Seattle, WA — JULY 31, 2026 — The United College Athletes Association (UCAA) is pleased to announce that college women’s basketball players today launched the first unionization effort in women’s college sports. Members of the Oregon State women’s basketball team filed a petition for union representation with the Oregon Employment Relations Board (ERB), marking a formal effort by women’s college athletes to seek collective bargaining rights under state law.

Today’s announcement is the culmination of more than two years of athlete-led organizing that has resulted in more than 100 college women’s basketball players signing union authorization cards with the UCAA and represents a historic milestone in the evolution of college athletics.

For the first time, college athletes have built a national labor organization dedicated to giving them a collective voice in the decisions that shape their health, safety, education, and careers.

The organizing effort began in 2024 when more than 100 college women’s basketball players sent a letter to leaders of the Big Ten and SEC requesting a formal process to collectively collaborate on issues affecting college athletes. After those conferences refused to meet with the players, the players continued organizing—building relationships across campuses, developing athlete leadership, and laying the foundation for what is now the United College Athletes Association.

Founded and led by college athletes, UCAA is a union whose mission is to protect, organize, and represent college athletes as humans, students, and workers through collective bargaining. The union seeks to ensure college sports are safe, fair, and sustainable while giving athletes a real seat at the table as college athletics undergoes its most significant transformation in generations.

“As interim president of the UCAA, I’m proud to help lead a movement that gives college athletes a real voice in the decisions that shape our lives and careers. We the players deserve more than promises. We deserve a seat at the table, meaningful protections, fair compensation, and a collective bargaining agreement that raises the standard for everyone. This work is bigger than any one season or generation. We are building lasting power for the athletes competing today and those who will come after us.”

— Oluchi Okananwa, UCAA Interim President

Today’s filing comes at a moment of unprecedented change across college athletics, yet athletes continue to have limited influence over the rules governing those changes.

UCAA’s Interim Executive Committee is led by Oluchi Okananwa (Maryland), Jada Williams (LSU), Charlisse Leger-Walker (UCLA), Brooke Daniels (Michigan), Jenna Villa (Oregon State), Malia Samuels (Indiana), Grace Slaughter (Missouri), Kennedy Lee (SDSU), and Destiny Howell (Wisconsin).

UCAA also has support from a distinguished advisory board spanning the labor movement and professional sports, including Jennifer Abruzzo, former General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board; Nneka Ogwumike, President of the Women’s National Basketball Players Association; Meghann Burke, Executive Director of the National Women’s Soccer League Players Association; Elizabeth Williams, Secretary of the WNBPA; Cameron Brink, WNBA player; Domonique Foxworth, former President of the NFL Players Association; Bill Fletcher Jr., former Assistant to the President of the AFL-CIO; Garrett Broshuis, partner at Korein Tillery; and Jon Hiatt, former General Counsel of the AFL-CIO.

“I’m excited to serve as an advisor for the UCAA to help the next generation of women’s basketball players unionize, secure a CBA that raises the floor, and achieve transformational victories for future generations. The time is now to fix that. As women’s basketball players, we know that our game is growing exponentially, our labor is exceptionally valuable, and our unions can deliver transformational victories for past, current, and future generations. The bottom line is simple: college athletes deserve the same rights and protections as professional athletes.”

— Nneka Ogwumike, WNBPA President and UCAA Advisor

“The NWSLPA exists today because athletes organized. NWSL was transformed and now thrives as a result. The United College Athletes Association is carrying that same tradition forward, proving that collective action is the most powerful tool athletes have to secure lasting change. The labor movement is stronger when college athletes have a seat at the table, and I’m proud to stand with them.”

— Meghann Burke, NWSLPA Executive Director and UCAA Advisor

“It gives me great pleasure to be on the advisory board of the UCAA because it is committed to educating, empowering, and unionizing workers—specifically, in this case, college athletes. The NCAA and its members should not get a bailout that prevents a true path for these vulnerable workers, and the labor movement must unify around the right approach to make sure that college athletes enjoy robust collective bargaining rights—not only to ensure that they get their rightful share in the profit-making enterprise for their hard work, but also that they gain necessary health and safety protections, academic freedoms, and equitable opportunities.”

— Jennifer Abruzzo, Former NLRB General Counsel and UCAA Advisor

About the United College Athletes Association

The United College Athletes Association (UCAA) is a 501(c)(5) labor union whose mission is to protect, organize, and represent college athletes as humans, students, and workers through collective bargaining.

UCAA is led by current college athletes, advised by top labor leaders, and represented by one of the most distinguished union-side law firms in the country: O’Donoghue & O’Donoghue, headquartered in Washington, D.C., and founded in 1935.

Learn more at www.theucaa.org and follow the UCAA on social media at @TheUCAA.