The NCAA can call college athletes as “amateurs,” but that designation shouldn’t prevent schools from recognizing those athletes as employees, a new court filing in Johnson v. NCAA insists.
On Thursday, attorneys for former Villanova football player Ralph “Trey” Johnson and other current and former athletes filed a 55-page brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Sportico has obtained the brief.
The players asked the court to affirm a favorable ruling by a federal district judge last year and to remand the case for pretrial discovery. Discovery could lead to the disclosure of sensitive NCAA documents, conference emails and testimony by college officials. Evidence and testimony “discovered” could indicate that college athletes are functioning as employees but not being paid to work, and that college sports leaders view athletes as drivers of revenue more so than students.
Last year, Judge John Padova denied the NCAA’s motion to dismiss Johnson, which argues that college athletes are employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). As FLSA employees, college athletes would be paid like their work-study classmates, some of whom earn wages by manning ticket counters and concession stands at games where the players aren’t paid. The Southeastern Conference and a group of 13 education associations recently filed an amicus brief warning that recognition of college athletes as employees would prove cost-prohibitive for many schools.
Padova reasoned that the...
Daily Fact Check from NewsGuard AI Did Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese collapse and fall off of a stage while visiting Fiji? Midterms Watch: Pink Slime Sites Ooze Into Political Ads By S...