The NCAA made nearly $1.4 billion in revenue in 2024. The College Football Playoff is generating record profits. And yet the debate over whether the people making it all possible are being properly protected has never been louder or more legally complicated.
Jennifer Abruzzo, former general counsel of the National Labor Relations Board, has been at the center of this fight for years. From Northwestern to Dartmouth to USC, unionization efforts at colleges have gained real ground and then stalled just as fast.
With the Trump administration putting the brakes on federal agency progress, the action is shifting to the courts. But is that enough? And what does the SCORE Act actually do for the players it claims to protect?
The question everyone is really asking is whether college athletes will ever be classified as employees. Abruzzo has a direct answer, and it is not the one the NCAA is hoping for.
