College athletes have been fighting for years over how much they can earn while playing, where they can play, and how long they can play. In a move that could change everything for college athletes, the Tennessee Volunteers men’s basketball team is doing something no other team is doing.
They are working with university officials and Athletes.org to develop a sample collective bargaining agreement (CBA) that could serve as a model for college sports. This attempt is unique in that players are involved in negotiating their compensation, and Tennessee is believed to be the first college team to negotiate a model CBA with the school, according to Front Office Sports.
One important note, however. While the Tennessee players have been negotiating collectively with university officials, including Athletic Director Danny White, at least three players have not yet authorized filing with the National Labor Relations Board or creating an athlete-led union at the university.
Tennessee Men’s Basketball Negotiates Terms With University Athletics Through Sample Collective Bargaining Agreement
Tyler Lundblade, Campbell Duncan, and DeWayne Brown II of the Tennessee men’s basketball team served as their teammates’ representatives during the negotiations.
The Vols began discussing the framework of a CBA over the summer and approved the terms the team’s representatives negotiated on October 1.
Potential rules and provisions in the proposed agreement include salary caps and minimums, guaranteed pay, medical benefits, limits on what athletes can spend with agents, and rules for athletes looking to transfer to another school. It also includes provisions to pay freshmen more, incentives for players to stay at a school longer than a year or two, and penalties for programs that fail to comply with the agreement’s terms.
“It works for the NBA and the NFL,” Danny White told The Athletic. “It’s more complicated for us because we have public and private universities, but with a single national employment agency, they don’t have to be our employees. They have to be employees, the law says, to have a CBA. But they don’t have to be our employees.”
College Athletes Have Been Pushing For Union Representation For Years
This is not the first foray into collective bargaining for college athletes.
Women’s college basketball players at Oregon State previously pushed for recognition as employees with the right to unionize. Former Penn State quarterback Sean Clifford, who was the first active college athlete to form his own NIL agency, also helped launch a college football players’ union effort in an attempt to give athletes more representation.
Significantly, Tennessee is different from most college sports teams of the past in that the players are involved in negotiating the proposed CBA with the university’s athletic department.
“We’re hurting ourselves by not running to this type of solution,” White said.