They Treated Their Sports Like Business. They want the NCAA to be, too.


Tamara Statman may have owned a student ID card during the four years she played baseball at the University of Arizona, but she sometimes wondered if she should have written “Employee” instead.

If practice times conflicted with the courses Statman and his teammates wanted to take, practice always took priority, discouraging some students from pursuing their intended majors. Some athletes have waited until after graduating or exhausted their NCAA eligibility to take internships or summer jobs. Some, like Statman, who worked in the food delivery service, worked odd jobs late into the night to help pay for meals, rent, and utilities.

“There are people who leave college without a lot of money, possibly injured, and then without any instruction on what to do,” said Statman, 24, an educator now married by the name Tamara Schoen. author of a guidebook for college athlete candidates. “Being a varsity athlete doesn’t automatically mean you have a scholarship,” he added, “but you’re expected to invest the same amount or more. Whatever you call it — a job — and they can be. They can easily accept that their choice isn’t in the way of study.”

His experiences have left such an indelible impression on him that he has recently joined the newest and largest group of plaintiffs in a lawsuit that could turn college sports upside down.

Filed by Trey Johnson in 2019The lawsuit, a former Villanova University football player, accuses the NCAA and some of its member colleges of violating federal minimum wage laws by refusing to pay athletes such as employees. And, to the surprise of some legal experts, the case has gained considerable momentum since last summer, thanks to the positive decisions of the federal judge presiding over the case and seismic changes in college athletics.

Supreme Court in June. unanimously decided NCAA v. In the Alston case, student-athletes cannot be prevented from receiving relatively modest tuition-related payments. Soon after, facing pressure from state legislatures, the NCAA didn’t stop athletes from starting to monetize their fame under new name, image, and likeness rules.

In August, United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Judge John R. Padova Denied NCAA’s impeachment request Johnson case. Referring to the Alston decision, Judge Padova said it was reasonable for athletes to be considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act.

Then, in September, the National Labor Relations Board’s top attorney wrote in a note Athletes at private universities should be allowed to be seen as employees and to unionize and seek protection from retaliation.

Sarah K. Wake, an attorney who has served on the NCAA Division I Violations Committee and has worked on Title IX and athletics issues at three Midwestern universities, called the events “a letter of discontent” for the NCAA.

“This is all happening in response to how student-athletes are treated,” said Wake, who is now a specialist in employment and education at McGuireWoods in Chicago and co-author of the book “Student Athletes: The Times They.” A-Changin’, “A recent article published by the National Association of College and University Lawyers. “A group of people who, for a long time, have felt unheard.”

While the NCAA has softened on some issues, such as the ability of athletes to benefit from their names, appearances, and likenesses, it has insisted that players not be classified as employees, and the Johnson case is at the heart of that demand.

An NCAA spokesperson declined to comment. But in court filings, the NCAA cited the federal Department of Labor’s handbook and legal precedent in arguing that the students were amateurs. The association also claimed that it regulates college sports and does not employ students who participate in extracurricular activities.

The law firm that represents the NCAA, Constangy, Brooks, Smith & Prophete also represents universities named as defendants.

“We are not commenting on pending litigation,” said Steven B. Katz, co-chair of the firm’s appeals enforcement group.

Fourteen former Division I athletes have now signed on as plaintiffs. Some spoke publicly for the first time in interviews with The New York Times.

The group includes men and women from public and private schools, coast to coast: He played a goalie for the University of Notre Dame’s men’s lacrosse team. One was the long jump for the University of Oregon women’s track and field team.

“These children are all working for school and sports provide value to the school even if it does not generate income,” said Renan F. Varghese, attorney for Wigdor LLP, representing the plaintiffs. “This is a very unfair bargaining position, and what this whole case is trying to do is to level the odds a little bit for everybody.”

In their affidavits, the plaintiffs detailed their daily training, meetings, movie sessions, travel arrangements, and game schedules as requirements for their employment.

In an interview, lead plaintiff Johnson described playing football and taking classes as “working two full-time jobs.” He wanted to study physics and a few science and quantity classes started at 8:30 in the morning. Thus, he specialized in communication and made a minor in economics.

“I think everyone deserves a certain amount of control over their lives,” said Johnson, who is now a financial representative for a financial planning firm in Tampa, Florida. “Everything was pre-planned for us. I don’t think it will benefit us in the long run.”

He added that he often hears from athletes who offer support for the cause. “I am absolutely lucky to have been placed in this position. And when you want to do something important, I know it takes time.”

A month after Johnson, represented by Philadelphia attorney Paul L. McDonald, filed his lawsuit in November 2019, five former athletes, including tennis players from Sacred Heart University and Lafayette College, joined the lawsuit; a swimmer and baseball player from Fordham University; and a Cornell University football player.

In September 2021, eight more joined, including Statman, a Tulane University defensive end, and a Duke University pole vault athlete.

“I had very little say in what classes I took,” said one plaintiff, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid conflict with a workplace policy. “They knew which professors were working with actors or the easiest way for us to finish college and stay fit.”

The case reached a critical stage: Unexpectedly, Judge Padova essentially stopped the case in December at the request of the defendants so that the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia could weigh in.

“If the appellate court agrees with the district court that college athletes can be viewed as employees – or if they did and limited it to, say, just football and basketball players – that would be a huge deal,” he said. Ehrlich, a management professor at Boise State University who writes about college athletes and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

The first set of briefings from schools and the NCAA will be on May 31, and a decision is not expected until later this year at the earliest. Ehrlich, a former sports agency consultant and immigration attorney, expects the losing party to try to appeal to the Supreme Court.

But the cumulative impact of these dizzying developments is already resonating.

In February, the National Association of College Actors, an advocacy group, petitioned The NLRB in California has accused the University of Southern California, UCLA, the Pac-12 Conference, and the NCAA of unfair labor practices.

Wake said recently that legislators in several states, including Iowa and New York, have forced student-athletes to classify as employees. Webinar sponsored by the LEAD1 AssociationIt represents the athletic directors of the 130-member Football Bowl Subdivision. Most athletic directors are a LEAD1 questionnaire Those in attendance are “extremely concerned” about the impact this classification has on “possible compensations and protections such as freedom of association, strike, overtime pay, minimum wage, health and safety protections, and more.”

Soon Meeting organized by the Aspen InstituteBob Bowlsby, the outgoing commissioner of the Big 12 Conference, predicted “stress in the system” if athletes were given employee status, and said most Olympic sports – men first, then women – would be eliminated due to income pressures.

He also said that he had never seen such a controversial environment.

“People who are otherwise restrained, considerate, understanding individuals lose their minds around college athletes,” he said. “It’s not a healthy trend.”





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