On eve of CFP title game, some college players ask, What would it would look like to be employees?

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ATLANTA (AP) — The way Cardell Thomas sees things, it wasn’t the schools that failed him as much as it was the system.

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When considering the pros and cons of college players forming a union as they make their way through an industry that changes by the day, the story of an offensive lineman who signed with four schools in five years is a good one to tell.

Thomas’ father Karl died in 2023 after his kidney problems became too much to overcome. Cardell did not name names, but said he was promised help from one of his schools when his father’s health began to deteriorate.

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Help never came. Thomas was injured. Rumors of marijuana use have circulated, although Thomas says he has never failed a drug test. The all-too-frequent trips to the transfer portal were filled with endless questions about whether he was durable or reliable enough.

After stops at Louisiana, Florida and Missouri, Thomas ended up with Deion Sanders, though he barely got on the field at Colorado in his final year of eligibility.

By the time he got there, it was too late anyway.

“I feel like if I could have gotten an NIL in my third year, I would have bought my dad a kidney, and he probably wouldn’t have died,” Thomas said of the name, image and payments that change a college. sports.

Could the players union have made things better?

Thomas is one of about 4,000 athletes who have joined what he wants to be one of the most disruptive forces in a turbulent industry.

Athletes.org sat down with more than 50 of those players over the weekend leading up to Monday’s national title game between Ohio State and Notre Dame.

It describes itself as a “players association for college athletes” — one of two trying to establish a foothold in an industry that includes the NCAA’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee, but nothing in the way of official athletic groups outside the NCAA tent. (NCAA).

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One of its members is Grant House — the Arizona State swimmer whose name adorns the “House Settlement” that is set to dictate the terms of many of the industry’s thorniest issues: revenue sharing, nil payments, roster limits, Title IX and more.

“It’s not just about my name in the case,” House said. “I did it for those guys around me. I did it for dozens of other guys in the room across the hall and across the country as well.”

Another player is Diego Pavia, the quarterback-turned-Vanderbilt player who has sued for a fifth year of eligibility, and whose plight represents the culmination of a potential move to allow all players a fifth year. (Pavia attended the meeting in Atlanta but did not give any interviews.)

Another is Sedona Prince, the basketball player whose viral video of a sparse weight room at women’s March Madness in 2020 remains a powerful symbol of everything that doesn’t work in college sports.

“What matters to me is making a difference, making a real difference, which is what I’m doing,” Prince said in an interview with The Associated Press last week. “Advocating for athletes, negotiating for athletes, and giving thousands and thousands of athletes generational wealth.”

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Players as employees intimidate schools but interest athletes

The organization’s co-founder, Jim Kaval, said sports.org’s mission is not necessarily to declare players employees. However, when those who attended the meeting this weekend were asked if they would like to know more about the pros and cons of the staffing model, 94% said yes.

“It’s not about whether athletes want to be employees, or whether athletes don’t want to be employees,” he said. “It’s about how athletes are treated, and they’ve been treated like employees for a long time.”

Many in the college field view the idea of ​​athletes as employees as an existential threat, claiming that athletic departments would be forced to make deep cuts to programs if they were forced to put hundreds of players in all sports on the payroll, accessing scholarships, retirement benefits, and perhaps nothing. money.

These power brokers breathed a sigh of relief over the past two weeks when plaintiffs halted their legal action in two major attempts toward a hiring model — in Dartmouth and Southern California.

Cavalli believes that no one should be so sure that recruitment is the game killer.

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He says some athletes may not want to because they may owe payroll taxes on their scholarships and benefits, and with nothing money to make up for it, they end up losing out. Others, especially in football and basketball, may be able to make a profit.

“This is the breadth and breadth of college athletics,” Cavalli said. “There are a lot of schools, a lot of sports, a lot of athletes. It’s not just one thing fits all.”

The names behind the NCAA’s lawsuit hope the decisions benefit everyone

Although House and Prince have their names in the lawsuit, most of the decisions made because of it are debated by lawyers, judges, conferences and the NCAA.

“It’s been five years and every day has been different from the day before,” House said. “It’s about adapting, adapting, being flexible… and working to find solutions that actually help everyone.”

Prince said there are things she’d like to see — for example, she hopes schools will get a cap of 22%, or $20.5 million, and be allowed to pay players next school year “because if you don’t pay your students,” athletes, you won’t have Student-athletes.”

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However, her confidence in this happening is not very high, which is why she is also seeking a bigger seat at the table.

“Historically, over and over, over and over again, unless you force them to make a change, they won’t do it themselves,” she said. “So, I hope, I pray that there is a fair and just system that feels right.”

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AP Basketball Writer Doug Feinberg in Miami contributed to this report.

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