They don’t seem to be getting the message.
The SEC is welcoming Texas and Oklahoma, which means, for instance, that Oklahoma’s volleyball team soon will be playing at Florida, 1,200 miles away.
The Big 12 responded by bringing in Cincinnati, BYU, Houston and UCF. When BYU’s teams meet UCF’s, that’s a 2,300-mile trip between Provo and Orlando. But, hey, don’t forget to make that 8 a.m. class.
As collegiate athletes gain ground through Name, Image and Likeness compensation, the schools continue to pay two sets of coaches, the ones they’ve hired and the ones they’ve fired.
They keep gouging fans for parking and priority seating. They’re playing more bowl games to fill up network time. They continue to open their basketball seasons on Nov. 9 and end them in early April.
The music is playing but they’re tuning out.
They will have trouble ignoring the note that resounded Wednesday.
The general counsel for the National Labor Relations Board ruled that athletes, at least those at private schools, are employees. They are no longer considered “student-athletes,” an underclass created entirely by the NCAA to justify the monstrosity they built.
Jennifer Abruzzo, the general counsel, pledged to pursue legal action against schools that insist on the “student-athlete” trope. It is a misclassification, she said, that pretends the players are not entitled to the protections of the National Labor Relations Act.
“They are statutory employees,” Abruzzo wrote, “who have the right to act collectively to improve their terms and conditions of employment. They … perform services for institutions in return for compensation and subject to their control.”
This comes three months after the Supreme Court unanimously upheld lower court rulings in U.S. vs. Alston, and removed the limits that players could get from NIL. At the time, the Court did not address the issue of direct compensation for current athletes. Abruzzo’s ruling might be known as the first blow at the base of that tree.
Bryce Young, the former Mater Dei High quarterback who now starts at Alabama, reached an immediate agreement with the Creative Artists Agency and has reportedly signed deals for more than $800,000.
Livvy Dunne, an LSU gymnast who has 5.7 million social media followers, made a deal with Vuori, a sportswear company, that will reportedly pay her $500,000.
The NCAA passionately fought NIL, which sprang from the original suit filed by former UCLA basketball star Ed O’Bannon, but it shouldn’t have. The schools aren’t paying the endorsement contracts. In some cases, they might get more seasons out of their best players if there’s a financial reason to stay.
But the NLRB decision is something else. Although Wednesday’s memo was very preliminary, it starts the ball bouncing toward empowerment, partnership, and eventually a salary.
That would be a budget-buster for schools who play at the margins of big-time college football. The others can handle it.
The SEC’s latest contract with ESPN is expected to pay each college $68 million per year. Big Ten schools get $55 million each, going into their TV negotiations with three different networks beginning in 2023. The Pac-12 payout is $32.5 million.
Add such licensing deals as UCLA’s recent marriage with Jordan Brand, which will bring $7.7 million per, and it’s difficult to grieve over the hardships that a player payroll might bring.
Maybe some football programs won’t need six strength and conditioning coaches. Maybe coaches like Clemson’s Dabo Swinney can learn to live with something less than $9.3 million per year in a South Carolina county with a median income of $49,000.
The ruling seems to affect private schools exclusively, but Abruzzo referred to a bill sponsored by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Ct.) that allows public school players to organize, too.
It was a day of delayed gratification for former Northwestern quarterback Kain Colter and teammates. They got a hearing with the NLRB in 2015 but their motion was dismissed. Even then, the NLRB did not reject the theory that players were employees.
“Such bargaining has never involved a bargaining unit consisting of a single team’s players,” the board wrote.
It is hard to overestimate the impact of Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s irate opinion in NCAA vs. Austin, or its clear invitation to any plaintiffs within shouting distance.
“The NCAA’s business model would be flatly illegal in almost any other industry in America,” Kavanaugh wrote. “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate.”
It’s only right to teach our children that life isn’t fair. It’s wrong to use them as a demonstration.
