Should college athletes be employees of their universities?

I swim D3. No scholarships, no NIL deals, 5 am practice because I love it. Nobody is making money off me and I'm not making money off anyone. If athletes become employees, what am I? An employee of the school for swimming slow? The whole employment conversation is about football and men's basketball, and the rest of us are just supposed to accept whatever system they design. My team would probably get cut the day payroll starts. I didn't come here to be labor or management. I came to race.