On the eve of the CFP title game, some college players are asking, What would it look like to be a recruit?

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ATLANTA (AP) – The way Kardell Thomas sees things, it wasn’t so much the schools as it was the program that brought him down.

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When you think about the pros and cons of college players forming a union as they navigate an industry that changes every day, the story of an offensive lineman who signed with four schools in five years is a good one to tell.

Thomas’ father, Karl, died in 2023 after kidney problems became too much. Kardell won’t name names, but said he was promised help at one of the schools he attended when his father’s health began to deteriorate.

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Help never came. Thomas was injured. Rumors spread about marijuana use, although Thomas said he failed a drug test. The all-too-common trip to the transfer portal was filled with endless questions about whether you are strong or reliable enough.

After making stops in Louisiana, Florida and Missouri, Thomas ended up getting Deion Sanders, though he didn’t get on the field in Colorado in his final year of eligibility.

By the time he got there, it was too late.

“I feel like if I had NIL my third year, I would have bought my dad a kidney, maybe he wouldn’t have died,” Thomas said of the name, image and matching fees changing the college. sports.

Has the players’ union made things better?

Thomas is one of about 4,000 athletes who have joined and would like to be one of the most disruptive forces in a disrupted industry.

Athletes.org held a meeting with more than 50 players the weekend before Monday’s national title game between Ohio State and Notre Dame.

It describes itself as a “college-athlete organization” – one of two trying to establish an industry with an NCAA Student-Athlete Advisory Committee but nothing in the way of official athletic teams outside the NCAA tent.

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One of its members is Grant House — the Arizona State swimmer whose name graces the “House settlement” that is slated to address many of the industry’s most pressing issues: cost sharing, NIL payments, inventory restrictions, Title IX and more.

“It’s not just my name on the case,” said House. “I did this for the boys around me. I did this to a dozen other guys in a room across the hall and across the country, too. “

One is Diego Pavia, a junior college linebacker turned Vanderbilt who sued for a fifth year of eligibility and whose plight is the point of a possible move to allow all players a fifth year. (Pavia attended the meeting in Atlanta but did not do the interviews.)

Another one is Sedona Prince, a basketball player whose viral video of a sparse weight room during women’s March Madness in 2020 remains a symbol of focus on all that is dysfunctional in college sports.

“What I care about is making a change, making a real change, which I’m doing,” Prince said in an interview with the Associated Press last week. “To represent athletes, to negotiate with athletes, to provide thousands and thousands of athletes with productive wealth.”

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Players as employees scare the schools but they are interesting to the athletes

The founder of the organization, Jim Cavale, said that the purpose of athletes.org does not mean that the players are called workers. However, when those who attended the meeting this weekend were asked if they would like to know more about the pros and cons of the employment model, 94% said yes.

“It’s not that ‘athletes want to be workers, athletes don’t want to be workers,'” he said. “It’s about how athletes are treated, and they’ve been treated like workers for a long time.”

Many in the college space view the idea of ​​athletes as employees as an existential threat, saying that athletic departments will have to drastically cut programs if they are forced to put hundreds of players in every sport on payroll, scholarship pay, retirement benefits and potentially NIL. money.

Those power brokers breathed a sigh of relief two weeks ago when plaintiffs trying to push the hiring model — in Dartmouth and Southern California — halted their legal actions.

Cavale says no one should be convinced that recruitment is a game killer.

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Some athletes, he says, may not want that because they would owe taxes on their scholarship and benefits and, without the NIL money to offset that, end up in the red. Some, especially in basketball, can make a profit.

“That’s the scope and breadth of college sports,” Cavale said. “Many schools, many sports, many athletes. It’s just not one size fits all.”

The names behind the NCAA lawsuit hope the decisions will benefit everyone

Although House and Nkosana have their names on the case, many of the decisions made because of it are rushed by lawyers, judges, conferences and the NCAA.

“It’s been five years and every day is different than the day before,” said House. “It’s about adaptability and adaptability and ease of use … and working toward solutions that help everyone.”

Prince said there are things he would like to see – for example, he hopes schools will add 22%, or $20.5 million, to be allowed to pay players next school year “because if you don’t pay your student. -Athletes, you will not have student players.”

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His confidence in what is happening is not that high, that’s why he also pushes a big chair to the table.

“Historically, time and time again, unless you force their hand to make a change, they won’t make it themselves,” he said. “So, I hope, I pray that it’s an equitable and fair system that feels right.”

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AP Basketball reporter Doug Feinberg in Miami contributed to this report.

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