Zinger Key Points
- Members of Dartmouth's basketball team voted to join a union, a landmark decision in college sports.
- A look at what happened, what's next and how members of Congress are responding.
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Over the last year, unions became a big topic nationally with three of the largest automotive companies striking due to contract negotiations involving the United Auto Workers union.
Unions could quickly become a trending topic across another sector nationally.
What Happened: When many sports fans think of NCAA Basketball, their attention likely turns to March Madness and the NCAA Men's and Women’s Basketball Tournaments.
The attention of college basketball fans could be turning attention to looking up what unionization means soon after a landmark vote by the Dartmouth men's basketball team on Tuesday.
The basketball team voted 13-2 in favor of joining the local service employees union. According to ESPN, this is the first time a group of college athletes have taken action as employees of the school. Dartmouth's basketball team hopes it's not the last team to take action and is encouraging other Ivy League schools to do the same.
Dartmouth filed an appeal Tuesday and could fight the issue to the U.S. Supreme Court over the next several years.
"For Ivy League students who are varsity athletes, academics are of primary importance, and athletic pursuit is part of the educational experience," the school said. "Classifying these students as employees simply because they play basketball is as unprecedented as it is inaccurate."
The move by Dartmouth's basketball team comes years after Northwestern University's football players attempted to unionize.
One notable difference is Dartmouth is a private school and Northwestern is a public school. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which was involved in the case, doesn't have jurisdiction over public school athletes at the current time, according to ESPN.
Dartmouth's basketball team struggled during the 2023-2024 season, posting a 6-21 overall record and a 2-12 conference record in the Ivy League.
The good news is the decision to join the union could be a good luck charm as later Tuesday night the basketball team defeated Harvard 76-69. The victory ended a nine-game losing streak for the basketball team.
Tuesday's victory was the last game of the season for Dartmouth, which didn't qualify for the Ivy League Conference Tournament, which is reserved for the four best teams in the conference.
Related Link: Unions Benefit All Workers, Not Just Members, Groundbreaking Treasury Study Finds
What's Next: The NCAA faces several legal challenges related to whether athletes are professionals or employees and the battles could wage on for years.
College sports leaders are pushing Congress to create federal laws to clarify that college athletes are not employees.
Tuesday's Dartmouth news had several members of Congress speaking out in support or against the basketball team's decision.
"Now it's time for the colleges to stop wasting their time and money fighting athletes in court and lobbying Congress to roll back athletes' rights, and instead start negotiating with athletes on revenue-sharing, health and safety protections and more," Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said, as shared by sports writer Pete Nakos.
Speaking out against the basketball team was Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), who is a former college football coach.
"This will absolutely kill college sports. You know, the last time I looked, they're not employees. These students are student-athletes," Tuberville said during an appearance on Fox News, as reported by Sportico.
Tuberville said unionizing college athletes, like the Dartmouth basketball team, could "kill the goose that laid the golden egg."
"Unions have ruined our education system across the country."
Tuberville also suggested in his interview that the involvement of players being unionized could lead to teams going on strike before championship games.
"They will hold hostage the people that are paying the bills."
Tuberville said the billions of dollars in revenue generated by NCAA sports gets reinvested "back into the business" each year.
The Athletic editor Stewart Mandel reacted to the article on Tuberville.
"What's funny about this TV segment is that he said ‘they're not employees,' and then 30 seconds or so later said, ‘it's a full-time job being an athlete,'" Mandel tweeted.
The case is far from over, but years from now could be looked back on as a milestone that changed college sports or as Tuberville predicts, killed college sports.
Photo: Shutterstock
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