This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to The Morning Win. Thank you all for rocking with us this morning. We appreciate you taking the time today. I hope you’re having an awesome week! The Super Bowl is otw.
Let’s take a step away from the football content for a second to talk about Boston’s regional National Labor Relations Board ruling. An NLRD regional manager ruled that members of Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team were university employees and could vote to form a union, USA TODAY’s Steve Berkowitz reports.
And, just like that, folks, everything in college could change in the blink of an eye.
Details from the board’s 25-page ruling revealed the thinking behind the decision, Berkowitz writes. It said that “because Dartmouth has the right to control the work performed by” the players and “because the players perform that work in exchange for compensation,” they are school employees under the National Labor Relations Act.
The players say they dedicate more than 40 hours to their sport for the school despite the NCAA only allowing 20. That sort of dedication and requirement denotes some sort of labor in the board’s view.
The 15 players on the men’s basketball team could vote to unionize at any point soon. Only eight members of the team need to vote affirmatively for the players to formally ask to join the Local 560 of Service Employees union, per CBS Sports. And, from there, the school would have to begin cutting checks to its players.
Of course, Dartmouth is appealing. The school announced that decision shortly after the NLRB’s ruling.
Just received the following statement from Dartmouth spokesperson, who confirms the school will be appealing the ruling. pic.twitter.com/Vcw94pjZ9Y
— Amanda Christovich (@achristovichh) February 5, 2024
The battle isn’t over. You’d have to imagine that this is something that could reach the Supreme Court.
But, unlike the 2015 Northwestern Football failed attempt at unionization, this one just feels a little different, doesn’t it?
The landscape of college sports has changed. Name, image and likeness rights are everywhere. There are NIL collectives at schools all across the country essentially doing the work of paying the players for the schools — it’s just not under the table anymore. Attitudes about paying players for their work has changed drastically over the last decade or so.
Plus, Dartmouth’s men’s basketball team has this on their side: The team kind of stinks. Right now, Dartmouth is currently 5-14. It’s not going to the NCAA tournament — the team hasn’t gone to one since 1958. Dartmouth doesn’t have a single player on scholarship. The team doesn’t generate revenue.
Let’s put it like this: Matt Brown, the founder of Extra Points, says Dartmouth is “less of a box office draw than a very good high school basketball game” with less than 700 fans coming to see the team on average last year.
None of that matters to the NLRB. Profitability and popularity have nothing to do with labor, in this case. It’s purely about the labor the players are putting in — not the fruits of it.
With that in mind, this feels like a strong case that could hold up in court for the long run. It’s going to need to because, you can best believe, Dartmouth’s challenge is going to be a strong one.
The Betting Bowl
Told you we were going to get back to the football, didn’t I? There’s an unreal amount of money that’s about to be spent on the Super Bowl and it won’t be on party snacks, our Prince Grimes writes.
The American Gaming Association conducted a survey seeing how many folks would be betting on the big game this year and how much money they would spend. The numbers are ridiculous.
Here’s Prince with more:
“According to an AGA survey, 67.8 million American adults are expected to bet on Super Bowl 58 between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers, which blows last year’s record total of 50 million out of the water. It’s a 35 percent increase over Super Bowl 57 between the Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, and the amount of money expected to be bet is more staggering.
Bettors plan to wager $23.1 billion, according to the survey, up from $16 billion in 2023.”
That’s unreal, man. I guess it makes sense considering that the game is in Vegas this year. But still — 67.8 million people? Spending that much money? My goodness, man.
A lot of you probably fall in that window. If so, best of luck. I, for one, am not that brave.
A Father-Son split?
Seeing a father-son duo of LeBron James and Bronny in the NBA would be pretty incredible and make for a nice story. Well, that’s the conventional thinking, anyway. Not everyone believes that.
Austin Rivers actually thinks the two should never be teammates. It’d be a lot of pressure that the kid just doesn’t need.
Rivers is speaking from experience as the coach’s son. Bryan Kalbrosky wrote about it here, saying “Austin said that he was put under a microscope playing for Doc Rivers, who is a one-time NBA champion and one-time Coach of the Year recipient. Yet he still received a lot of criticism (like from Glen Davis) even though the two weren’t very close outside of basketball.”
Rivers pointed out how miserable that experience was for him and how bad it could get for Bronny, too.
“On a different level, Doc is great. LeBron James is the most popular basketball to ever play other than who, maybe Michael Jordan? It would just be a lot, man. I hope for the kid that he is able to not only play in the NBA but play somewhere where he can kind of niche out his own identity. His name is already Bronny. Everything we talk about with him always folds back to his dad and rightfully so. He plays for USC and his dad plays down the street for the Lakers. It’s an insane situation and the way he has handled it, I’m a fan of Bronny. I really. And I hope he goes somewhere else. I really do.”
This might not be what anyone wants to hear, but it’s coming from a place of care and concern. Plus, valid points are being made.
I really, really hope Bronny doesn’t have to go through any of that.
Quick hits: NBA trade rumors are flying … Dan Quinn is off to an awkward start … and more
— Here’s a quick roundup of NBA trade rumors as the trade deadline inches closer and closer to us.
— I can’t believe Dan Quinn is this awkward. Are we sure he’s done this before? Andrew Joseph has more here.
— Meghan Hall has some good words here on the hypocrisy of Michael Porter Jr. on women’s basketball. Shame on that dude for downplaying his peers.
— Patrick Mahomes says he’s not “halfway close” to being as good as Tom Brady. I disagree, but whatever. Cory Woodruff has more for you here.
— Brock Purdy is a good QB, to be sure. But he’s an excellent Spongebob.
—Charles Curtis has who all fans of the other 30 teams in the NFL should be rooting for in the Super Bowl.
-Sykes ✌️