University of Tennessee basketball players have partnered with a group representing college athletes nationwide to co-author the most detailed vision yet of what a collective-bargaining agreement in college sports could look like.
As reported by The Associated Press, the model for the term sheet released Tuesday by Athletes.org does not carry the weight of a signed agreement but is unusual in that it comes with the support of school leadership. According to the AP's Eddie Pells, "It outlines guidelines for paying players, the transfer portal, academics and ways to enforce rules in an industry that pays millions to athletes under the guise that the money is for things other than playing sports."
The guidelines reportedly include a salary cap and floor, and provisions for cap circumvention enforcement.
“We know what we want and how we want to move forward,” said DeWayne Brown II, a sophomore for the 11th-ranked Volunteers and one of three team organizers. “Working through the collective bargaining process has been great and I hope it’s just a steppingstone for more college athletes to replicate our process with their own schools.”
Tennessee athletic director Danny White and AO executive director Brandon Copeland both told ESPN that to be effective, an actual collective bargaining agreement in the future would have to be negotiated between a larger group of schools and players rather that one athletic department and its athletes. White and Copeland both said they feel that collective bargaining is the only sustainable route to stability in college sports, ESPN's Alex Scarborough reported.
"There will be people who say this would never work or that college athletes aren't mature enough or don't care, this shows they do care," Copeland said. "They're strong enough and mature enough to have these discussions with their university."
Copeland told ESPN the term sheet could be used as a model for a future negotiation for a conference-wide collective bargaining agreement or an agreement among all power conferences.
Critics say "unionization in college sports is not possible for several reasons, including laws in some states that block employees of public institutions from collective bargaining," Scarborough wrote Tuesday. "White has proposed creating a private company to act as the centralized employer of college athletes to help avoid those state laws."
Per Scarborough's reporting, the term sheet, if adopted, would:
- Replace revenue share and university-affiliate NIL contracts with a universal services agreement with payments to begin at the date of enrollment or first practice.
- Spend 89% of the average annual salary cap over the agreed four-year window or negotiate a percentage of the athletic department budget to be established during the official collective bargaining negotiation.
- Include freshman pay scale similar to the rookie wage scale in professional sports and a minimum compensation that covers cost of attendance.
- Subject the university, athletes, coaches and associated entities to penalties for circumventing the salary cap, though no dollar figure has yet been specified.
- Open the transfer portal later — not until at least one week after the national championship. Declaring for a professional league would result in the end of an athlete's college eligibility.
- Establish a so-called "dead" period that doesn't require athletics activities, creating more time to spend with family and to pursue academics and other opportunities; mental health resources; post-eligibility medical insurance that covers athletics-related injuries for at least two years after an athlete's playing career; a grievance and arbitration process; agent certification and compensation; and a fine schedule to be established through collective bargaining.
Moreover, the term sheet states that the CBA would cover an initial four-year window with renewal negotiations permitted up to two years before expiration.
