Nina Gupta, Tory Summey, and Shayla Wright wrote an article for Sports Business Journal about what a future of college sports could look like if athletes are treated as employees. A National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) director recently held that the players on the men’s basketball team at the Ivy League private school Dartmouth College were "employees" within the meaning of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). In March, the team voted 13-2 to unionize.

"While both Dartmouth College and the Ivy League have since asked for a review of the NLRB director’s decision, the shake-up in college sports forces us to consider what the legal future could look like for higher education institutions," Nina, Tory, and Shayla wrote. "In a world where the NLRB’s analysis of whether a student athlete is an employee begins to bleed over into other areas and courts and other agencies similarly erase the line between employee and student, sticky legal questions arise for colleges and universities."

"If students are treated as employees, every athletic decision made by a coaching staff could be scrutinized under a tougher legal lens," they wrote.

"By the year 2030, could universities, for instance, be required to put their student athletes — erm, their employees — on employer-sponsored benefit plans? If a player on the softball team gets pregnant, will the university need to provide maternity leave and comply with the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act? What about federal workplace safety inspections? Could regulators come knocking to inspect the decades-old gym where equipment keeps breaking and players keep getting hurt?"

Click here to read the full article: Are College Athletes Employees or Students? A Possible View of College Sports From the Future

Sports Business Journal reaches a national audience of executives and other decision-makers in the sports industry.