of dartmouth men’s basketball team In a historic step to challenge the norms of college athletics, they voted to form a union on Tuesday.
The team voted 13-2 to join Local 560, the International Service Workers Union, which already represents some of the school’s employees, in an election overseen by the association. National Labor Relations Board.
The vote came after college athletes began profiting from their names, images and likenesses.
However, schools are not legally required to pay players.
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Members of the Dartmouth Big Green watch a game against the Columbia Lions on February 16, 2024 in New York City. (Adam Gray/Getty Images)
The vote to unionize was met with immediate opposition from schools, but one expert said schools may be fighting a losing battle.
Michael Schreck, founder of Collegiate Sports Management Group, said the vote could be a huge step forward for college athletes.
“You have to give credit to the kids who tried to do it. How is that going to be legalized? I don’t know. We need other athletes at the school to have the funds to get this done. Do I have the bandwidth, the physical strength? I don’t have any idea,” Schreck said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital.
“But they got someone to listen and come together to try to figure this out. I’m really excited to see how it all plays out.”
“They’re certainly having an argument. … If everything goes the way they want it to, it’s going to be a domino effect right away.”
Dartmouth Big Green players gather before the game against the Harvard Crimson. February 10, 2024 at Lavietes Pavilion in Allston, Massachusetts. (Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Schreck also said it’s not surprising that players from Ivy League schools, who likely won’t make much money in the NIL, would take this step.
“You’re not on an athletic scholarship, but you’re on some type of academic scholarship. So how does that relate to what they’re trying to accomplish, what they’re trying to accomplish? Is there one? That’s the interesting part of this,” Schreck said.
“It’s interesting when you look at it that Yale, Princeton and Harvard are the top three Ivy League schools. Why didn’t one of those schools try to do it? I think everyone wanted to know if these kids were from American universities.” Dartmouth will try to pull this off, but what will the outcome be? ”
Dartmouth quickly filed an appeal with the NLRB in hopes of overturning last month’s decision that set the rules for this week’s vote.
Dartmouth College campus in Hanover, New Hampshire, October 17, 2021. (Bing Guan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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“for ivy league student “Our students are varsity athletes, their academics are paramount, and their athletic pursuits are part of their educational experience. We cannot hire these students as employees just because they play basketball,” the school said in a statement. “Categorizing it is not only unprecedented, it is also inaccurate.” Therefore, we do not believe that forming a trade union is appropriate. ”
Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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