June 6, 2026 • 20 mins
Issues with NIL in College Sports
-
Transfer Portal Chaos
- Athletes transferring multiple times (3–5+ times)
- Lack of stability for teams and programs
-
Extended Player Eligibility
- Athletes competing into their late 20s (26–28 years old)
- Some accumulating 6–7 years of playing time
-
Financial Instability
- Most college athletic programs are losing money
- Schools face millions in losses, some cutting programs
-
Program Cuts
- Elimination of:
- Women’s sports
- Olympic/non-revenue sports (e.g., tennis)
- Risk of continued shrinkage
- Elimination of:
-
Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) Escalation
- Massive growth in athlete compensation:
- Example: Alabama roster costs rising from ~$2.7M to projected $24M+
- Some programs reaching $40M+ rosters
- Massive growth in athlete compensation:
🧾 Proposed Solution: Protect College Sports Act
- A Republican senator (speaker)
- Senator Maria Cantwell (Democrat)
- Additional bipartisan co-sponsors
Goals of the Bill:
- Stabilize college athletics
- Introduce structure and limits
- Prevent:
- Financial collapse of programs
- Loss of non-revenue sports
- Shift toward a professional-only system
🏛️ Political & Institutional Support
The bill is described as having broad and growing support, including:
- College athletic leaders and university presidents
- NCAA stakeholders
- Major conferences (ACC, Big 12)
- High-profile figures like:
- Coach Nick Saban
- Condoleezza Rice
- The President (Donald Trump), who is quoted supporting the initiative
🧠 Broader Importance of College Sports
- Provide education access for over 500,000 student-athletes
- Help low-income and minority students attend college
- Teach life skills:
- Discipline
- Teamwork
- Accountability
- Serve as a social unifier, bringing diverse communities together
- Can change life trajectories and prevent negative outcomes (e.g., crime, poverty)
🚨 Risks if No Action Is Taken
- Emergence of a “super league” with only top programs surviving
- Reduction to 30–50 major football schools
- Collapse of smaller programs and schools
- Loss of:
- Scholarships
- Educational opportunities
- Entire athletic departments
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
And that's the reason that I always like college athletics
more than the NFL is because you had the opportunity
to develop young people so and I want their quality
of life to be good. I think, as I said before,
name image of likeness is a great opportunity for them
to create a brand for themselves. I'm not against that
at all, but to come up with some kind of
(00:20):
a system that still can help the development of young
people I think is paramount to the future of college athletics.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
If you're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with
Ben ferguson good.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Saturday morning, it's so nice to have you with us
on the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got a
very special show for you. Saving college sports, Well, it
may be closer to death than you realize, all because
of the massive amounts of money that are pouring into
football with nil deals. The problem is other sports, Olympic sports,
are being left behind, and if there isn't a change soon,
(00:54):
you may see countless sports completely disappear from universities. And
that means count Let's do it in athletes that no
longer get the scholarships they need to be able to
attend a university. Well, the good news is this, there
is some fixes, and it's bipartisan, and the President of
the United States of America is behind it as well.
(01:14):
It's the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Story number one.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
There aren't many issues in Washington these days that can
bring Republicans and Democrats together, but one of them may
be the future of saving college athletics.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
And frankly, it's about time.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
For years, we've watched the nil air spiral further and
further out of control. And this is coming from a
former college athlete. The transfer portal has become free agency.
Coaches are struggling to build teams and other coaches can
just bail for bigger paydays even when they're headed to
the national championships. Rivalries are disappearing, Athletes are bouncing from
(01:54):
school to school, chasing the next big paycheck, and many
athletic directors are warning that women's sports, Olympic sports, and
smaller programs like tennis and golf, well they could be
on the chopping block if something doesn't change fast. Now,
for the first time, here's the good news. There actually
appears to be a serious bipartisan effort to Restore Some
(02:18):
Order to Protect College Sports act that's been led by
Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Maria Cantwell is now gaining
momentum in Washington, and today it got a major boost
from President Donald Trump himself. The legislation would create national
NIL standards, bring stability to transfers and eligibility rules, and yes,
(02:41):
there's even the Lane Kiffen rule. After he screwed the
University of Mississippi aka MI alma mater ole Miss as
we headed to a national championship run. This is exactly
why the bill is definitely needed. It gives college sports
a much needed framework to prevent complete chaos and a
(03:01):
total collapse of so many sports that aren't quote revenue making.
President Trump made it clear that he believes Congress must
act his endorsement of the legislation, he called it a
strong foundation to not only save college sports, but he
argued that executive action alone are not enough. He said
that after meeting with university leaders, coaches, and athletic officials,
(03:23):
it became clear that a legislative solution is needed to
preserve the future of college athletics. And this isn't a
new issue for President Trump either. Earlier this year, he
warned that college sports could be lost forever without major
reforms and described the current environment as an out of
control financial arms race that threatened scholarships, competitive balance, and
(03:46):
opportunities for so many future athletes. The reality is simple,
nil isn't going away. And by the way, as a
former college athlete, I think college athletes should be able
to make money. Athletes deserved the opportunity to profit from
their name, their image, and their likeness. But what we've
created is also well unsustainable. College football wasn't supposed to
(04:08):
become the NFL free agency with dorm rooms, and coaches
were supposed to actually coach their team to the end
of the season, not leave them behind like Lane Kiffin did.
This may be one of the rare moments where Republicans, Democrats, coaches,
athletic directors, and even the White House all agree on something.
If we don't fix college sports now, we may not
(04:30):
recognize it in five years from today, Which brings me
to the conversation that Center Cruz and I were able
to have about this legislation. It's an incredibly important bill,
and I want you to hear the framework behind.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It and how it actually works. Take a listen to
our conversation.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Well, this week I shared a hearing on college sports
and saving college sports. And we've talked before on Verdict
about how college sports is in crisis right now.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
It is chaos.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
You've got an out of control transfer portal with athletes
trans foring three, four, five times. You've got people playing
until they're twenty.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Six, twenty seven, twenty eight years old.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
You've got people with six seven years of playing time.
You have virtually every athletics program in the country losing
money and losing millions or even tens of millions of dollars.
Schools are going broke. They're canceling programs every week. You're
seeing women's sports getting canceled. You're seeing Olympic sports getting canceled.
You're seeing your favorite tennis getting canceled. That happened at
(05:28):
Arkansas just a few weeks ago. And it is if
we don't act, we are going to see much of
college sports decimated and destroyed. And so last week I
introduced bipartisan legislation with Maria Cantwell. Maria Cantwell's a Democrat
from Washington State. She is the ranking member, the senior
(05:48):
Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. I'm the chairman of
the Senate Commerce Committee. This week, we had a big
hearing and we heard testimony from leaders in college athletics
about the urgency of of solving the crisis now. One
of our witnesses was Coach Nick Saban, the legendary coach
of Alabama, and Coach Saban's testimony was incredibly powerful and
(06:12):
give a listen to a little bit of Coach Nick
Saban on why Congress needs to pass or protect College
Sports Act.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Before we get to that, though, I want to talk
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to two Patriot. All right, let's play for you. Nick Saban.
Part of what he had to say in front of
your committee hearing it truly was impressive to hear him
(08:21):
talk about sports, especially in front of Congress.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Take a listen, Coobol. Let me give you the history.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
My first year, we had collective at Alabama two point
seven million, Next year seven million, next year ten million.
I'll retire next year of seventeen million, next year twenty
four million. Now you have schools that have close to
forty million dollar rosters. So if we continue to do that,
we're gonna lose Olympic sports. We're gonna lose non revenue sports,
(08:46):
We're gonna lose scholarships. And basically what's gonna happen is
we're gonna have football and basketball succeed, and we'll have
club sports for everything else.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
He's not wrong, by the way, Center, I was in
one of those non money making sports tennis.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
A lot of friends that you that you get to
know that are in those Olympic sports, for example, that
would all disappear. And when you think about having a
college roster at eighty million, if you're a student athlete,
that in theory sounds great, but that's only in two sports. Really,
the majority of that eighty you know you're talking about Alabama,
I mean, there's not that much in basketball, I promise
you at Alabama. So unless you pick football, you're left behind.
(09:22):
And that's the reason why you're taking this action now
and why Saban was saying what he was saying at
the time.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Well, and that there's only a handful of powerhouses that
generate and can dominate football, and so what if we
don't act. I think within five years we will see
thirty to fifty colleges that that have a football program
and they'll basically be an NFL and the rest of
the schools that their programs will be obliterated. And there
(09:49):
are a lot of reasons that's tragic. One is just
sports brings us together. Sports is so much fun. Look,
we're divided on so many issues today. We scream at
each other where we're like it really is hard to
find common ground, and yet you can go cheer on
your alma mater and you can be there with people
of different parties, people of different races, people have different
religions and you're all standing together. That's really important. Every
(10:12):
bit as critical as that is. College sports is an
amazing avenue for education for millions of young men and women.
And until I really started diving in to this topic
and working to save college sports, I hadn't really focused
on how college athletics is something that is unique in
(10:34):
the United States. No other country has anything remotely resembling
what we have here with college sports. There are today
more than a half million college athletes right now. Every year.
Athletics enables kids, many kids from low income homes, many
(10:55):
minority kids, who otherwise might not have had a chance
to go to college. It enables them to go to college,
to study, to get a degree, to learn skills, to
learn hard work and discipline and teamwork and sportsmanship.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Accountability just showing up.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I can't tell you how much I learned from just
the accountability, which, by the way, it made me a
better person. It made me better in business, It made
me better in my job that I did afterwards. There
are so many young men when I was at Old
Miss that said, they literally believe they would either have
been dead, they would have been in a gang if
it wasn't for sports keeping them out of trouble in
(11:31):
high school. And then they said, if it wasn't for
college and getting that college education, they would have immediately
been into bad stuff on the streets. They said that
sports actually saved their life, and not only say their life.
A lot of them they were the first member of
their family to ever go to college, and they went
because they were an incredible athlete. It gave them the opportunity,
it gave them a free education, it seemed unattainable, and
(11:53):
it completely changed their families trajectory in life. I think
that's one of the most important things about college sports
that people don't talk about.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Now.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
That is exactly right, and the status quo is unsustainable.
If Congress doesn't act, we will end up with hundreds
of thousands of those college athletic positions going away, and
those kids, many of them, having no chance to go
to school, to go to college to get those skills,
those life skills that set them up for success. And
(12:23):
look the way I approach this, I didn't worry too
much about about the top one percent. I didn't worry
about the Michael Jordan's or Arch mannings. I worried about
the ninety nine percent of college athletes who are never
going to play pro ball, but it's giving them opportunity.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
I had a ton of people Centater that were calling me.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I had friends and people I've known the past come
out that would work because they knew how important this
bill was, They knew how important it was to you
asking me questions.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
There was a lot of people saying they're just not
gonna be able.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
To get this done. There's no way you'll get by
parsonship here. That seems to not be true. And they said, well,
there's no way even though he'll be able to get
the White House behind it.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
That also doesn't seem to be true either.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
There is a lot of growing bipartisan support here to
get this thing done.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Well, there is, and I worked for months, Rick Cantwell
and I negotiated. We sat in the conference room six
eight hours a day negotiating provision by provision by provision.
We introduced it with Cantwell and myself a Democrat and Republican,
and also with Eric Schmidt, a Republican from Missouri, and
Chris Coon's a Democrat from Delaware. So we had two Democrats,
(13:26):
two Republicans on the bill, and we've seen phenomenal support
for it. So the ACC has come out emphatically in
support of it, The Big Twelve has come out emphatically
and support of it. Condoleeza Rice at Stanford has come
out emphatically in support of it. At the hearing, Pete Bavaqua,
the athletic director at Notre Dame, testified strongly in support
(13:48):
of it. Gordon Gee testified at the hearing, former president
of West Virginia University also Vanderbilt, has been a president
of actually five universities. He testified that this is a
crisis and this bill is the only hope to save
college sports. And we've had already, We've had over one
hundred and thirty signatures from leaders at more than sixty
(14:11):
five universities come out in support of the bill. And importantly,
this week, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly in
support of the bill. He's he sent a truth social
that I want to read to you. Here's what he said.
College sports, a great American institution that produces our many athletes, leaders,
and Olympic dominance is a total mess, and everyone is
(14:32):
saying that it must be fixed. After uninny lawsuits and
crazed rulings, there are virtually no limits anymore, and soon
most colleges won't have sports because each and every one
of them will be bankrupt, never to be heard from again.
Women's sports and the Olympics itself are in the most
danger from this catastrophic situation. College sports are turning into
(14:53):
pro sports, except with absolutely no rules, a result no
one wants. Presidents, conference commissioners, student athletes, coaches, and athletic
directors all complained to me that it has become a
disaster after years of no action, and that schools were
losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. They compared
(15:16):
it to a freight train that can't be stopped. That
is why a few months ago I convened a roundtable,
bringing together were a world class team as some of
the best sports executives, student athletes, and political leaders in
our country. The goal was to find a bipartisan solution
to fix the problem. Based on these meetings and the
expertise of the leading authorities, I signed an executive order,
(15:39):
but I always said that the best solution was to
get a bipartisan act through Congress to my desk in
order to save a long and embarrassing road through hell
for these institutions. I'd like to thank Senators Ted Cruz,
Eric Schmidt, Maria Cantwell, and Chris Coons, among others, for
(16:00):
introducing the Protect College Sports Act. This law resolves many
of the most urgent issues challenging our universities and student athletes,
stops the chaos, and most importantly, it may be the
last chance to save college sports and colleges themselves before
it's too late. The House has worked long and hard
(16:20):
on this issue as well, and I'm very grateful to
Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Steve Scalise for their work
to fix this very major problem. I urge the House
and Senate to come together to pass a final bipartisan
law that I can sign this summer that reflects the
views and input of both chambers and in all caps,
(16:40):
we have to save college sports. Thank you for your
attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump. The support
we're seeing is really significant, and I think we're going
to see I hope and believe, a big bipartisan vote
in the Senate behind this bill.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
What's the timeline now and how much which is they're
going to be people pushing since now this has become so,
you know, such a big discussion to try to change
things the last minute. Is that going to be a
problem and what does that look like?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Oh, look, that is going on and there are a
handful of people that are criticizing and throwing rocks, But
I'll tell you most people are shocked that we could
actually find a bipartisan compromise. And and and listen, one
of the natures of that. That means that that I
had to give quite a bit and and the Democrats
had to give quite a bit to find a common
(17:30):
ground because we can't pass this bill unless you get
at least sixty votes in the Senate. That means you
need at least seven Democrats. There are only fifty three Republicans.
And my objective, frankly, is to get a lot more
than sixty votes. I'd like to see a big bipartisan
vote come out of the Senate. The House has tried
several times to fix this problem, and unfortunately, every time
(17:53):
they try to take up a bill, it's failed in
the House. And and so I think the Senate has
got to step in because the clock is ticking. And
I will say that there's a real risk also of
the biggest players coming together to form a super league,
and I think that would be disastrous for everybody else
(18:14):
and not good for fans. Let's take my home state
of Texas. Look, my home state of Texas if Congress
does nothing in three to five years. I am certain
that the University of Texas will survive, and I'm certain
A and M will survive. They're so big, they have
such a big donor base and alumni base that they'll
survive no matter what happens. But it's not at all
(18:36):
clear that the other players in Texas survive. It's not
clear that TCU or SMU or University of Houston or Rice,
or Texas Tech or Baylor, all of the different programs
in Texas, they could go under in the status quote,
I think that would be a terrible outcome if we
lose historic programs all over Texas, not just football, but
(18:57):
when you lose football, football pays for all the other
So when you lose football, you end up losing the
entire array of sports. That would be tragic, and we
can't let it happen.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Yeah, you're absolutely right there.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
If people want to get behind this legislation is just
one of those where they talk to their senators and
their congressman.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Who do they need to contact quickly?
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Look, the first order of business is your senator and
urging your senator. Whether your senator is a Republican or Democrat,
urging your senator get behind this bill, the Bipartisan Protect
College Sports Act. There's an urgency. I am hoping to
move quickly on this. I'd like to get a big
vote in the Senate. Once we get it out of
the Senate, then the next step will be the House.
(19:37):
But calling your senator, going on social media, speaking out
and saying that sports, college sports should be saved, that's
really valuable.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
And that's the reason that I always like college athletics
more than the NFL is because you had the opportunity
to develop young people so and I want their quality
of life to be good. I think, as I said before,
name image of likeness is a great opportunity for them
to create a brand for themselves. I'm not against that
at all, but to come up with some kind of
(00:20):
a system that still can help the development of young
people I think is paramount to the future of college athletics.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
If you're listening to the forty seven Morning Update with
Ben ferguson good.
Speaker 3 (00:32):
Saturday morning, it's so nice to have you with us
on the forty seven Morning Update, and we've got a
very special show for you. Saving college sports, Well, it
may be closer to death than you realize, all because
of the massive amounts of money that are pouring into
football with nil deals. The problem is other sports, Olympic sports,
are being left behind, and if there isn't a change soon,
(00:54):
you may see countless sports completely disappear from universities. And
that means count Let's do it in athletes that no
longer get the scholarships they need to be able to
attend a university. Well, the good news is this, there
is some fixes, and it's bipartisan, and the President of
the United States of America is behind it as well.
(01:14):
It's the forty seven Morning Update and it starts right now.
Speaker 2 (01:17):
Story number one.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
There aren't many issues in Washington these days that can
bring Republicans and Democrats together, but one of them may
be the future of saving college athletics.
Speaker 4 (01:29):
And frankly, it's about time.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
For years, we've watched the nil air spiral further and
further out of control. And this is coming from a
former college athlete. The transfer portal has become free agency.
Coaches are struggling to build teams and other coaches can
just bail for bigger paydays even when they're headed to
the national championships. Rivalries are disappearing, Athletes are bouncing from
(01:54):
school to school, chasing the next big paycheck, and many
athletic directors are warning that women's sports, Olympic sports, and
smaller programs like tennis and golf, well they could be
on the chopping block if something doesn't change fast. Now,
for the first time, here's the good news. There actually
appears to be a serious bipartisan effort to Restore Some
(02:18):
Order to Protect College Sports act that's been led by
Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Maria Cantwell is now gaining
momentum in Washington, and today it got a major boost
from President Donald Trump himself. The legislation would create national
NIL standards, bring stability to transfers and eligibility rules, and yes,
(02:41):
there's even the Lane Kiffen rule. After he screwed the
University of Mississippi aka MI alma mater ole Miss as
we headed to a national championship run. This is exactly
why the bill is definitely needed. It gives college sports
a much needed framework to prevent complete chaos and a
(03:01):
total collapse of so many sports that aren't quote revenue making.
President Trump made it clear that he believes Congress must
act his endorsement of the legislation, he called it a
strong foundation to not only save college sports, but he
argued that executive action alone are not enough. He said
that after meeting with university leaders, coaches, and athletic officials,
(03:23):
it became clear that a legislative solution is needed to
preserve the future of college athletics. And this isn't a
new issue for President Trump either. Earlier this year, he
warned that college sports could be lost forever without major
reforms and described the current environment as an out of
control financial arms race that threatened scholarships, competitive balance, and
(03:46):
opportunities for so many future athletes. The reality is simple,
nil isn't going away. And by the way, as a
former college athlete, I think college athletes should be able
to make money. Athletes deserved the opportunity to profit from
their name, their image, and their likeness. But what we've
created is also well unsustainable. College football wasn't supposed to
(04:08):
become the NFL free agency with dorm rooms, and coaches
were supposed to actually coach their team to the end
of the season, not leave them behind like Lane Kiffin did.
This may be one of the rare moments where Republicans, Democrats, coaches,
athletic directors, and even the White House all agree on something.
If we don't fix college sports now, we may not
(04:30):
recognize it in five years from today, Which brings me
to the conversation that Center Cruz and I were able
to have about this legislation. It's an incredibly important bill,
and I want you to hear the framework behind.
Speaker 4 (04:42):
It and how it actually works. Take a listen to
our conversation.
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Well, this week I shared a hearing on college sports
and saving college sports. And we've talked before on Verdict
about how college sports is in crisis right now.
Speaker 4 (04:55):
It is chaos.
Speaker 5 (04:56):
You've got an out of control transfer portal with athletes
trans foring three, four, five times. You've got people playing
until they're twenty.
Speaker 4 (05:04):
Six, twenty seven, twenty eight years old.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
You've got people with six seven years of playing time.
You have virtually every athletics program in the country losing
money and losing millions or even tens of millions of dollars.
Schools are going broke. They're canceling programs every week. You're
seeing women's sports getting canceled. You're seeing Olympic sports getting canceled.
You're seeing your favorite tennis getting canceled. That happened at
(05:28):
Arkansas just a few weeks ago. And it is if
we don't act, we are going to see much of
college sports decimated and destroyed. And so last week I
introduced bipartisan legislation with Maria Cantwell. Maria Cantwell's a Democrat
from Washington State. She is the ranking member, the senior
(05:48):
Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. I'm the chairman of
the Senate Commerce Committee. This week, we had a big
hearing and we heard testimony from leaders in college athletics
about the urgency of of solving the crisis now. One
of our witnesses was Coach Nick Saban, the legendary coach
of Alabama, and Coach Saban's testimony was incredibly powerful and
(06:12):
give a listen to a little bit of Coach Nick
Saban on why Congress needs to pass or protect College
Sports Act.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
Before we get to that, though, I want to talk
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(08:00):
nine to seven to two Patriot. He used the promo
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that's Patriot Mobile dot com slash ferguson or nine seven
to two Patriot. All right, let's play for you. Nick Saban.
Part of what he had to say in front of
your committee hearing it truly was impressive to hear him
(08:21):
talk about sports, especially in front of Congress.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
Take a listen, Coobol. Let me give you the history.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
My first year, we had collective at Alabama two point
seven million, Next year seven million, next year ten million.
I'll retire next year of seventeen million, next year twenty
four million. Now you have schools that have close to
forty million dollar rosters. So if we continue to do that,
we're gonna lose Olympic sports. We're gonna lose non revenue sports,
(08:46):
We're gonna lose scholarships. And basically what's gonna happen is
we're gonna have football and basketball succeed, and we'll have
club sports for everything else.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
He's not wrong, by the way, Center, I was in
one of those non money making sports tennis.
Speaker 4 (08:59):
Right.
Speaker 3 (08:59):
A lot of friends that you that you get to
know that are in those Olympic sports, for example, that
would all disappear. And when you think about having a
college roster at eighty million, if you're a student athlete,
that in theory sounds great, but that's only in two sports. Really,
the majority of that eighty you know you're talking about Alabama,
I mean, there's not that much in basketball, I promise
you at Alabama. So unless you pick football, you're left behind.
(09:22):
And that's the reason why you're taking this action now
and why Saban was saying what he was saying at
the time.
Speaker 5 (09:27):
Well, and that there's only a handful of powerhouses that
generate and can dominate football, and so what if we
don't act. I think within five years we will see
thirty to fifty colleges that that have a football program
and they'll basically be an NFL and the rest of
the schools that their programs will be obliterated. And there
(09:49):
are a lot of reasons that's tragic. One is just
sports brings us together. Sports is so much fun. Look,
we're divided on so many issues today. We scream at
each other where we're like it really is hard to
find common ground, and yet you can go cheer on
your alma mater and you can be there with people
of different parties, people of different races, people have different
religions and you're all standing together. That's really important. Every
(10:12):
bit as critical as that is. College sports is an
amazing avenue for education for millions of young men and women.
And until I really started diving in to this topic
and working to save college sports, I hadn't really focused
on how college athletics is something that is unique in
(10:34):
the United States. No other country has anything remotely resembling
what we have here with college sports. There are today
more than a half million college athletes right now. Every year.
Athletics enables kids, many kids from low income homes, many
(10:55):
minority kids, who otherwise might not have had a chance
to go to college. It enables them to go to college,
to study, to get a degree, to learn skills, to
learn hard work and discipline and teamwork and sportsmanship.
Speaker 4 (11:09):
Accountability just showing up.
Speaker 3 (11:11):
I can't tell you how much I learned from just
the accountability, which, by the way, it made me a
better person. It made me better in business, It made
me better in my job that I did afterwards. There
are so many young men when I was at Old
Miss that said, they literally believe they would either have
been dead, they would have been in a gang if
it wasn't for sports keeping them out of trouble in
(11:31):
high school. And then they said, if it wasn't for
college and getting that college education, they would have immediately
been into bad stuff on the streets. They said that
sports actually saved their life, and not only say their life.
A lot of them they were the first member of
their family to ever go to college, and they went
because they were an incredible athlete. It gave them the opportunity,
it gave them a free education, it seemed unattainable, and
(11:53):
it completely changed their families trajectory in life. I think
that's one of the most important things about college sports
that people don't talk about.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
Now.
Speaker 5 (12:01):
That is exactly right, and the status quo is unsustainable.
If Congress doesn't act, we will end up with hundreds
of thousands of those college athletic positions going away, and
those kids, many of them, having no chance to go
to school, to go to college to get those skills,
those life skills that set them up for success. And
(12:23):
look the way I approach this, I didn't worry too
much about about the top one percent. I didn't worry
about the Michael Jordan's or Arch mannings. I worried about
the ninety nine percent of college athletes who are never
going to play pro ball, but it's giving them opportunity.
Speaker 4 (12:39):
I had a ton of people Centater that were calling me.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
I had friends and people I've known the past come
out that would work because they knew how important this
bill was, They knew how important it was to you
asking me questions.
Speaker 4 (12:49):
There was a lot of people saying they're just not
gonna be able.
Speaker 3 (12:51):
To get this done. There's no way you'll get by
parsonship here. That seems to not be true. And they said, well,
there's no way even though he'll be able to get
the White House behind it.
Speaker 4 (12:58):
That also doesn't seem to be true either.
Speaker 3 (13:00):
There is a lot of growing bipartisan support here to
get this thing done.
Speaker 5 (13:04):
Well, there is, and I worked for months, Rick Cantwell
and I negotiated. We sat in the conference room six
eight hours a day negotiating provision by provision by provision.
We introduced it with Cantwell and myself a Democrat and Republican,
and also with Eric Schmidt, a Republican from Missouri, and
Chris Coon's a Democrat from Delaware. So we had two Democrats,
(13:26):
two Republicans on the bill, and we've seen phenomenal support
for it. So the ACC has come out emphatically in
support of it, The Big Twelve has come out emphatically
and support of it. Condoleeza Rice at Stanford has come
out emphatically in support of it. At the hearing, Pete Bavaqua,
the athletic director at Notre Dame, testified strongly in support
(13:48):
of it. Gordon Gee testified at the hearing, former president
of West Virginia University also Vanderbilt, has been a president
of actually five universities. He testified that this is a
crisis and this bill is the only hope to save
college sports. And we've had already, We've had over one
hundred and thirty signatures from leaders at more than sixty
(14:11):
five universities come out in support of the bill. And importantly,
this week, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly in
support of the bill. He's he sent a truth social
that I want to read to you. Here's what he said.
College sports, a great American institution that produces our many athletes, leaders,
and Olympic dominance is a total mess, and everyone is
(14:32):
saying that it must be fixed. After uninny lawsuits and
crazed rulings, there are virtually no limits anymore, and soon
most colleges won't have sports because each and every one
of them will be bankrupt, never to be heard from again.
Women's sports and the Olympics itself are in the most
danger from this catastrophic situation. College sports are turning into
(14:53):
pro sports, except with absolutely no rules, a result no
one wants. Presidents, conference commissioners, student athletes, coaches, and athletic
directors all complained to me that it has become a
disaster after years of no action, and that schools were
losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. They compared
(15:16):
it to a freight train that can't be stopped. That
is why a few months ago I convened a roundtable,
bringing together were a world class team as some of
the best sports executives, student athletes, and political leaders in
our country. The goal was to find a bipartisan solution
to fix the problem. Based on these meetings and the
expertise of the leading authorities, I signed an executive order,
(15:39):
but I always said that the best solution was to
get a bipartisan act through Congress to my desk in
order to save a long and embarrassing road through hell
for these institutions. I'd like to thank Senators Ted Cruz,
Eric Schmidt, Maria Cantwell, and Chris Coons, among others, for
(16:00):
introducing the Protect College Sports Act. This law resolves many
of the most urgent issues challenging our universities and student athletes,
stops the chaos, and most importantly, it may be the
last chance to save college sports and colleges themselves before
it's too late. The House has worked long and hard
(16:20):
on this issue as well, and I'm very grateful to
Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Steve Scalise for their work
to fix this very major problem. I urge the House
and Senate to come together to pass a final bipartisan
law that I can sign this summer that reflects the
views and input of both chambers and in all caps,
(16:40):
we have to save college sports. Thank you for your
attention to this matter. President Donald J. Trump. The support
we're seeing is really significant, and I think we're going
to see I hope and believe, a big bipartisan vote
in the Senate behind this bill.
Speaker 3 (16:58):
What's the timeline now and how much which is they're
going to be people pushing since now this has become so,
you know, such a big discussion to try to change
things the last minute. Is that going to be a
problem and what does that look like?
Speaker 5 (17:09):
Oh, look, that is going on and there are a
handful of people that are criticizing and throwing rocks, But
I'll tell you most people are shocked that we could
actually find a bipartisan compromise. And and and listen, one
of the natures of that. That means that that I
had to give quite a bit and and the Democrats
had to give quite a bit to find a common
(17:30):
ground because we can't pass this bill unless you get
at least sixty votes in the Senate. That means you
need at least seven Democrats. There are only fifty three Republicans.
And my objective, frankly, is to get a lot more
than sixty votes. I'd like to see a big bipartisan
vote come out of the Senate. The House has tried
several times to fix this problem, and unfortunately, every time
(17:53):
they try to take up a bill, it's failed in
the House. And and so I think the Senate has
got to step in because the clock is ticking. And
I will say that there's a real risk also of
the biggest players coming together to form a super league,
and I think that would be disastrous for everybody else
(18:14):
and not good for fans. Let's take my home state
of Texas. Look, my home state of Texas if Congress
does nothing in three to five years. I am certain
that the University of Texas will survive, and I'm certain
A and M will survive. They're so big, they have
such a big donor base and alumni base that they'll
survive no matter what happens. But it's not at all
(18:36):
clear that the other players in Texas survive. It's not
clear that TCU or SMU or University of Houston or Rice,
or Texas Tech or Baylor, all of the different programs
in Texas, they could go under in the status quote,
I think that would be a terrible outcome if we
lose historic programs all over Texas, not just football, but
(18:57):
when you lose football, football pays for all the other
So when you lose football, you end up losing the
entire array of sports. That would be tragic, and we
can't let it happen.
Speaker 4 (19:07):
Yeah, you're absolutely right there.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
If people want to get behind this legislation is just
one of those where they talk to their senators and
their congressman.
Speaker 4 (19:15):
Who do they need to contact quickly?
Speaker 5 (19:16):
Look, the first order of business is your senator and
urging your senator. Whether your senator is a Republican or Democrat,
urging your senator get behind this bill, the Bipartisan Protect
College Sports Act. There's an urgency. I am hoping to
move quickly on this. I'd like to get a big
vote in the Senate. Once we get it out of
the Senate, then the next step will be the House.
(19:37):
But calling your senator, going on social media, speaking out
and saying that sports, college sports should be saved, that's
really valuable.
Speaker 2 (19:45):
Thank you for listening to the forty seven Morning Update
with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever
you're listening to this podcast right now and for more
in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast
and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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