Quote Originally Posted by ngineer View Post
Agreed. I am hopeful that once this gets to federal court, it will be knocked down. I don't see the students as "employees". Typically, in business, an employee is hired to provide a service to the company as part of the company's effort to make a profit. Except for the big Power 5, there are no schools making a "profit"...especially at the FCS/DII/DIII level, where athletics is viewed as a 'extra-curricular' activity. Indeed, many schools have used their athletic programs as a means to expand education in areas such as leadership, exposure to community involvement. This is where I can see Congress getting involved (though the thought makes me cringe). Have those schools who want to be 'big time' just carve out those sports and create, in essence, a set of minor league conferences where it is a profit-driven business. Pay the players, everyone pays their respective taxes, workers compensation, social security, health care, etc.
The rest of us just go back to being schools where the students are playing football for fun and learning and receiving grants-in-aid. I don't think the Dartmouth players have thought this entirely through. If they are being "paid" via a scholarship, they will owe taxes (fed, state, local). The scholarships are not 'cash'. They are basically a 'credit' provided toward tuition, room and board. Now, the student has to come up with the cash to pay the taxes on the credit received.
Agreed, the only stipulation employers must follow on wages in the legal minimum wage. And that is only if the employee is a w2 employee and not a 1099. The union can make demands, but nowhere does it say the school must agree to them. Now, in solidarity, other unionized employees might choose to walk out...figuring those are probably janitorial, grounds, food services staffs. But what keeps the School from asking the unionized employees (err Athletes) to share in the cost of maintaining the program? And if a player doesn't show up on time for practice, can the coach fire him and drop his scholarship mid season? So, in the scenario of a football player being late for practice and being fired in early October, do they have to pay half of the semester's tuition to remain in classes? I drive a company owned car, if I get fired, that "company owned asset" is immediately taken from me, so isn't permission to attend a lecture also a "company owned asset"? There are way too many questions to be answered to just jump into this...but hey, based on the number of wins the team has had overt the last few years, the READY FIRE AIM approach seems to fall right in line with their shooting style.