Dartmouth basketball players seek to unionize

[Halldan1]

Dartmouth basketball players seek to unionize with college 'carefully considering' petition

A group of 15 men's basketball players from Dartmouth are the latest college athletes to seek unionization

www.cbssports.com

A group of 15 men's basketball players from Dartmouth are the latest college athletes to seek unionization​

By David Cobb

A group of 15 Dartmouth men's basketball players became the latest college athletes to pursue unionization this week with a petition to the National Labor Relations Board to join a local union. The "employer" listed with the petition is Dartmouth College/Dartmouth College Board of Trustees, while the union is Service Employees International Union Local 560 based out of Hanover, New Hampshire.

"Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board seeking to represent students on Dartmouth's men's basketball team," Dartmouth College spokesperson Jana Barnello said in a statement to CBS Sports. "We have the utmost respect for our students and for unions generally. We are carefully considering this petition with the aim of responding promptly yet thoughtfully in accordance with Dartmouth's educational mission and priorities."

The move comes amid a rapidly changing landscape in college sports that has seen athletes acquire new rights and privileges that were unthinkable for a prior generation of players. Most notably, athletes are now able to profit off of their name, image and likeness (NIL) while retaining their collegiate eligibility. However, efforts to be recognized as employees have met stiff resistance from schools, conferences and the NCAA.

The NCAA is on the defensive as it faces two significant lawsuits regarding athlete compensation: House v. NCAA and Johnson v. NCAA. Those cases and the changing headwinds of college sports have prompted power conference and NCAA leaders to lobby Congress for federal legislation that would govern student-athlete compensation and supersede potential state laws.

"The reality is only Congress can fully address the challenges facing college athletics," SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said at media days in July. "The NCAA cannot fix all of these issues. The courts cannot resolve all of these issues. The states cannot resolve all of these issues, nor can the conferences."

The most famous unionization effort by a group of college athletes came from the Northwestern football team eight years ago, but the petition was ultimately dismissed by the NLRB. A subsequent 2021 memo from the NLRB stated that college athletes at private universities should be considered employees, which again opened the door for efforts like the one from Dartmouth's players.

 

[CaptBob]

Gotta love it---- P4P will be the downfall of college sports

 

[Robot_Man]

Kind of ironic that this is coming from possibly the most right-leaning Ivy League school and the home of The Dartmouth Review.

 

[sami]

Enjoy being taxed on your full scholarships if you want to be recognized as employees.

 

[Halldan1]

Dartmouth hoops players file petition to unionize

Men's basketball players at Dartmouth College have become the latest college athletes to challenge the status quo by attempting to unionize.

www.espn.com

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Dartmouth men's basketball players file petition seeking to unionize​

• Associated Press

BOSTON -- Men's basketball players at Dartmouth College have become the latest college athletes to challenge the status quo by attempting to unionize.

A petition filed with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday by the Service Employees International Union identified 15 players from the Ivy League school as seeking representation. The SEIU was listed as the petitioner, with Dartmouth College and its board of trustees identified as the employer.

Dartmouth College spokesperson Jana Barnello provided a statement to The Associated Press, confirming the petition had been filed seeking to represent the players and declaring it was under review. The petition has been assigned to NLRB's Boston region, according to the filing's online listing.

"We have the utmost respect for our students and for unions generally," the statement said. "We are carefully considering this petition with the aim of responding promptly yet thoughtfully in accordance with Dartmouth's educational mission and priorities."

Northwestern University's football team made a bid to form the first union for college athletes in 2014.

It was a move that was met with almost immediate opposition by college conferences and schools that argued it would fundamentally alter a system in which hundreds of millions of dollars are distributed annually to conferences and schools.

The move ultimately ended in August 2015 with the NLRB board ruling unanimously that creating a new system of union and nonunion college teams would lead to different standards from school to school. It said a system with varied money for players and things like practice time would create competitive imbalance.

That decision contrasted with an earlier decision by a regional NLRB in Chicago, which said scholarship football players are employees under U.S. law and thus entitled to organize.

However, it did not provide an opinion on whether players are employees of the schools for which they play.

Michael McCann, director of the Sports and Entertainment Law Institute at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, wrote in a social media post that it could take years for the case to ultimately play out.

"There's a good substantive legal argument many, though not all, college athletes are employees," McCann wrote on X. "Dartmouth is probably not the ideal private school men's team to try this given that they are not a major program and are Ivy League, where there are no athletic scholarships. ... But Dartmouth student workers in dining services are already in a union, so from that lens is a good school."

 

[SHUHoopsFan]

Gotta love it---- P4P will be the downfall of college sports

You're going to see the smaller schools cancel athletics. St Francis Brookly I believe did it last year and many more dominos follow in the coming years if nothing is done about it. There's no way they're going to be able to keep basketball players happy along with paying for non revenue sports. Goodbye donations to the athletic departments because donors will use money to pay players. Goodbye to lower level D1 programs. Goodbye to college opportunities that those schools provided to young people. You'll see the power conferences and the Ivy's left as the only ones who can afford the new game. No division 2 school will waste their limited resources on basketball employees. LOL Goodbye to those college opportunities.

 

[radecicco]

Dartmouth doesn’t give athletic scholarships. What‘s the purpose of unionizing?

 

[mbraue]

Enjoy being taxed on your full scholarships if you want to be recognized as employees.

Absolutely- can't have it both ways. What a mess.

 

[garyshu71]

So it seems they are willing to pay for school but want to be paid to play basketball for the school in return?? Interesting concept.

 

[Gohall129]

The way in which ivy league treats sports- it almost makes sense…. But this college landscape just continues to get more and more absurd everyday

 

[Halldan1]

Alabama high school forced to forfeit football game after players receive gift cards: ‘They are just students’​

By Nicholas McEntyre

Friday night bites.

An Alabama high school football team was stripped of a win when their coach admitted to giving gift cards to his players, unknowingly violating the state’s high school athletic rules.

After Tuscaloosa County High School won their season opener game against Central-Tuscaloosa, 24-21, head coach Adam Winegarden recognized his team’s effort and gifted several players gift cards to a local Buffalo Wild Wings.

The players’ status changed from amateur to professional when they received the gifts, which goes against the Alabama High School Athletic Association rules.

The AHSAA’s Amateur Rule states only amateurs are eligible to participate in league-sanctioned events.

“Professionalism is defined as accepting remuneration, directly or indirectly, for playing on athletic teams and in sports activities or for playing under an assumed name,” the AHSAA said.

Two of the students who received the cards played in Tuscaloosa County’s 55-33 win over Bessemer City in violation of the Amateur Rule as they were non-amateurs competing in the high school game, forcing the school to forfeit their Sept. 1 win.

Winegarden, who gave the cards away as a form of player recognition, never thought he was in violation because the gift cards, which were marked “complimentary cards” could not be redeemed, the Tuscaloosa County School System said in a statement obtained by ABC 33/40.

“I don’t want to see anyone else go through what we’ve been through the past several days, the kids didn’t do anything wrong, they are just students,” Winegarden told ABC 33/40.

An unidentified school notified the AHSAA of the potential breach in policy based on social media posts, according to AL.com, which noted Winegarden was disappointed that the school never called Tuscaloosa County.

“It should be understood that the NCAA’s NIL does NOT apply to current high school student-athletes,” the memo from the AHSAA to the school said. “Current high school student-athletes CANNOT earn money or accept money (cash, check, Venmo, Apple Pay, gift cards, checks, etc.) as a result of their connection to their high school team.

In 2021 the NCAA adopted a policy that allows college student athletes to benefit from their Name Image and Likeness (NIL) by monetizing their social media followings, brand themselves or make paid appearances.

“I don’t want this to happen to any other schools, I don’t want to see students have to sit out a game, like we had to have students sit out of a game for something they did nothing wrong,” Winegarden added. “This isn’t NIL, this is nothing along those lines, this is merely recognizing kids.”

The gift cards were never used and the students involved were reinstated to play after winning an appeals process.

It’s disappointing, but at the end of the day I’m the head coach and responsible for everything in the program, so if we were wrong, then it’s my responsibility to understand those things and make sure they are applied,” said Winegarden.

Tuscaloosa County is now 2-2 on the season following a win last weekend and Friday night’s 42-7 loss to Hewitt-Trussville.