Tennessee athletic director says collective bargaining with athletes the only solution amid chaos

Tennessee athletic director Danny White said the only solution to the real problem in college sports right now is collective bargaining with athletes.

"It’s a real issue," White said an interview with Tennessee Chancellor Donde Plowman, who shared the video on social media Thursday. "I’ll say it. We got a camera on us. I don’t really care at this point. Collective bargaining is the only issue. It’s the only solution."

Plowman agreed immediately: "It’s the only way we’re going to get there. I agree with you."

The statements are unusual.

For decades, universities and athletic conferences that comprise the NCAA have insisted that athletes are students who cannot be considered anything like a school employee. This stance has long been a part of the amateur model at the heart of college athletics, a model that is rapidly being replaced by a more professional structure fed by millions in name, image and likeness compensation for athletes - money that is coming from donors, brands and very likely in a matter of weeks the schools themselves.

A federal judge is weighing final approval of a $2.8 billion NCAA antitrust settlement that will clear the way for schools like Tennessee to share as much as $20.5 million directly their athletes every year. Schools are also likely to be asked to fall in line with the settlement given the patchwork of state laws in many places intended to benefit flagship schools.

The settlement involving thousands of athletes who sued the NCAA and the five largest conferences does not include collective bargaining, which White made clear he believes will be needed.

Michael LeRoy, a labor and employment professor at Illinois familiar with college athletics, noted White's support of collective bargaining was atypical. He recalled then-Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick saying something similar in October 2023 in testimony before Congress.

"This would be a very healthy development for college athletics," LeRoy said.

It’s a complicated topic: While private institutions fall under the National Labor Relations Board, public universities must follow labor laws that vary from state to state and it's worth noting that virtually every state in the South has "right to work" laws that present challenges for unions.

LeRoy said while states may vary on labor laws, sports eliminates regional differences. Bargaining with athletes would provide labor stability, he said, and eliminate a major source of future lawsuits and more billion-dollar costs for damages.

“If you ask Roger Goodell, 'How would you think about this as a commissioner of the SEC?' He would say, 'No brainer,'" LeRoy said.

Tennessee hasn’t been shy at speaking up. The chancellor helped lead the university's fight against the NCAA last year to guarantee NIL rights for recruits as the Tennessee attorney general joined Virginia's attorney general to win a court order.

White said he is busy trying to position Tennessee to be "competitively excellent in this new world" with guidelines still being hammered out. He said change isn't happening fast enough.

"The infrastructure was not set up to really guide a national agenda," White said. "It’s a conglomeration of hundreds of schools, and everybody’s got day jobs. It’s just really complicated. It’s a really complicated issue. The more I’ve talked to people in pro sports and private equity and all this stuff, it’s an extremely complicated issue. But we have to come up with a solution."