A National Labor Relations Board regional official ruled on Monday that Dartmouth basketball players are employees of the school, clearing the way for an election that would create the first-ever labor union for NCAA athletes.
All 15 members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team signed a petition in September asking to join Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, which already represents some other employees at the Ivy League school in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Unionizing would allow the players to negotiate not only over salary but working conditions, including practice hours and travel.
Man, soccer in England really seems to have pro sports figured out.
We need to get rid of college sports, and have minor leagues where the kids get paid to play.
If they want to use their earnings and go to school later (when they can actually focus on class instead of athletics) then that’s their choice.
But there’s an insane amount of money being made off these kids. Most only get a diploma out of it for classes they never attended. They get the degree but it’s worthless because they never learned anything
It has always bothered me that academic institutions let people in for free or for much less tuition and are more lenient on their academics if they are good at sports. Having a physical advantage over other students shouldn’t translate into making it easier to get into a school and pay for it.
Like you said, let them play on minor league teams and if they want to use that money toward tuition, they can.
Unfortunately, there is way too much money invested in college sports in the U.S. for that to happen.
It’s because we can not imagine letting people in for free if they don’t “earn” it. Sports scholarships let people pretend that they earned their place in the school because they worked hard to get there, ignoring the fact that sports are not academic in any way.
Taking away sports scholarships without making college free would just result in these athletes never getting degrees.
That’s because there is no future in sports and telling these kids you made it to college sports and you will go pro someday is a lie. It’s only hurting the ones who never make it they get a poor education and disappointment.
Just because there’s no future in sports doesn’t mean their scholarship doesn’t get them an employable degree.
And a poor education with a degree is still a very good deal.
If your school spends more money on athletes than on education it is not a school but a sports club.
A sports club with degrees that employers recognize, and that’s all that matters. Actual education is irrelevant.
I’m all for players getting payed and unionizing but I think getting rid of college sports would only hurt the players. Less people would watch them and therefore the players would get less money. A large part of the audience for college sports is students and alumni, if you take that away there’s not much reason for people to tune in or go up to Hanover New Hampshire to watch their basketball team play and buy merch, especially if they’re not a good team.
It works in England because soccer’s the only big sport so you can make some money even if your a lower tier team.
Not focusing on academics is a problem but if the option is to have to play in a minor league team, earn a middling to low income that’s going to basic neccesities, not make it to the big leagues and be left with no other career prospects or savings; or go to college, make a low income but be able to save it as room and board are covered, not make it to the big leagues but at least have the piece of paper that permits you to even think about having a decent life in this country, I’d go with the latter.
Yep, nobody is going to watch a minor league game. The reason college athletics work is because of the name attatched to the school. Nobody cares about some minor league team, they care about the team that represents the school they went to.
Basketball does have a minor league (G-League). There have been attempts to get kids to go to the G-League in lieu of college, but so far the results haven’t been great.
Nobody cares about real minor leagues. The reason college sports work is the brands attached. Otherwise nobody would watch. The G-League has the same issues, there’s no reason to watch it
Im not denying your points in any way, just adding that there are a lot of people besides pro sports players who get degrees but dont learn anything in the process.