ANALYSIS: To Court Student Athletes, Unions May Go the Pro Route

When the National Labor Relations Board allowed the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team to unionize earlier this year, it opened the door for the board to assert jurisdiction over college athletics. But a major issue prevents unions from using this decision to organize college athletes on a much broader scale: Unlike Dartmouth, most schools that participate in major college athletics are either public institutions or religiously affiliated institutions, and thus not subject to NLRB jurisdiction.

To get around this obstacle, unions may look to professional sports as a model for organizing student athletes at the collegiate level. Additionally, a pending ...