Yahoo Sports national columnist Dan Wetzel, senior college football reporter Ross Dellenger, and Sports Illustrated’s Pat Forde discuss the complexities surrounding the potential employment status of NCAA athletes. Hear the full conversation on the “College Football Enquirer” podcast – and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.

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Video Transcript

The real problem is uh well, it was not doing this whole transfer thing in the first place, but b uh making them employees and then signing the contracts.

Um but that would be that if I was trying to say, hey, do you want to solve the issue that most people actually care about?

Um, that would not be protecting, none of this would be protecting the economic freedom.

But why tell me why the NCAA and, and, and the, the A DS and the commissioners and all, why are they anti employment?

Why is this the thing that they, they’ve come in and they tried everything in Washington and now they’re down to this skinny bill that will pass some committee and then probably die.

Um Good work a lot of money, good job by the lobbyists.

A lot of guys heading to Delaware for their beach house, right?

Big weekend in Roath, big weekend of the shore uh for the lobbyists.

But why are they, what is it about the employment that they’re so uh up in arms about?

I think it’s several things.

II I think number one, as we mentioned, right?

They believe that the majority of athletes don’t want to be employees.

Number two, they believe that the majority of NCAA athletic programs will not cannot or will not probably more cannot pay athletes salaries and if they have to, they will choose not to and they’ll close the programs.

Um, number three, employment would change a lot of what they just did.

They just agreed to the settlement and new model as a facet of the new model, an element of the new model according to that AC C memo, I got a few weeks ago.

Was you, if an employment does happen, if athletes are deemed employees, you can reshape the model.

So everything would change again if they were employees number four.

And here’s the one you might be most interested in.

Dan, it would permit athletes to unionize if they’re employees.

And I don’t believe that college leaders want unionized employees as athletes.

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