Football players at Northwestern University have begun the process of unionizing. Unfortunately, despite all of the support for this objective on social media, this is hardly a simple task. For over 50 years, the courts have bought the NCAA’s argument that college athletes (student-athletes) are NOT employees of their institutions. Thus, the protections the National Labor Relations Board provides employees—the rights to unionize etc, are not available to college athletes.
In order for college athletes to unionize, they will need one of the following to happen: 1) the court system and/or the NLRB will need to change precedent in granting college athletes them employee status; 2) Congress will need to take action (good luck getting those individuals to agree on ANYTHING); or 3) the NCAA accepts the unionization efforts granting otherwise illegal activity (capping compensation as an example) protection under the well-defined labor exemption that collective bargaining affords.
There is one incredibly important, and often neglected, aspect to consider if college athletes are granted employee status—the tax exempt status of universities. Many college athletic departments rely upon gifts and donations to fund their teams and initiatives. Should college athletes be defined as employees, the court system may remove the non-profit status granted to college athletic departments. If so, do operating dollars for college athletics disappear?
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