As Dartmouth men’s basketball players move toward forming the first union in college sports, a majority of Americans say they oppose unionizing college athletes, even as younger respondents are more supportive.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that a majority of adults, 55%, believe NCAA athletes should not be allowed to form unions that would allow them as employees to bargain collectively with their schools.
But younger Americans, Democrats and independents are more open to unionization. About 6 in 10 adults under the age of 45 support allowing college athletes to form unions. This drops to 36% among those aged 45 to 59 and 23% of adults aged 60 and older.
Across parties, 56% of Democrats and about half of independents say athletes should be allowed to form unions. Only 23% of Republicans favor it.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, a former college football coach and harsh critic of unions in general, said that unionizing athletes would “absolutely kill college sports.”
“You know, last time I looked, they weren’t addicts. These students are student-athletes. And if you want the federal government to get involved and screw something up, you try to make student-athletes dependent,” said Tuberville, who sponsored a college sports bill that would block employee status.
NCAA President Charlie Baker and other college sports leaders have lobbied Congress for several years, calling for a federal law to regulate how athletes can be compensated for the use of their names, images and likenesses.
Tuberville and Democrat Joe Manchin of West Virginia sponsored one of several bills addressing the NIL and other college sports reforms that have been introduced in both the House and Senate over the past four years. None of them gained any traction, with lawmakers focused on more pressing issues.
More recently, the focus of college sports leaders has shifted to NCAA antitrust protections that would prevent athletes from being considered employees, thanks to looming lawsuits.
Baker and others argue that the vast majority of the NCAA’s 1,100 member schools could not afford to treat their athletes as employees and would sponsor fewer teams if athletes were classified that way.
According to the AP-NORC poll, 55% of nonwhite adults support college athletes being allowed to form unions. Only 34% of white adults say unions should be allowed for college athletes.
“This country is not based on unions, but when unions started, they secured the position of everyone in whatever their profession was, so to speak, especially blue-collar workers,” said Eric McWilliams, 62, a black man of Pennsylvania who is a member of a union and participated in the survey. “These college athletes don’t make millions of dollars like the pros. They really have nothing to lean on. If they get injured it’s over.”
Last month, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Dartmouth men’s basketball players qualified for employee status, paving the way for team members to vote on whether they want to join a union.
On March 5, players voted 13-2 to join Service Employees International Union Local 560, which already represents some Dartmouth workers. The school has asked for a review — essentially appealing the regional director’s initial ruling — which could involve a lengthy process to determine whether Dartmouth will ever be required to negotiate with the players.
Still, it was a significant milestone for those who have advocated for some – if not all – college athletes to be recognized as employees and receive a greater share of the revenue that college football and basketball generates for the schools and conferences that compete at the highest levels. levels.
Media and marketing rights for the NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament, which begins next week, generated $945 million in revenue last year for the association and its member schools.
“Now it’s time for colleges to stop wasting time and money fighting athletes in court and lobbying Congress to revoke athletes’ rights, and instead start negotiating with athletes about revenue sharing, health and safety and more,” the senator said. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said.
The survey found that 53% of U.S. adults say colleges and universities with major sports programs should provide athletes with a share of the revenue they receive from broadcast rights. However, fewer than half support giving athletes additional money, a stipend or exemptions from certain academic courses they need to graduate.
“I think the credit for the progress has always really gone to the athletes,” said Ramogi Huma, executive director of the advocacy group the National College Players Association, which has pushed for college athletes in revenue-generating programs to be considered employees. “This is brick by brick by brick.”
Huma helped organize a union movement among Northwest football players in 2015 that started similarly to Dartmouth’s, with an NLRB regional director determining that players could vote to join a union. The initial ruling was ultimately rejected.
In Dartmouth’s case, the players appeared to act on their own, even though college sports leaders, including Baker, have repeatedly said that most of the athletes they interact with don’t want to be employees of their schools.
Isaac Vance is a former Kent State college football player who served on the NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee for three years before finishing his college career last season.
Vance recently told the AP he fears a more professionalized model of college athletics that includes employee status, unions and collective bargaining would end up hurting college athletes.
“It just gets rid of the high school model that… so many great experiences have been built on and then it turns into a semi-pro league, and really, at that point, it really becomes, especially in football and basketball, paid “. -play and it also becomes a business,” Vance said.