Auburn fans love to claim that the University of Alabama has the best “professional” team in college football. Rumors of free cars and under-the-table cash payments only fuel this speculation. Recently, some college athletes have attempted to transform such rumors into reality by arguing that they are “employees” of their schools. Notably, none of these athletes play for SEC football programs. So, feel free to draw your own conclusions about the financial benefits of playing football in the South.
In 2014, a Regional Director for the National Labor Relations Board found that football players for Northwestern University were “employees” who were entitled to collective bargaining rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Northwestern appealed that decision to the National Labor Relations Board. On appeal, the NLRB punted (pardon the pun). It declined to exercise jurisdiction over the players’ case, which effectively reversed the Regional Director without actually determining if the players were employees. In fact, the NLRB explicitly left open the possibility that it might consider the issue in the future.
Members of the track and field team at the University of Pennsylvania attempted a different tactic. In 2014, they filed a law suit arguing that they were “employees” entitled to minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. On February 16, 2016, a federal judge in Indiana dismissed that claim. Among other things, the judge found “that the existence of thousands of unpaid college athletes on college campuses each year is not a secret, and yet the Department of Labor has not taken any action to apply the FLSA to them.”
In short, Auburn fans can continue to proclaim that Alabama players are professionals. But, it’s unlikely that a judge will consider them to be University employees any time soon.