March 14, 2024
Earlier this month, the men’s basketball team at Dartmouth College voted to unionize. Fifty-five percent of adults oppose the unionization of college athletes, while 42% agree they should be allowed to form unions.
The National Labor Relations Board ruled that student athletes can be considered employees of the school, and players who are not attending the school on an athletic scholarship should be able to negotiate over salary and working conditions, including practice hours and travel.
Democrats, younger adults ages 18-44, and non-white adults are more supportive of student athletes unionizing.
The public is also opposed to universities providing their student athletes with a salary, spending money, or reduced academic requirements. However there is more support for the players to share in the proceeds from broadcast rights. Fifty-three percent believe college athletes should be paid a portion of the revenue their universities receive from broadcast rights.
Adults who are against the unionization of student athletes are more likely than those who approve of it to oppose giving college athletes a portion of broadcast revenue (58% vs. 26%), additional spending money (64% vs. 43%), or a salary (79% vs. 35%).
Only 2 in 10 adults think colleges should provide their student athletes with exemptions from certain academic requirements.
Few adults have an opinion either favorable (14%) or unfavorable (18%) of the NCAA. Most say they don’t know enough about the organization that regulates collegiate athletics to have an opinion (46%) or have neither a favorable nor unfavorable view (23%).
The nationwide poll was conducted February 22-26, 2024 using the AmeriSpeak® Panel, the probability-based panel of NORC at the University of Chicago. Online and telephone interviews using landlines and cell phones were conducted with 1,102 adults. The margin of sampling error is +/- 4.1 percentage points.
• Suggested Citation: AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. (March 2024). “Opposition to unionization of college athletes” https://apnorc.org/projects/opposition-to-unionization-of-college-athletes
