
The Dartmouth Men’s Basketball team, represented by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 560, requested to withdraw its petition to unionize on December 31, 2024. The petition, approved by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) the same day, ended the first successful college athlete unionization effort in the nation. The timing of the withdrawal was likely a strategic choice to avoid review of NLRB Regional Director Laura Sacks’s (Sacks) declaration that the athletes are employees under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) by the Board under the Trump Administration. Shortly after, on January 10, 2025, the National College Players Association formally requested to withdraw its pending unfair labor practice charge against the NCAA, Pac-12, and the University of Southern California, stating it “believes that it is best to provide adequate time for the college sports industry to transition into this new era before football and basketball players employee status is ruled upon.”