March 08, 2024
College Sports Stares Down Its Doomsday Scenario
It was clear how a vote by Dartmouth’s basketball team on unionizing would go from the moment players arrived to cast their ballots. Most of the 15-member roster walked over together, then stopped to pose with their arms wrapped around each other and a placard bearing the name of the Service Employees International Union.
Their decision to join SEIU Local 560 was immediately challenged by the school, which has begun to appeal the interpretation from the National Labor Relations Board that the basketball team are workers who should be able to collectively bargain their conditions of employment. But the greatest obstacle to the Big Green claiming they ended amateurism as we know it isn’t that their decision is rejected by the courts. It’s that someone else beats them to it.
Their decision to join SEIU Local 560 was immediately challenged by the school, which has begun to appeal the interpretation from the National Labor Relations Board that the basketball team are workers who should be able to collectively bargain their conditions of employment. But the greatest obstacle to the Big Green claiming they ended amateurism as we know it isn’t that their decision is rejected by the courts. It’s that someone else beats them to it.