Should college athletes be employees of their universities?

The debate is already half over and most people missed it. The House v. NCAA settlement, approved in 2025, lets schools share revenue directly with athletes: up to about $20.5 million per school per year to start, rising from there. That's a salary cap in everything but name. Schools are already cutting checks to players for playing football. So the question is no longer whether athletes get paid. They do. The question is whether we give them the legal protections that come with pay: minimum standards, bargaining rights, injury coverage, a say in the conditions of their work. Right now they have the money without the rights, which is the worst of both worlds: all of the commercialization, none of the leverage. Calling them employees just makes the law catch up to the transaction everyone can already see. NCAA