New Bill Permanently Blocks College Athletes from Employee Status, Overriding All State and Federal Labor Laws

The Protecting Student Athletes’ Economic Freedom Act of 2025 is short, punchy, and cuts right to the chase: it legally blocks college athletes from being classified as employees. This isn't just a suggestion; Section 2 explicitly states that simply participating in a varsity college sports program, competing in games, or following team rules does not make a student athlete an employee of the school, the conference, or the governing association (like the NCAA). The key detail here is that this ruling applies "regardless of what other federal or state rules currently say," meaning this bill aims to override any existing or future labor laws that might grant athletes employment rights.

The Legal Sidestep: What This Means for Athletes

Think about your own job. Being an employee means you have rights—minimum wage, overtime pay, workplace safety protections, and the right to organize or collectively bargain. This bill strips those possibilities off the table for student athletes before they even get a chance to argue for them. If a student athlete were classified as an employee, they might be entitled to compensation for the massive amount of time they dedicate to practice and competition, which often exceeds a full-time work week. By explicitly denying this status, the bill protects institutions from having to pay minimum wage or provide standard worker benefits, effectively codifying the amateur model into federal law.

Who Benefits from the Fine Print?

Section 3 of the bill spends a lot of time defining terms like Association (a large governing body like the NCAA), Conference, and Institution (the college itself). While defining terms usually seems boring, here it’s crucial because it sets the boundaries for who is protected by this non-employee status rule. The beneficiaries are clearly the universities, the athletic conferences, and the NCAA. They gain absolute legal certainty that they won't face lawsuits or regulatory actions requiring them to treat athletes as employees, saving them potentially billions in wages and compliance costs.

The Real-World Impact on the Next Generation

For the student athlete—the person putting in the physical labor—the impact is significant. Right now, there’s a national conversation about whether athletes, who generate huge revenues for their schools, should be compensated beyond scholarships and Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deals. This bill shuts down one of the most powerful legal avenues for that compensation: labor law. If you’re a student athlete, this means you can forget about accessing federal protections like the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which governs wages and hours. If your coach mandates 40 hours of practice a week, you have no legal recourse to demand minimum wage or overtime, because legally, you are not considered to be working. This legislation aims to close the door on organized labor for college sports, keeping the current business model firmly intact.