The Labor Law Insider—Dartmouth Men's Basketball Team Unionizes: Air Ball or Nothing But Net?
Inside the NBA with Suzanne Spellacy, General Counsel of the Minnesota Timberwolves, Minnesota Lynx and T-Wolves Gaming
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The Briefing by the IP Law Blog: March Madness Marketing Rebounds With a New Twist
The Briefing by the IP Law Blog: Naming Rights for LA Clippers Dome: FinTech Steps Intuit
Talking with a Time Magazine Female Sports Pioneer Ann Meyers Drysdale, Vice President of the Phoenix Suns & Mercury: On Record PR
The ongoing battle to turn NCAA student-athletes into employees continued this week. As reported here early this year, in February, Laura Sacks, Regional Director of Region 1 of the National Labor Relations Board, issued a...more
In a February 2024 decision, a National Labor Relations Board Regional Director held that Dartmouth College men’s basketball players were “employees” for purposes of the National Labor Relations Act and entitled to unionize....more
In part two of the discussion regarding the successful unionization of the Dartmouth University men’s basketball team, our labor law insiders Tyler Paetkau and Jason Montgomery, along with host Tom Godar, offer analysis and...more
The Spring 2024 edition of the Advisor is a compilation of good and bad news for employers. On the good news side, we discuss several current challenges to administrative agency authority in general, and the National Labor...more
As March Madness officially begins in college basketball, it seems like the perfect opportunity to discuss the recent unionization buzz amongst college basketball athletes. Background College athletes have attempted to...more
In a historic election on March 5, 2024, the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team voted 13-2 to unionize. The vote took place exactly one month after an NLRB regional director ruled that Dartmouth men’s basketball players...more
In September 2023, fifteen members of Dartmouth College’s varsity men’s basketball team sought to join Service Employees International Union, Local 560 (“Union”), which is the “exclusive representative” of Dartmouth...more
What it means to be a student-athlete in college is evolving, and Dartmouth basketball players find themselves at the forefront of this new era. For the first time in history, on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, the Dartmouth men’s...more
The NCAA national men’s and women’s basketball tournaments will begin on March 17, 2024 and end with the national championship games in early April. Broadcast stations often conduct promotions tied to these tournaments...more
Having introduced the cast and set the scene in part 1 of this 3-part series, we turn now to the details. But before doing so, let’s get one thing out of the way – you likely won’t have unionized players on campus...more
UPDATE: The men's basketball team at Dartmouth voted Tuesday, March 5, to unionize – a first in college sports history. We wrote about the labor decision that led to Tuesday's union vote, as well as takeaways for private...more
In what may be a game-changer for many college athletics programs, a National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) regional official ruled on February 12 that members of the Dartmouth College men’s basketball team are employees of...more
It wasn’t cash, an NIL deal, or even an athletic scholarship, but it was compensation according to National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Region 1 Director, Laura Sacks. By providing its men’s basketball team with apparel,...more
For years now, the tide of college athletics has been shifting toward student-athlete representation and empowerment. Now, in what might become a landmark decision, a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board...more
On February 5, 2024, a regional director for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in Boston ruled that men’s college basketball players at Dartmouth College are “employees” within the meaning of the National Labor...more
On February 5, National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Regional Director Laura Sacks ordered a representation election to be held to determine if the Dartmouth University Men’s Basketball team will be represented by the Service...more
Reviewing the Major Plays of 2023 - This past year saw major developments in the world of college sports. From challenges to name, image and likeness (NIL) contracts to congressional hearings to proposed NCAA guidelines,...more
Are Division I athletes who play football and basketball “student-athletes” or “employees”? The National Labor Relations Board’s General Counsel (GC) has filed a complaint against the NCAA, the PAC-12, and the University of...more
The University of Miami’s athletic program is learning that Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) can become a storm, or a tempest in a teapot depending on how you view it, both on and off the court. The Miami Hurricanes were...more
Ongoing efforts to urge the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to classify student-athletes as employees continue with the latest unfair labor charge filed by the National College Players Association (NCPA) and their...more
A nascent “advocacy” group just opened the first front in the newest battle over the status of collegiate student-athletes under the National Labor Relations Act. The College Basketball Players Association filed a one-line...more
Unable to find a student-athlete willing to file an unfair labor practice charge to support the effort of the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to reclassify student-athletes as “employees” as...more
Part of what I love about having a Sports Law practice is exactly what makes it difficult to cram everything I want to discuss into each week’s installment of the "Spotlight." No, it’s not that athletic prowess is not...more
In United States v. Gatto, the Second Circuit (Lynch, Chin, and Engelmayer, sitting by designation) issued a decision on January 15, 2021 affirming the wire-fraud convictions of James Gatto, Merl Code, and Christian Dawkins...more
Once again, the Ivy League has sent a loud and clear COVID-19 message to the collegiate sports community. After initially delaying the start of the winter sports schedule until January 2021, the Ivy League Counsel of...more