Should college athletes be employees of their universities?

In February 2024, an NLRB regional director ruled that Dartmouth's men's basketball players are employees of the university, and the team voted to unionize that March. This isn't a thought experiment anymore. A federal labor board looked at the hours, the control, the compensation in the form of equipment and tickets and early recruiting perks, and said: these are workers. The NLRB decision is under appeal and Dartmouth refuses to bargain, but the legal logic is now on the record. I coach high school kids who ask me about this. I tell them the adults spent decades saying it was impossible, and then a labor board in New England looked at an Ivy League basketball team and called it employment. The dam didn't break at Alabama. It broke at Dartmouth, which tells you how strong the case is.