Athletes.org, an athlete advocacy organization, has proposed a first draft of a collective bargaining agreement for college athletes.
According to Front Office Sports, the organization, which has over 5,000 current and former college athlete members, claims the agreement could be used to ease the instability in college sports.
The agreement could help with lawsuits regarding player compensation, eligibility, transfers and more.
The NCAA and the larger conferences have historically been against CBAs, as it would require that athletes be considered employees of their colleges and universities.
“Everyone knows the current model of college sports is a ticking time bomb,” Brandon Copeland, former NFL player and co-founder of AO, said in a statement. “While some still hope Congress will bail out a repeat antitrust offender, we’re focused on creating the one solution that actually works: bringing athletes to the table as real partners with a real say in their future.”
AO took input, over the course of two years, from athletic directors, conference commissioners, team general managers and coaches. In August, after two years of work, AO brought together 24 team general managers and all agreed that collective bargaining was the best solution. However, many asked for anonymity, as they feared retribution for their participation in the process.
Front Office Sports received an outline of the CBA, which included about a dozen terms that could be negotiated between players (represented by AO) and a league. Those included:
- NIL use
- Group licensing rights
- Revenue-sharing
- Salary caps
- Bonus eligibility
- Anti-salary cap circumvention mechanisms
