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3 years ago

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5:52 PM ET

An effort to legally recognize college football and basketball players at the University of Southern California as employees of their school, their conference and the NCAA took a significant step forward Thursday.

The National Labor Relations Board has directed its Los Angeles regional office to pursue charges of unfair labor practices against USC, the Pac-12 and the NCAA. The NLRB will argue that athletes at USC are employees of those three groups and that their rights have been unlawfully restricted. If they are successful, athletes who play men’s basketball, women’s basketball or football at any private college in the NCAA will be granted the rights of employees, including the freedom to create unions.

The claim was filed on behalf of USC athletes by the National College Players Association, an advocacy group that has led several campaigns to increase various benefits that college athletes receive.

“We are working to make sure college athletes are treated fairly in both the education and business aspects of college sports,” NCPA executive director Ramogi Huma said. “Gaining employee status and the right to organize is an important part in ending NCAA sports’ business practices that illegally exploit college athletes’ labor.”

Huma was also involved in helping athletes at Northwestern University attempt to form a union in a similar effort nearly a decade ago. In that case, a five-person panel from the NLRB declined to rule on a petition for Northwestern players to unionize, essentially punting on the question of whether or not college athletes should be considered employees.

In the Los Angeles-based case, Huma’s group filed unfair labor practice charges rather than a petition to unionize. The NLRB does not have the option to dismiss this type of claim before it goes in front of an administrative law judge.

College athletes are still multiple steps away from the possibility of being granted employee rights, and the process to get there could take months if not years. The Los Angeles regional office of the NLRB will next argue on behalf of athletes in administrative court. If the administrative law judge agrees that athletes should be considered employees, the NCAA can appeal that decision in federal court.

“This matter remains at an initial stage, and no final ruling will be issued until there has been a full hearing based on all the relevant facts and law,” USC said in a statement Thursday. “We look forward to presenting those facts, along with 75 years of favorable legal precedent, at the appropriate time.”

Among the reasons the board provided for dismissing Northwestern’s petition in 2015 was a concern that allowing individual teams to unionize could create problems and that a single-team union could have negative impacts on labor stability. Unlike at Northwestern, the USC case is the first to consider whether the Pac-12 and the NCAA should be considered as joint employers — opening the potential for unions that would consist of players from more than one school.

The political and legal landscape has changed considerably since Northwestern’s unsuccessful attempt to unionize. The NCAA has rewritten its rules to allow players to earn compensation from third-party endorsers. A unanimous decision issued by the Supreme Court in June 2021 raised questions about the NCAA’s ongoing claims that amateurism is an essential part of its business. In a concurring opinion in that case, Justice Brett Kavanaugh said college athletes could find a more fair path toward sharing in the revenue they help to create by establishing some kind of collective bargaining group.

Last September, NLRB general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo issued a memo that made clear she thought that some college athletes should be considered employees. Many interpreted Abruzzo’s memo as an invitation for college athletes to make another attempt at forming unions.

Two separate groups have filed complaints with the NLRB since then — one in Indianapolis against only the NCAA and the other in Los Angeles. The NLRB has opted to put the Indianapolis-based claim on hold until it works through the Los Angeles case.

On Thursday, Abruzzo said that misclassifying college athletes as student-athletes instead of employees “deprives these players of their statutory right to organize and to join together to improve their working/playing conditions if they wish to do so. Our aim is to ensure that these players can fully and freely exercise their rights.”

Huma and the NCPA have organized a variety of campaigns to try to increase healthcare benefits for college athletes and get rid of limits of what they can be paid, including a social media protest during previous March Madness tournaments. Former Iowa basketball player Jordan Bohannon joined the NCPA’s athletes board after participating as one of the leaders of that protest. Bohannon, who now plays professionally for the G League’s Iowa Wolves, called Thursday’s decision an “important step toward much needed change.

“I am clearly an employee as a G League basketball player, and I’m doing the same thing I was doing just months ago for the University of Iowa. The difference is that I now have employee rights under labor law and protections under a collective bargaining agreement,” Bohannon said in a statement. “NCAA sports has used the words ‘student-athlete’ and ‘amateurism’ to skirt labor laws and deny generations of college athletes fair treatment.”

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D-backs lose Gurriel to season-ending ACL tear

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2 hours ago

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September 2, 2025

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D-backs lose Gurriel to season-ending ACL tear

  • ESPN News Services

Sep 2, 2025, 05:41 PM ET

The Arizona Diamondbacks placed left fielder Lourdes Gurriel Jr. on the 10-day injured list due to a torn right ACL injured the previous night in a 7-5 loss to the Texas Rangers.

Gurriel was hurt in the sixth inning after he jumped awkwardly out of the way to avoid center fielder Blaze Alexander, who made a diving catch on a line drive by Rowdy Tellez for the third out of the inning.

Alexander was playing his first game in center field as a big leaguer.

Gurriel stayed on the ground for several minutes while medical staff attended to him. The 31-year-old eventually got up and walked to a cart before being driven off the field.

Additional tests confirmed the torn ACL.

Gurriel is batting .248 this season with 19 homers and 80 RBIs.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

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Buckeyes seize No. 1; LSU, Canes rise as Tide fall

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5 hours ago

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September 2, 2025

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Buckeyes seize No. 1; LSU, Canes rise as Tide fall

  • Associated Press

Sep 2, 2025, 02:14 PM ET

Ohio State climbed to No. 1 in the Associated Press Top 25 college football poll on Tuesday, LSU and Miami moved into the top five, and Florida State jumped back into the rankings at the expense of Alabama, which plummeted to its lowest spot in 17 seasons.

The defending national champion Buckeyes received 55 of 66 first-place votes to move up two spots after their win over preseason No. 1 Texas. Ohio State is at the top of a regular-season poll for the first time since November 2015.

The Longhorns dropped to No. 7 as the media voters shuffled the rankings following a topsy-turvy Labor Day weekend. It was only the second time — and first since 1972 — that two top-five teams lost in Week 1 and the first time that four top-10 teams lost.

Only three teams in the Top 25 are in the same spot they were in the preseason poll.

Penn State got seven first-place votes and remained No. 2. LSU, which received three first first-place votes, was followed by Georgia and Miami to round out the top five.

Oregon got the other first-place vote and was followed by Texas, the Clemson Tigers, Notre Dame and South Carolina.

LSU jumped six spots after winning at Clemson and Miami got a five-rung promotion for its victory over Notre Dame.

The biggest movers in the poll were Florida State and Alabama after the Seminoles’ 31-17 victory in their head-to-head matchup.

The Seminoles, who were 15 spots outside the Top 25 in the preseason, are now No. 14. The Crimson Tide fell all the way from No. 8 to No. 21 — their lowest ranking since Bama was No. 24 in the 2008 preseason poll. That was the second of Nick Saban’s 17 teams in Tuscaloosa.

It’s been quite a turnabout for Florida State. The Seminoles were No. 10 in the 2024 preseason, lost their first two games, finished 2-10 and weren’t ranked again until now.

Utah, at No. 25, joins Florida State as the only newcomers to this week’s poll. The Utes are ranked for the first time since last October, when they were at the front end of a seven-game losing streak.

Utah had received the second-most points, behind BYU, among teams outside the preseason Top 25, but the Utes got more credit for beating UCLA on the road than the Cougars received for hammering FCS foe Portland State.

Boise State, which had been No. 25, received no votes following its 34-7 loss at South Florida. The Broncos had appeared in 14 straight polls.

The other team to drop out of the poll was No. 17 Kansas State, which followed up its season-opening loss to Iowa State with a last-minute home win over FCS team North Dakota.

Ohio State is the first team to take over the top spot in the first regular-season poll since Alabama in 2012. It was the biggest jump to No. 1 in the first regular-season poll since USC was promoted from No. 3 in 2008.

Texas’ fall was the biggest for a preseason No. 1 since Auburn dropped to No. 8 in the first regular-season poll of 1984.

LSU has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 3 in 2012, and Miami has its highest ranking after Week 1 since it was No. 5 in 2004.

South Carolina is in the top 10 in the regular season for the first time since it was No. 8 in December 2013.

CONFERENCE CALL

SEC: 10 (Nos. 3, 4, 7, 10, 13, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)

Big Ten: 6 (Nos. 1, 2, 6, 11, 15, 23)

ACC: 4 (Nos. 5, 8, 14, 17)

Big 12: 4 (Nos. 12, 16, 24, 25)

Independent: 1 (No. 9)

RANKED VS. RANKED

No. 15 Michigan at No. 18 Oklahoma: This weekend’s game will be the first meeting since Oklahoma beat the Wolverines in the Orange Bowl to win the 1975 national championship. Wolverines freshman QB Bryce Underwood gets put to the test in his second start.

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Hold that, Tiger: Kelly asks if Dabo saw 2nd half

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5 hours ago

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September 2, 2025

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Hold that, Tiger: Kelly asks if Dabo saw 2nd half

  • Adam RittenbergSep 2, 2025, 04:07 PM ET

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      College football reporter; joined ESPN in 2008. Graduate of Northwestern University.

While Dabo Swinney isn’t inflating LSU‘s grade for beating his team in Saturday’s season opener, Brian Kelly is ready to give the Clemson coach an incomplete for his evaluation.

Both coaches weighed in Tuesday on how LSU’s 17-10 win at Clemson should be viewed. After trailing 10-3 at halftime, LSU outscored Clemson 14-0 in the second half and finished with significant edges in both total yards (354-261) and first downs (25-13).

LSU rose six spots to No. 3 in the AP Top 25 poll Tuesday, while Clemson dropped four spots to No. 8.

“It was a helluva game, down to the last play,” Swinney said in his weekly news conference. “Right out of the gate. It’s like getting the final exam [on] Day 1 of class. They made a 65; we made a 58. Neither one of us were great.”

Kelly had not won a season opener at LSU before Saturday, and the victory was his first with the Tigers against an AP top-5 opponent.

“I thought we dominated them in the second half, so he’s really a really good grader for giving himself a 58, or he’s a really hard grader on us,” Kelly said in his news conference when told about Swinney’s comment.

“Or he didn’t see the second half, which, that might be the case. He might not have wanted to see the second half.”

Kelly added that LSU is moving on to this week’s game against Louisiana Tech.

“Clemson is a darn good football team,” Kelly said. “That’s a top-notch team, and they’re going to be a team in the hunt for [the] playoff picture. We hope we are, too. But it was only one game. So I don’t know if he’s a hard grader or an easy grader, but I like the way that we played in the second half.”

Clemson visits LSU to open the 2026 season.

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