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Tennessee men’s basketball has negotiated a model collective bargaining agreement with the university, a step organizers say could illustrate how player-school bargaining might work in college sports. The deal is a term sheet, not a ratified contract, and the players have not formed a formal union.
How the agreement came together
Months of meetings beginning in the summer led to the term sheet, which was announced Tuesday and whose summary was shared with Front Office Sports. Athlete-advocacy group Athletes.org (AO) facilitated the talks alongside Tennessee athletics officials.
The team selected three player representatives to lead negotiations: graduate student Tyler Lundblade, junior Campbell Duncan and freshman DeWayne Brown II. After initial proposals, the players presented a revised offer to the team on Sept. 30 and discussed it with athletic director Danny White.
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AO describes itself as a nonprofit aiming to organize college athletes and ultimately function as a union; the group has accepted funding from private equity backers. Tennessee’s football program also engaged in the process but paused talks during the season.
Major elements in the term sheet
The document outlines several concrete policies intended to govern compensation, movement and health protections. It does not constitute a final contract, but it offers a blueprint for how a school-level bargaining arrangement might look.
Key provisions include:
- Establishing player payment minimums and proposing mechanisms for revenue sharing, including options such as requiring schools to spend a percentage of athletic department budgets rather than fixing a single salary cap number.
- A set transfer window for men’s basketball agreed to by players, a five-year eligibility window and a ban on returning to college after declaring for the professional ranks.
- Regulation of agents through a centralized registry, fee caps and a certification process.
- Negotiated limits on offseason practice time, an injured-reserve designation and post-eligibility medical insurance benefits.
The agreement also envisions AO representing the players not only during CBA talks but for ongoing services such as maintaining the agent database and negotiating group licensing deals.
“Sharing perspectives through meaningful dialogue isn’t something to be afraid of,” White said in a statement. In a posted video, he added that structuring relations through collective bargaining mirrors how every major professional sport in the U.S. is organized and called engagement with athletes a sensible starting point.
Why this matters — and the legal questions it raises
Collective bargaining is the norm in professional sports, but it has rarely been used in college athletics. Instead, the NCAA, conferences and schools have pursued federal legislation and other governance approaches. The term-sheet development at Tennessee tests whether bargaining can operate at the school level without formal employee status for players.
Critics have long argued that union-style bargaining would be complicated by differences in budgets across programs and divisions, and that treating players as employees could trigger unintended financial and legal consequences. Others point to public-school players’ status as state employees, which can limit union rights in many jurisdictions.
Supporters including AO counter that players could negotiate school-specific contracts now without being designated employees, because the process would be a direct agreement between athletes and their institution. AO also proposes multiemployer bargaining units that would treat conferences as private entities under the National Labor Relations Act, enabling broader collective bargaining in the private-sector framework.
Perspective from organizers
AO co-founder and former NFL player Brandon Copeland framed the effort as practical and replicable. “If we repeated this process with every Power Four university today, we could solve most of college sports’ problems by tomorrow afternoon,” he said. Copeland added the approach is simpler than seeking a congressional fix and more equitable for schools and athletes.
Context from past organizing efforts
College athletes at several schools — including Northwestern, Dartmouth, Stanford and Oregon State — have previously pursued unionization at different times. Tennessee’s initiative is notable for producing a public model term sheet that outlines how a CBA could address compensation, movement and safety issues within a single program.
