrial setting, I doubt that unit would be approved but that's a level of granularity going beyond my knowledge. Point is, it's possible.
But how would a union go about bargaining for terms for basketball players and football players? The football players might want money deposited in a fund for CTE research (for instance); basketball doesn't give a shit. What about raises? The football players, who stay in school longer, might want raises every year. Basketball players don't care as much -- they'd rather have more money.
Working conditions, too. The football players might badly want protection against two a days in the hot, hot sun. Basketball players, not so much. Ballers might be OK with having to provide their own equipment (i.e. shoes) but footballers, nah. Football players want no more than one game every week and at least three weeks with no games. So on and so forth.
I would say that it would be exceedingly difficult if not impossible for a union to represent both football players and basketball players. Under the NLRA the union would have a fiduciary duty to both and that's not possible.
Ok. You’ve convinced me. College football union and college basketball union. But you could still have a single professional league, like the way the studios have a collective unit to bargain with writer unions, actor unions, producer unions, etc.
superrific
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You are right that employers can have contracts with many different unions. Most big industrial outfits would have contracts with a lot of different unions -- you have the UAW, United Steelworkers, SEIU, other support employees, etc. It's for this reason that organizing is done initially on the bargaining unit level.
I don't understand what a single professional league means for football + basketball.
You need a professional league with CBA (or legislation) to make competition more fair and to allow for the healthy growth of the sports. Mass free agency every year is not good for the sports.