Thursday, during an appearance on Fox News Channel's "Special Report," former University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, fresh off of his Capitol Hill appearance, was asked about the Dartmouth basketball players' decision to join the Service Employees International Union Local 560 earlier this month.
The players voted 13-2 to join the Service Employees International Union Local 560, and on Thursday, the National Labor Relations Board certified the election.
Saban warned unionization would make college athletes "employees," which had disadvantages for a player's earning ability.
"You have got the NILs, you have got the collective stuff," host Bret Baier said. "Now you have got the National Labor Relations Board, Coach, certifies a union to represent Dartmouth basketball players. 'Barring a successful appeal,' according to the AP, 'the players in school will negotiate a collective bargaining agreement that would cover working conditions such as salary, practice hours, and health care benefits.' What do you make about unionizing the Dartmouth basketball team?"
"Well, there's been a lot of businesses that have been successful and work with unions for many, many years, so I'm not anti-union by any stretch of the imagination," Saban replied. "But I think this is — if you make college athletes employees, there's some disadvantages to that. They can be taxed on a lot more things and a lot of benefits that they get right now. Like, we pay approximately $93,000 per student-athlete when you take in all the support that they get, whether it's academic support, food — all the things that go into their scholarship. So, if they have to pay tax on some of those benefits, that's not going to be very beneficial to them. And I don't think that's something that we want. But you can have revenue sharing in college athletics without making student athletes employees. And I think that's the reason that I'm so in favor of taking this route."
"I mean, if you're a music student and you create a new song and you do it in class, the university has the legal right to the patent," he continued. "But you can collect money for that without being an employee. What's the difference for a student athlete who plays a sport? So, I just want to replace the collective NIL model with a revenue-sharing NIL model for the sports that do create a revenue. But everybody can still have name, image, and likeness opportunities, which is a good thing for student-athletes."
Jeff Poor is the editor in chief of 1819 News and host of "The Jeff Poor Show," heard Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-noon on Mobile's FM Talk 106.5. To connect or comment, email jeff.poor@1819News.com or follow him on Twitter @jeff_poor.
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