This week the College Football Players Association is supposed to meet with lawmakers to draft new legislation that would grant athletes certain worker protections.[1] The legislation would also give collective bargaining rights but would stop short of considering athletes full employees.[2] Lawmakers are trying to create language that will classify the group of athletes who “increasingly think of themselves as independent brands or businesses, as opposed to formal employees of anyone.”[3]
Former Duke University lacrosse player and current vice president of the association, Maddie Salamone, has said that the new model will give athletes the protections that they want and that best suit them.[4] Salamone said that the athletes will have special types of benefits and models that will be tailored to them.[5] She believes that “a model that includes non-employee collective bargaining will preserve what is special about college athletics while ensuring athletes have a powerful voice, fair and adequate benefits and protections, and a mechanism to challenge abusive and unfair treatment by coaches and administrators.”[6]
In the last few years the NCAA has been under extreme scrutiny and has faced many challenges in the way it does business. The world of college athletics has been completely flipped as NIL deals have become so important. There have been multiple lawsuits against the NCAA accusing it of anticompetitive practices. This year, the Dartmouth mens basketball team fought for the right to unionize and receive other protections afforded to traditional workers. However, in the case of the Dartmouth mens basketball team, the college refused to bargain with the athletes. The college said that unionizing “could threaten the continued existence of intercollegiate sports in athletic conferences.”[7]
The vice president of the College Football Players Association, Justin Falcinelli, said that “it is time to end the stalemate over the issue of college athlete employment and come up with bipartisan solutions to the overall sustainability of college athletics.”[8] Falcinelli believes that the implementation of this language will provide a more sustainable version of college athletics.[9] The longevity of college athletics may ride on whether the NCAA is able to balance the rights of college athletics with the integrity of collegiate sports.
[1] College Football Players Assoc. Eyes Athlete Protection Bill – Law360
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Id.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
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