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New Senate bill calling for college athletes to unionize is unlikely to pass | Mike Jensen

But the measure adds to the debate. “I think there is growing sentiment that there needs to be more athletes’ voices heard than the token voices they currently have, said Penn's Karen Weaver.

A new Senate bill calls for college athletes to be able to bargain collectively.
A new Senate bill calls for college athletes to be able to bargain collectively.Read moreHEATHER KHALIFA / Staff Photographer

It’s not expected to pass, the bill introduced this week in the Senate basically calling for federal labor to be rewritten to include college athletes receiving scholarships as paid employees with collective bargaining rights.

“It would completely change the model,’' one veteran administrator at a Philadelphia university said Friday.

That’s not to say the bill introduced Thursday by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Connecticut) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) won’t have its place in the ongoing conversation about the rights of college athletes. Even without passing, a discussion about the unionization of college athletes could move the bar on the larger debate.

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“I think there is growing sentiment that there needs to be more athletes’ voices heard than the token voices they currently have,’' said Penn adjunct assistant professor of higher education Karen Weaver, academic director of a new (and unique) Penn certificate program for senior leaders in college athletics.

The current role of students in NCAA decision-making is “very perfunctory,’' Weaver said. “I think this bill is saying don’t forget athletes need more of a voice in their experience.”

It comes at an interesting juncture for college sports, overlapping with another bill authorizing a “College Athletes Bill of Rights,’' calling for fair and equitable compensation, including for name, image, and likeness, plus “enforceable health and safety standards.” Plus, the Supreme Court will decide a case about whether NCAA amateurism rules violate federal antitrust law.

If all this is a salad bar of front-burner issues, “I would argue this should be a main course, the athletes’ experience and their right to have a voice in it,’' said Weaver, herself a former athletic director at Penn State Abington and former collegiate field hockey coach.

Eric Zillmer, who finishes his quarter century as Drexel’s athletic director on June 30, has been keeping a close eye on all these issues as the Colonial Athletic Association’s chair of the ADs committee. He is not in favor of this particular bill. He does see the larger purpose.

“I believe we need to do a better job nationally in terms of ensuring financial and organizational sustainability of our athletic programs as well as reimagining the collegiate athletic landscape to better serve the student-athlete,’' Zillmer said. “If we don’t, there will be a new world order for college athletics, and we may be entering the most disruptive period of college athletics yet.”

The bill attempts to acknowledge that the NCAA represents all sorts of levels of schools, most making no money at all from sports, by opening the door for bargaining units within a given school or a conference.

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“So, 20 [Power 5 schools] can afford just about anything,’' said the veteran local Division I administrator. “The rest of them can’t, and certainly the rest of the rest can’t. The fact is, most student-athletes — again, most — are paying to play. They’re not getting full scholarships. Now you’re giving these kids the right to organize but not other kids on campus. What are you getting into? How come? What is it? Is it because of the facilities arms race? You don’t like [Nick] Saban [John] Calipari’s salary?”

A random school in Division III, “You think they’re hiding all their money?” the administrator said.

This administrator sees the merit in the other legislation involving name, image and likeness, and also the need for federal legislation so the laws aren’t different state-by-state, creating chaos.

“While I do feel student-athletes need a unified voice, I do not believe unionization is the best way to do so,’' said Delaware Valley athletic director Dave Duda, who happens to be the father of a current Division II athlete. “Negotiations go both ways, and I believe it could affect some of the current benefits student-athletes receive (e.g.: scholarship dollars, housing, travel, gear, etc.) that would all be negotiated as well.”

Duda also pointed out that it also “set up negotiation by sport,’' which, he said, “would really challenge equality among the different sports, especially the significant difference between revenue and nonrevenue generating sports.”

Bottom line for this bill, Duda said, “I do not believe there will be enough support to pass, or doesn’t seem that way, but it should raise even more awareness to the potential of this issue.”