In March, Dartmouth basketball players A 13-2 vote made history and would be classified as college employees – the first successful union election by student-athletes in US history. After Dartmouth rejected the bid, both sides began suing over the way forward. But last Tuesday, before an agreement could be reached, the players ended their union efforts by withdrawing their federal labor petition.
The athletes “advance the conversation about employment and collective bargaining in college sports,” said Chris Peck, president of Service Employees International Union Local 560, in a statement. “While our strategy is changing, we will continue to support just compensation, adequate health coverage and safe working conditions for varsity athletes at Dartmouth.”
The immediate reason for the withdrawal was almost certainly political. Two vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board are set to be filled after President-elect Donald Trump Senate Democrats failed to confirm The current Democratic chair is up for another term, the Dartmouth Basketball Union decided to defend their previous victory rather than risk an adverse ruling on what would likely be a more employer-friendly board. Trump is expected to replace NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has been a prominent supporter of college athletes’ collective bargaining rights, potentially on her first day in office.
Sports Economist Andy Black Noting that unionization rights at the federal NLRB level are fundamentally unstable — even if the athletes succeed in getting a contract under a new Democratic administration, their victory could be overturned by subsequent Republican-appointed labor boards, as it happened With rights to graduate student organizations. Legal experts expect unions to drop more previously pending cases and say a Trump board could also reverse recent decisions, including Union Recognition Rules And Independent contractor.
What will happen in the next four years is not entirely clear. In his first term, Trump was quickly appointed NLRB General Counsel Previous memo is cancelled That suggested college athletes could be classified as employees. However, prominent Trump-appointed judges, including Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanagh, have issued strong opinions. Supports economic rights of athletes And Challenged traditional views That student athletes are not workers.
A separate federal complaint argues that USC athletes should be considered employees Also faces an uncertain future. Dartmouth’s strategic retreat illustrates how the fight for college athletes’ rights often moves on and on in fits and starts, with organizers carefully picking their battles in a closed manner. This latest strategic retreat could preview a broader shift in how college groups approach organizing in the Trump era, seeking alternative avenues of recognition and negotiation.
An amateur model in a professional industry
The amateur model — where colleges make money from sports while not treating athletes as employees — dates back to the 19th century, when schools first began selling tickets to student contests, explained David Berry, a sports economist at Southern Utah University.
In 2022, as my colleague Brian Walsh points out, college athletics was created $13.6 billion in revenueMore than any professional sport except the NFL. Can bring in individual programs like the University of Alabama’s football team More than $120 million annually. In 43 states, Highest paid government employee College instructor at a major state university. Yet most athletes are limited to scholarships and limited living stipends rather than traditional salaries.
Ellen StorovskyA professor of sports media at Ithaca College, argues the amateur system is becoming increasingly outdated. “To me, it seems so disingenuous to perpetuate this idea that athletes are not the workforce that drives this multi-billion-dollar industry,” he told Vox. “These ideas about student-athletes developed long before 24/7 television, a global sports entertainment market. College sports don’t have a business model that matches the 21st century.
If college athletes are classified as employees, they will be eligible for wages, collective bargaining, workers’ compensation, health benefits and legal protections under labor laws. However, the changes sought by athletes through mobilization may be more modest than supporters or critics imagine. If the Dartmouth players had been able to bargain, “they would have been able to negotiate new rules — like maybe they wouldn’t have to go home after midnight after a late game,” Schwarz told Vox. “This is one thing that a labor union could do that would interfere with the business practices of a university, but it would be a health and safety and quality of life issue for the athletes.”
Previous attempts to establish college athletes as employees have encountered significant obstacles. A 2015 effort Northwestern University’s football team failed to unionize Even when a Democratic-controlled NLRB chose not to get involved, citing concerns about “competitive balance” in a conference where Northwestern was the only private school in a mostly public conference outside of NLRB oversight. The Dartmouth case, involving a private school basketball team in the Ivy League, seemed poised to avoid that particular hurdle before last week’s withdrawal.
Outside the NLRB
Although the Dartmouth players union effort has ended, the broader fight over college athlete rights continues. In 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a narrow decision that characterized the NCAA as a price-fixing operation, indicating that future legal challenges could further erode the NCAA’s ability to limit athlete salaries. In a landmark settlement Last year, the NCAA agreed to pay $2.75 billion to college athletes for the first time, allowing schools to be compensated directly.
Meanwhile, at USC, athletes backed by the National College Players Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, filed a complaint to classify football and men’s and women’s basketball players as employees. But with a conservative Trump-era NLRB, athletes could follow Dartmouth’s lead and still preemptively withdraw.
As traditional NLRB channels become more difficult to navigate, unions may increasingly turn to voluntary recognition agreements, forcing schools to negotiate directly with athletes outside of the formal NLRB structure. While rare in college sports, the deals could become more attractive to schools seeking to avoid more costly antitrust lawsuits and seeking alternative union paths during a period dominated by Republican boards.
“It’s really an open question right now,” Staurowski said. “There is concern that the momentum we’ve seen over the past few years is stalling.”
The NCAA itself Continues lobbying Congress To help preserve aspects of its amateur model, even as Recent changes Like name, image, and likeness [NIL] Rights began to reshape the economics of college athletics by allowing athletes to profit from endorsements and sponsorships. As Schwarz notes, “No college football fan thinks the current playoff system is any less good because athletes are getting NIL money, even though for years we’ve been told no one would.”
The Dartmouth players’ withdrawal may help preserve a favorable precedent for future organizing efforts. SEIU Local 560 has already indicated several paths forward, pledging to support and expand the development of an Ivy League Players Association. Group Licensing Program which allows athletes to collectively negotiate with the brand. Still, collective bargaining may ultimately prove “the only viable path” to solving certain problems facing student-athletes, Peck said.
The amateur model of college sports has faced countless challenges since its inception, but today the question seems less about whether amateurism will change, but when — and who will shape its future.
