The Myth of The Student-Athlete: The College Athlete as Employee

Professors Robert A. McCormick and Amy C. McCormick of Michigan State University College of Law have co-authored an excellent new law review article entitled The Myth of the Student-Athlete: The College Athlete as Employee, 81 Washington Law Review 71 (2006). It may be downloaded at this link (the link goes to the abstract, and you can download the article for free through "Document Delivery" -- all you will need is an SSRN account, which is free). The article argues that college athletes should be considered employees under the National Labor Relations Act ("NLRA"), including under both common law and statutory standards for classification of an employee. In the introduction, they write:

By creating and fostering the myth that football and men's basketball players at Division I schools are something other than employees, the NCAA and its member institutions obtain the astonishing pecuniary gain and related benefits of the athletes' talents, time, and energy--that is their labor--while severely curtailing the costs associated with such labor.

Their abstract reveals a profound and fascinating implication of treating college athletes as employees:

As employees under the NLRA, these athletes are entitled “to form, join, or assist labor organizations, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection.” Consequently, they will be able to acquire bargaining power through collective association and to negotiate their terms and conditions of employment, including wages not arbitrarily limited to the level of athletic scholarships.

Think about that: According to Professors McCormick, college athletes should be able to collectively-bargain their rights under federal law. Certainly, that kind of collective-bargaining would forever change college sports, and greatly reduce the economic explotiation of student-athletes and their families by the NCAA/CBS/ESPN/Nike/videogame companies and other industry actors that profit so considerably from their labor.

So should college athletes be considered employees? And should they be able to collectively-bargain with the NCAA/CBS etc.?

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