The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) will take the side of student athletes in an unfair labor practices case against USC, the Pac-12 Conference, and the National College Athletics Association (NCAA). If a judge sides with the NLRB, it could mean that student athletes across the nation will be reclassified as “employees” of their respective schools who are entitled not only to compensation, but to other employee benefits such as the right to unionize.
The labor board will be advancing a complaint raised by the National College Players Association (NCPA), an advocacy group that has waged several battles on behalf of student athletes. The NCPA argued that that college football and basketball players are employees who must be paid fare wages for their work. As a result, the NLRB’s Region 21 in Los Angeles will advance the argument before an administrative judge.
A June 2021 Supreme Court ruling set an inviting stage for the argument that college football and basketball players deserve more from the NCAA. In a unanimous ruling in NCAA v. Alston, the justices decided that some of the NCAA’s “amateurism” rules violate federal antitrust law. The students in the case argued—and SCOTUS agreed—that the NCAA operated an illegal monopoly which prevented students from entering into fear agreements for their services.
Justice Neil Gorsuch penned the Court’s decision in Alston, in which he noted that the NCAA is a “massive business” that earns billions each year. Several times in...
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