In Dawson v. National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Ninth Circuit held that Division I college football players are not employees of the National Collegiate Athletic Association and the PAC-12 Conference within the meaning of the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiff was a player at USC and filed a class action. He did not allege that he was an employee of USC, so the pure question of employment was not before the Court. Rather, the question was whether the NCAA and PAC-12 were his employers under federal and state law. The plaintiff alleged that the NCAA and the PAC-12 acted as an employer of the class members by “prescribing the terms and conditions under which student athletes perform services.” He claimed that as joint employers, the NCAA and PAC-12, failed to pay wages, including overtime pay, to Dawson and to class members in violation of federal and state labor laws. The Court held that they were not employers because the economic reality of the relationship between the NCAA/PAC-12 and student-athletes did not reflect an employment relationship. It held that the NCAA regulations providing a limitation on scholarships did not create any expectation of compensation; revenue generated by college sports did not convert the relationship between student-athletes and the NCAA into an employment relationship. Finally, it ruled that under the California Labor Code, student-athletes are not employees of the NCAA/PAC-12.

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