Recent court cases and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) actions reflect some momentum toward classifying student-athletes as employees.
In December 2022, the NLRB filed charges against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Pac-12 Conference and the University of Southern California, alleging they are joint employers that interfered with employees' rights by misclassifying them as student-athletes and by maintaining unlawful rules and policies in their handbooks.
The NCAA's bylaws prohibit schools from offering wages to student-athletes and prohibit student-athletes from accepting wages.
NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo in 2021, stating that student-athletes should be classified as employees and gain the statutory rights of employees, including the right to unionize and receive workers' compensation for work-related injuries.
The memo argued that colleges control players' terms and conditions of employment, such as the number of practice and competition hours, scholarship eligibility, limits on compensation, minimum GPA, and restrictions on gifts and benefits athletes may accept. Colleges also control the "manner and means of the players' work on the field and various facets of the players' daily lives to ensure compliance with NCAA rules," the memo stated. Student-athletes' time commitments include team practices, conditioning, strategy discussions, review of game film and meetings with coaches.
In 2019, some student-athletes...
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