USC files motion to dismiss NLRB Los Angeles office's complaint against Pac-12, NCAA

USC has filed a motion to dismiss the National Labor Relations Board Los Angeles Region’s complaint against the Trojans, the Pac-12 and the NCAA.

In a motion filed Thursday, USC lawyers pushed back on the complaint that alleged the three respondents maintained unlawful handbook rules and misclassified student-athletes. USC’s filing outlines that the guidelines are not work rules. In the NLRB’s complaint, it cited the student-athlete handbook as a “labor policy.”

This comes after the National College Players Association filed the initial complaint against the three parties last year. It’s since moved forward, with Mori Rubin, the NLRB Region 31-Los Angeles Regional Director, issuing the complaint in May. A hearing with an NLRB Administrative Law Judge is scheduled for less than a month away on Nov. 7 in Los Angeles. 

“Importantly, USC did not originate the phrase ‘student-athlete,'” USC’s lawyers write in the motion to dismiss. “The phrase provides an accurate description for the students who participate in athletic programs, has been widely used for decades, and its use is codified by Section 67450 et seq. of the California Education Code, ‘The Student Athlete Bill of Rights.’ It is nonsensical to assert that USC’s use of the term proscribed by its state law, and which is commonly used to describe students who participate in inter-collegiate athletics, is in and of itself a violation of the Act.”

USC’s motion to dismiss comes against the backdrop of the NCAA pushing Congress for an NIL mandate. NCAA president Charlie Baker, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti and Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick all testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday. Each spent time speaking on the need to codify that athletes are not employees.

The NLRB complaint has been a central worry for the NCAA that its amateur model will be put on its head.

It’s not the only factor, though. The plaintiffs in Johnson v. NCAA, former Villanova football player Trey Johnson and other Division I athletes, are asking that athletes be deemed employees subject to the Fair Labor Standards Act. And the antitrust lawsuit House v. NCAA seeks financial rewards for athletes denied NIL pay dating to 2016 as well as revenue-sharing from television deals.

Multiple stakeholders have said recently they believe athletes will be designated as employees, including Tom McMillen, the former U.S. Congressman and current CEO of LEAD1 Association. He recently told On3’s Eric Prisbell that college athletics is on an “inexorable road” toward athletes earning employee status.

USC’s motion has now added more weight to Nov. 7’s hearing with an NLRB Administrative Law Judge. The institution’s attorneys asked in its filing Thursday that the motion for dismissal be heard at the beginning of the hearing.

Eric Prisbell contributed to this report