Dartmouth tells NLRB that basketball players are students – for real – not employees

By JIMMY GOLEN
AP Sports Writer

BOSTON (AP) — Dartmouth College lawyers say the Ivy League school’s basketball players shouldn’t be considered employees because they are unpaid members of a money-losing program whose need-based scholarships don’t depend on their participation or talent. The case was discussed in a National Labor Relations Board hearing held Thursday in Boston to determine whether the team should be allowed to unionize. Although the big-money nature of college sports can undermine the claim that the athletes are students first, Dartmouth says that’s actually true at the New Hampshire school. The ability of players to unionize is considered a major threat to the NCAA model that relies on unpaid labor to generate billions in revenue.