Posts tagged college athletes
Michigan lawmakers introduce state bills paving way for college athletes to unionize
July 10, 2025 // Since July 1, student-athletes must disclose any NIL deals made outside the university worth more than $600 to a new third-party entity called "NIL Go." The NCAA says this ensures both sides are getting a fair value, but Rep. Joe Tate says otherwise. "We want to be clear to make sure that no entity is allowed to interrupt a student-athlete's ability to enter into a contract," said Tate, D-Detroit. "Then they don't have to submit a contract to the NCAA for approval. If you're going to a university in Michigan, it restricts them from doing that."
Acting NLRB Counsel Rolls Back Many Biden-Era Labor Memos and Begins Process of Changing U.S. Labor Laws: What Employers Need to Know
February 18, 2025 // Overall, GC Cowen’s memo impacted 31 prior GC memos issued between 2021 and 2025 (yes, some of these were hurriedly issued in January prior to the presidential inauguration). Some of the most impactful memos that are no longer in effect include: Contending that most non-competition agreements violate federal labor law Prohibiting “stay or pay” provisions Characterizing student-athletes as employees
THE TRUMP EFFECT: DARTMOUTH HOOPERS WON’T BE UNIONIZING!
January 3, 2025 // The fight to deem athletes employees isn’t over yet. The Johnson v. NCAA case over athlete employment status is still pending in the federal court system, and a growing chorus of coaches and players (including those involved in the House v. NCAA settlement) have begun to call for collective bargaining. The NCAA and power conferences will continue their multimillion-dollar lobbying push in Congress to pass a law deeming athletes amateurs for good. Their chances of succeeding will be higher with a Republican majority in both houses and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) as head of the Senate Commerce Committee—though not guaranteed. Labor unions could also mount a lobbying push against the NCAA.
Robert Boland: The future of college athlete pay hinges on the presidential election
September 25, 2024 // Most athletes would stand to gain much more from the actions of the NLRB, which could permanently classify collegiate athletes as employees of their universities. This would afford them not only the right to wages but also additional employee benefits such as workers’ compensation, unemployment insurance, and the right to both unionize and collectively bargain with their schools. The Biden-Harris administration — as well as its NLRB appointees — has been very labor-friendly, and we could expect a Harris-Walz administration to maintain the same approach. However, Republican appointees would be more likely to reject unionization and maintain the NCAA’s status quo — however uncertain — without granting student-athletes employee status or benefits.
House Panel Advances GOP Bill to Ban College Athletes as Employees
June 17, 2024 // Good suggested that college athletes should be pleased with having recently "won new freedoms," including name, image and likeness and the ability to transfer schools without enhanced restriction. Classifying those developments as "new freedoms" is debatable. NIL removed NCAA restrictions barring athletes from using a legal right they already possessed, the right of publicity, and only came about after states passed NIL statutes. As to the NCAA lifting transfer restrictions, that only surfaced after the NCAA lost in court on those very restrictions.
Opposition to unionization of college athletes
March 14, 2024 // Few adults have an opinion either favorable (14%) or unfavorable (18%) of the NCAA. Most say they don’t know enough about the organization that regulates collegiate athletics to have an opinion (46%) or have neither a favorable nor unfavorable view (23%). The nationwide poll was conducted February 22-26, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,102 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.1 percentage points.
Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh suggests college athletes unionize after championship win
January 12, 2024 // “For a long time, people say that unionizing would be bad,” Harbaugh said. “If people aren’t gonna do it, if they’re not gonna do it out of their own goodwill, and do what’s right, I mean, that’s probably the next step.” Debate continues over how college football and other sports should handle players’ recent ability to monetize their name, image and likeness (NIL). Lawmakers have generally agreed that new NIL reforms and regulations are needed, but they so far have not come together on what that should look like.
Michigan House bill would allow college athletes to unionize, at an unknown cost
June 22, 2023 // This bill aims to remove three specific exclusions under the Public Employment Relations Act, or PERA: Graduate student research assistants, Independent contractors who are classified as such according to an IRS test that involves 20 factors, and Student-athletes at Michigan's public universities. House Bill 4497 would remove those three exclusions, allowing all three groups to be recognized as public employees. They would be able to seek union representation and collective bargaining rights.