Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh says college athletes should unionize. What would that look like?

University of Michigan football head coach Jim Harbaugh said after his team won the championship last week that college athletes should be able to form a union, even though the idea received the most support in years. They became one.

The debate over college sports unions is not new, but with the rise of name, image, and likeness (NIL) contracts and athlete revenue sharing, some believe it's only a matter of time before at least some student-athletes organize. .

Jason Stahl, founder and executive director of the College Football Players Association, said: “A lot of the administrative and cultural winds are changing here, and I think coaches are going to move in Coach Harbaugh's direction.'' ” he said, pointing to the Wolverines' leader. This is the first time a head coach has expressed support for the union.

While the basic idea that student-athletes sometimes earn enormous amounts of money is widely supported, it is unclear how organized labor functions in college locker rooms. Some experts argue that change needs to start from the top.

“I think if we're going to do that, we need to make it a smaller group. It's too big and unwieldy for every college athlete, or every Division I college athlete. …Make it smaller. I think there's a need for it,” said Mitt Winter, a sports lawyer with the law firm Kennyharts Perry.

Others say it's important that all college athletes, regardless of their sport or division, be able to form a union if they wish.

But Stahl pointed out that men's basketball players at Ivy League Dartmouth College have filed a formal petition for a union election, depending on what kind of income the school or team brings in. , said each union would have to make different demands.

“When you think about Dartmouth men's basketball, you don't think about high-level NCAA basketball, right?” he said.

“When I look at the situation for Ivy League athletes, I think the two things that come to the forefront of my mind are hourly wages,” Stahl added, noting that during unionization hearings, teams were told that student managers He said he pointed out that he was earning an hourly wage. But players don't.

He said another thing Ivy League students might try to negotiate is athletic scholarships, which no elite school currently offers.

Once athletes are in a position to negotiate, bigger football programs are likely to get deals similar to the NFL, albeit on a smaller scale.

Michael LeRoy, a professor at the University of Illinois at Urbana and an expert on sports labor law, said, “The first collective bargaining agreements were simple in structure and covered basic topics such as salary levels, revenue sharing, and season definitions. I think it will become something.” -Champagne.

Harbaugh, who has played and coached at the collegiate and professional levels, made an organized labor pitch after the University of Michigan defeated the University of Washington Huskies 34-13 to win the team's first national title in more than 25 years. Ta.

“What I would like to change about college football is to share the ever-increasing revenue with talented people.” Harbaugh said. “We're all doing the same train robbery. It's not just football players and students who are in the position of doing the hard labor, risking their lives and putting their limbs on the line on the football field. – Athlete. ”

“For a long time, people have been told that unionizing is a bad thing,” he added. “If people aren't going to do it, if they're not going to do it out of their own good intentions, if they're not going to do the right thing, then that's probably the next step.”

While there is growing momentum for revenue sharing between players and teams, the current structure makes it difficult for players to formally form a union.

Jim Cavalle, co-founder of Athlete.org, a nonprofit organization aimed at helping athletes organize and have their voices heard, said athletes are not considered employees and the law against public servants. They proposed conditions that would make it “impossible'' to form a labor union. Form a labor union.

“I think athletes in general can already organize, and that's what we're working on at athletes.org,” Cavale said. “And it doesn't have to be through a union. It can also be done through a trade association that doesn't require athletes to be employees and doesn't require legal procedures that prevent athletes from organizing. is Athlete.org.”

As interest in NIL deals grows among college and high school athletes, talk of unionizing has emerged.

The Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings last fall on how to address college sports compensation and NIL contracts, and lawmakers were considering legislation that would codify rules on these issues.

“To enable enhanced benefits while protecting programs from uniform action in the courts, we would like to extend current regulatory guidance into law by giving student-athletes special status that allows them to be non-employees.” I support codifying this into a law,” said Professor Charlie Baker. The NCAA president said this in his opening remarks at the hearing.

Another hearing on the matter will be held Thursday, when Baker will again join the lobbying effort to argue that students should not be considered employees.

The push to find legal solutions and change the rules comes as two court cases consider whether some college athletes can be considered employees under current law.

“I think now is the perfect time. [for change] because [of] These cases have a sand timer set, which makes them more urgent. “Many leaders in college sports have been forced to consider immediate solutions, and their players need to organize as well,” Cavale said.