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Members of the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team on Tuesday became the first college players to vote to join a union, an important milestone in the rapidly changing business of college sports.
Team members voted 13-2 in favor of the union, according to the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees union representation voting for private employers.
A positive vote does not automatically mean that there will be a team member union. Dartmouth has already indicated it will appeal the NLRB’s decision to recognize the players as employees eligible to join a union.
“We have productive relationships with so many unions. We believe our athletes are students,” Dartmouth President Sian Beilock told CNN’s Poppy Harlow in an interview last month. “We don’t give sports scholarships. We are student-athletes here, and we believe our students should think that way.
But an NLRB regional director ruled that the players were employees because Dartmouth “has the right to control the work performed by the Dartmouth men’s basketball team, and the players perform that work in exchange for compensation.”
That compensation includes “room and board for part of the year, equipment, clothing, tickets to home and road games, shoes, access to meals and medical professionals, exclusive use of certain facilities and academic support,” according to the regional NLRB director’s findings.
Tuesday’s vote is an important one, with the potential to significantly change the landscape of college sports in America, especially in the two sports that bring in the most revenue — football and basketball.
Together, the 352 schools participating in Division I conferences reported that those two sports alone brought in $7.9 billion in revenue last school year, according to data compiled by the Department of Education. Overall, Division I athletics will generate nearly $17.5 billion in revenue in 2022, according to a report by the National Collegiate Athletic Association.
Dartmouth basketball makes only a fraction of the revenue of major sports centers. Figures filed by the school with the Department of Education show the men’s basketball program brought in $1.3 million in revenue, although a Dartmouth spokesman said that figure includes support it receives from the school’s general budget. In testimony before the NLRB, a much lower basketball earnings figure of $458,000 was reported.
The idea of union representation for college athletes has been endorsed by a coach of at least one major sports powerhouse. In a press conference shortly after winning the college football championship, then-University of Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh said it was time for athletes to get a share of the wealth produced by college sports, and that unions would be the way to make that happen. Michigan reported $131 million in football revenue last year to the Department of Education.
“And it is long past time to allow student-athletes to share in the ever-increasing revenue. I mean, it’s billions,” said Harbaugh, who has since taken a coaching position in the NFL. “And there needs to be a voice for the young people, the student athletes. No vote at the moment… I have nothing against unions. This is the next step, friends. I think that’s the way to go. That’s what I’d like to see change in college athletics.”
But the NCAA has long sought to prohibit students from receiving any compensation for athletics other than scholarships and some modest stipends. But the Supreme Court opened the door to greater compensation for student-athletes in 2021 when it ruled unanimously that NCAA rules barring student-athlete compensation violated antitrust laws.
“Today is a big day for our team. We stuck together all season and won this election,” said a statement issued by Cade Haskins and Romeo Myrtle, two leaders of the union effort and juniors on the team. “It goes without saying that we, as students, can be both campus workers and union members.”
“Dartmouth seems to be stuck in the past. It’s time for the amateur era to end,” they continued. “Let’s work together to create a less exploitative business model for college sports.” Over the next several months, we will continue to talk with other athletes at Dartmouth and throughout the Ivy League about unionizing and working together to protect the rights and welfare of athletes.”
The Dartmouth basketball team has its final game of the 2023-2024 season Tuesday night at home against Harvard University. The team would finish the season in last place in the Ivy League with a 5-21 record, including a nine-game losing streak. But his vote was praised by union leaders, including Mary Kay Henry, president of the Service Employees International Union, the union the players voted to join.
“These young men will go down as one of the greatest basketball teams in history. The Ivy League is where the whole scandalous model of near-free labor in college sports was born, and it’s where it’s going to die,” she said. “But this victory is about so much more than sports, it’s about people who need a union getting one — whether it’s Starbucks baristas, airport workers, Uber and Lyft drivers or student workers.”
Professional sports are one of the most highly unionized sectors of the U.S. economy, with most professional athletes in the four major team sports—football, basketball, baseball, and hockey—being members of unions. They are among the highest paid union members in the country.
While the pay level of most professional athletes is negotiated between teams and players or their agents, not unions, unions and leagues negotiate contracts that set the terms of negotiations and make multi-million dollar contracts possible.
Professional athletes in one of the four major North American sports leagues earn a minimum salary of between $740,000 per year in baseball to $1.1 million per year in the National Basketball Association, assuming they remain on the roster of one of those teams for an entire season.
“The Major League Baseball Players Association applauds the Dartmouth men’s basketball players for their courage and leadership in the movement to establish and advance the rights of college athletes,” said Tony Clark, the union’s executive director. “These athletes have an unprecedented seat at the table and a powerful voice to negotiate for rights and benefits that have been ignored for too long.”
Colleges and universities have been hotbeds of union organizing in recent years, as students who hold a variety of occupations, from professors and research assistants to food service and dormitory workers, have voted to form unions.
The NLRB reports that more than 40,000 students are members of unions formed in the past two years alone. The AFL-CIO confirms that colleges and universities have seen more growth in union membership through ballot organizing than any other sector of the US economy.
This story has been updated with additional reporting and context.
