The University of Southern California and the Pac-12 Conference want a National Labor Relations Board judge to dismiss a complaint from some football and basketball players who argued that they should have been classified as employees. 

At the same time, the university and conference won’t oppose a motion from the National College Players Association, which represented the athletes, to withdraw the complaint filed in February 2022. The complaint was one of the more notable recent efforts to resolve the long-standing question of whether student athletes are employees who can bargain collectively. Athletes testified before the NLRB judge last spring, and the case has been pending since then.

USC and the conference argued in responses filed with the court last week that the case has no merit and requested that the judge dismiss the complaint entirely rather than granting the motion.

“If anything, the NCPA’s motion confirms that this case never should have been commenced because the purported reasons for withdrawal have nothing to do with the legal merits of the charge the NCPA actually filed,” lawyers representing the Pac-12 wrote in a court filing.

The National College Players Association filed the motion earlier this month and cited “several significant and relevant developments” since the trial to justify withdrawing the complaint. Those developments include new state laws governing students’ name, image and likeness rights as well as a court settlement that would allow universities to share revenue with student athletes. USC is part of that settlement.

“A primary reason the NCPA filed the [unfair labor practice complaint] against respondents was to help create a pathway and catalyst for the USC and other universities to directly compensate their athletes who earn less than their fair market value,” the motion states. “Together, these state laws and the change in respondents’ position on compensating its college athletes serve as powerful catalysts toward USC (and other universities) paying their football and basketball players fair compensation.”

The association added that dropping the complaint will provide the college sports industry time “to transition into this new era before football and basketball players’ employee status is ruled upon.”