Dr. Hawkins, Professor University of Houston is the author of the 2010 book The New Plantation: Black Athletes, College Sports, and Predominantly White NCAA Institutions, offers his insights on the little discussed racial dynamics in big-time college sports. Dr. Hawkins makes the case that we should view athletes’ rights as civil rights, a framework the NCAA and Power 5 reject.

Professor Southall is DYK’s inaugural podcast guest. He has written and lectured on college sports issues for thirty years, including seminal works on NCAA graduation rate measurements and the intersection of college sports’ mythologies and the big-time college sports business model. In our discussion, Professor Southall explains the complex relationship between college sports, higher education, and American culture through the lens of former NCAA President Myles Brand’s “Collegiate Model.” How have the NCAA and Power 5 rationalized the professionalization of college sports—particularly the profit sports of Power 5 football and men’s basketball—while maintaining an “amateur” façade? How has the mythology of college sports masked the truth of the business model? What are the civil rights implications of a financial model that exploits athlete labor in sports dominated by African American athletes? Join us for a wide-ranging, provocative discussion of these and other issues that influence the current state and future of college sports.

Ithaca College Professor Ellen Staurowsky is an internationally recognized expert on social justice issues in college sports. In this episode, Professor Staurowsky discusses the history of women’s college sports, gender equity, Title IX’s impact, the Kaplan Gender Equity Assessment, Myles Brand’s “collegiate model,” athlete compensation, and athlete representation. Connecting past and present, Professor Staurowsky offers a candid assessment of the current state of college sports and the challenges athletes face to influence its future.

Mr. Ohr offers a lesson on the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), explaining its history, purpose, priorities, and process. Mr. Ohr connects the “Xs and Os” of the NLRA to fundamental American principles of freedom of association and democracy in the workplace as expressed in Section 1 of the Act, as well as its relevance to college sports. In 2014, Mr. Ohr authored the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) opinion in the Northwestern University case, where the football team sought to form a union under the NLRA. A threshold question in that action was whether the Northwestern football players were employees under the NLRA. After fact-gathering and an administrative hearing, the regional board—through Mr. Ohr’s opinion—found that the Northwestern players were indeed employees, applying a common law test. On Northwestern’s appeal, the NLRB national board declined to assert jurisdiction on prudential grounds, neutralizing the unionization effort. In September 2021, NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a policy memorandum asserting that certain classes of college athletes had been “misclassified” as student-athletes rather than employees. Ms. Abruzzo also suggested that the NCAA and conferences could be responsible as “joint employers” under the NLRA because of their control over athletes’ lives and work conditions. Mr. Orh discusses the Northwestern case and a current case against USC, the Pac-12, and the NCAA under “misclassification” and “joint employer” theories.

Sheila Krumholz is the Former Executive Director of Open Secrets. Open Secrets is a nonprofit, independent, and nonpartisan organization located in Washington DC that tracks money in U.S. politics and its effect on public policy. Open Secrets is the nation’s premier lobbying research group dedicated to providing lobbying data and analysis to strengthen democracy. Ms. Krumholz provides an overview of the nature and purpose of lobbying and insight into the lobbying efforts and by the NCAA and Power 5 conferences.