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Nonprofit Law Prof Blog

House Committees Address Threat to Intercollegiate Athletics

By nonprofitlawprof

 

I have preached a lot over the last few weeks about intercollegiate athletics and the NCAA.  Particularly regarding the fear that without Congressional intervention, student athletes will soon gain employee status.  And while that would be better than the indentured servitude status they currently occupy, classifying student-athletes as employees would destroy intercollegiate athletic as a bona fide charitable activity.  I should have tuned in when I learned of a House Committee on Education and the Workforce hearing regarding the NCAA and the status of student-athletes.  I thought it would be a silly political stunt.  Here is what the subcommittee chairperson said in his opening statement:

But at its core, college sports are about enhancing student-athletes’ academic experience and molding young people into productive citizens. All of that could be lost if the radical Biden NLRB has its way. The Biden NLRB is the most activist pro-union government agency in history, and it has taken this opportunity to declare student-athletes to be employees. At Dartmouth, an unprecedented NLRB ruling classified student-athletes as employees and has paved the way for the basketball team to unionize.

I saw teasers with those comments before the hearing, so I didn’t even bother tuning in or blogging about it.  I should have because despite the silly politics – NLRB has been like a dog on this bone since long before Biden became President – the hearing featured some really thoughtful testimony on both sides of the issue.  What struck me was that the witnesses all seemed to agree that (1) student-athletes have been exploited, and (2) the current remedy of just imposing business laws on the NCAA will destroy intercollegiate athletics.  Not just as a charitable purpose but as anything distinguishable from professional athletes.  Even the guy who injected politics into it eventually said something useful:

Classifying student-athletes as employees is an existential threat to the future of college sports on many campuses. The increased costs of unionization and administrative headaches would threaten to make low-funded programs economically unviable, including many women’s sports and small-school athletic programs, resulting in fewer teams, fewer scholarships, and fewer opportunities for young people.

The slate of witnesses included a former D1 athlete who now focuses on the topic in his law practice, an academic administrator with athletic department responsibilities, and two academics.  Together, they provided an excellent and balanced overview of the issues.  Their prepared statements are really worth reading.  Here is the list with links to their statements.  You can watch  the hearing above.   

darryll k. jones