The 15 members of the men’s basketball team at Dartmouth College (the Big Green) have voted to unionize. The Ivy League basketball team is the first in the country — and in the NCAA — to do so. (The Division 1 team reportedly brings in $1.3 million a year in revenue.)
As members of the Local 560 of the Service Employees International Union, the collegiate athletes, who are now defining themselves as employees of the college, will be able to negotiate on compensation, benefits and working conditions — including practice time and travel. The also intend to form an Ivy League Players Association.
Fox News asked U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, former Division 1 NCAA football coach, to comment. He said of the Dartmouth student athletes, “They’re gonna kill the goose that laid the golden egg, all these athletes are.” Tuberville warned, “you’re gonna see groups of people that’s going to try to unionize and it’s gonna spread across the country.”
I’m all for student-athletes making some money, but we can’t get unions involved.
Unions have ruined our education system across the country, and they’ll ruin college sports.
Glad to discuss this with @johnrobertsFox on @AmericaRpts. pic.twitter.com/UY1tkfL9Fr
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) March 6, 2024
The former coach turned Senator added: “This will absolutely kill college sports… And if you want the federal government involved, and ruin something, you try making student athletes employees. Federal government will get involved, unions will get involved, and it will be a total disaster.” Tuberville also blames unions for “ruining our education system across the country.”
Tuberville rang more alarms by predicting that “Coaches are going to get out of the business” and if a team unionizes, the athletes “will go on strike right before a championship game” and “they will hold hostage the people who are paying the bills.”
Independent Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders was less worried about Dartmouth, which has a $8+ billion endowment, going broke. He wrote: “Congratulations to the members of the Dartmouth men’s basketball team on voting overwhelmingly to become the first college sports team in America to form a union. It’s time for Dartmouth to respect their constitutional right to organize and bargain for a fair contract now.”
College sports are changing fast, with individual NCAA athletes winning the right in 2021 to be compensated though name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals while in school — a policy that impacts star players more than entire teams.
NOTE: Tuberville is the former head football coach at Auburn University, a Southeastern Conference (SEC) powerhouse, with an NCAA limit of 85 scholarships for football players. Dartmouth, like all Ivy League teams, does not offer sports scholarships.