Andrew Mendelson
91 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 255
In 2015, the National Labor Relations Board (“NLRB” or “the Board”) declined to assert jurisdiction over a group of football players at Northwestern University; yet, the following year, the NLRB asserted jurisdiction over a group of student assistants at Columbia University. In the past several years, there has been a proliferation of organizing among student assistants, but virtually no attempts to unionize by collegiate athletes. This Note urges the NLRB to adopt the standard it applied when asserting jurisdiction over undergraduate and graduate assistants to players on collegiate athletic teams. Alternatively, the NLRB should make a new rule categorically asserting jurisdiction over all labor disputes involving collegiate athletes at Division I schools. Looking to the treatment of student assistants as an exemplar, a common- law “right to control” test will find that collegiate athletes qualify as statutory employees, and therefore receive protections for employment-related activities. Adopting this rule will serve to further the purposes of the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA” or “the Act”) because collegiate players will be able to rely upon it as they engage in concerted activities such as collective bargaining. Asserting jurisdiction is more necessary now than ever due to the dwindling persuasiveness of the amateur model on which collegiate sports rely. Going through the rulemaking process will also mitigate the NLRB’s tendency to fluctuate wildly with shifts in political control.
