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Pac-12 Conference

The Conference
of Champions

Pac-12 Statement on NLRB Complaint

May 18, 2023

The Pac-12 Conference strongly disagrees with the complaint issued by the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, which alleges that the students at the University of Southern California who play football and basketball should be treated as employees, and not students.  The General Counsel’s allegations are completely at odds with decades of established law and, more importantly, if accepted by the NLRB and the courts, would have a profound and negative impact on college sports and the many student-athletes in our Conference. 

Each year, thousands of young women and men participate in college sports in the Pac-12.  While many of these student-athletes receive guaranteed cost of attendance scholarships that allow them to pursue their academic and athletic goals, others do so without scholarship assistance simply to enjoy the many benefits that come with participation in extracurricular sports.  Either way, all student-athletes throughout the Pac-12 are full members of their academic communities—not workers who are there simply to perform a service. 

The claims now being asserted in the NLRB case seek to disrupt all of that.  Ignoring the many important educational benefits that come with participation in college sports, the NLRB General Counsel would have USC treat its football and basketball players as workers who must be paid a wage, not students who receive scholarships or who desire to participate in extracurricular sports on a voluntary basis.  The impact of such a monumental change in the law would affect not just the football and basketball programs at USC targeted by the NLRB General Counsel, but the more than 20 different sports in the Conference that all operate under the same rules and academic principles.  

The Pac-12 will continue to evolve and provide support to our student-athletes in a system that furthers their academic and athletic goals.  In addition to guaranteed academic scholarships that set many young women and men up for lifelong professional success, student-athletes in the Conference receive world-class nutrition, physical and mental health support; healthcare coverage that extends four years after leaving school; financial support for degree completion; and a breadth of training and developmental opportunities.  But treating student-athletes as employees who are paid a wage for their “services” is antithetical to the educational relationship between the schools and all of the students who participate in the Conference’s many sports, including those who play football and basketball at USC.  The Pac-12 will therefore vigorously contest the complaint issued by the NLRB General Counsel, which we believe is misguided and without merit.