Latest / Rick Outzen: (we don’t) color on the dog / Lumpy DeWeese in D.C.
Transcript
- Rick Outzen: When we watch college sports today, we see that the players on these teams are not the same ones that we saw the year before in many instances. The Protect College Sports Act is one that's gonna try to some logic and gu guardrails ⁓ to pandemonium that's going on in college athletics right now. This week had a special press conference ⁓ in DC. brought in coaches and athletes from all over the country to ⁓ to talk about. the importance of setting up some rules at the federal level that would be followed throughout the country. ⁓ had a representative there, UWF football player, it's senior, Lumpy DeWis was there and we've got Lumpy with us now. Lumpy, thank you for coming. It's good to be bit quick flight. ⁓ Yeah ⁓ the Sports Act you've ⁓ you've the portal. you have you wrote a for us which I really appreciate. Lumpy DeWeese: It's good to be back home. Absolutely. Rick Outzen: You called it pandemonium. How does that pla how's that played out in the locker room for you f as you've seen it? Lumpy DeWeese: freshman class I came in with at Stetson was probably fifty guys. sophomore year that ended up being around fifteen and I think there's probably ten ⁓ maybe of ⁓ left. ⁓ Mm-hmm. And seen it here at UWF, every year we have probably fifty to new guys come in. ⁓ Just and replacing seniors, that's replacing guys that left. So you've got to a whole new team every spring and then even more guys come before fall camp. So ⁓ you really gotta to know fast and learn how to play with those guys. Rick Outzen: Now the some of the rules that are in place. One is only, you know, one d one free The other ones you could transfer if it's a switching coach or there's some sort of harassment situation or there there's some ex exemptions but not a lot. Do you think fair or d does it penalize the JUCO players? Lumpy DeWeese: I think it is the fair thing and the right thing to do. right now what you're seeing is free agency. Guys they'll get tampered with by ⁓ teammates or former coaches and up and get in the portal two or three times or four to five times. I've I mean I have friends that ⁓ have at five or six different schools and beyond that's a way to sustain academically. ⁓ Mm-hmm. Rick Outzen: Well, you know, y made the decision you wanted to come home, right? You lost y ⁓ had a coaching change which gave you an opportunity. was it d difficult decision for you to make or mama's cooking ⁓ brought home? Lumpy DeWeese: It's really nice to be home. I had a few other opportunities coming out of the portal that were some out west, some up north, but it it was really easy to decide to come back to the beach. Rick Outzen: Yeah, really. When you look at it, you know, talk about how you got to D C. that when did when did when the call sent to ⁓ if could go then what kind of processes you you you were lucky it was a bi week and that helped. But but tell tell me a bit about that process you had to go through to get okay to go. Lumpy DeWeese: So a few weeks back the Senate Commerce Committee, some of their staff reached out to me to write an op ed about the bill and about why it's important. And then week we were on the bus up to Central Arkansas and I got an email ⁓ from the Commerce staff and it was like, Hey, we're having a press conference next week. we'd love if you could come and show support for the bill and so ⁓ I sent it Coach Noble's and then ⁓ shared it with athletic department. They were all absolutely supportive and then last ⁓ Friday I got on a Zoom call with our some of our conference staff, the conference commissioner and his staff, and talked through why they think the bill's important and why it's important thing to our conference. and then had Sunday night practice, so I had to fly up Monday morning, go and film a and then go to the press conference and then fly home to make it to practice yesterday. Rick Outzen: So what are the things in the bill that really jump out to you, the things that you're encouraged by? Lumpy DeWeese: think the portal rule is good. I think locking in five year cap ⁓ from nineteen to four is an important thing to keep real college kids playing college sports. and I know the especially for small mid schools, the antitrust protections are in dire need because the the litigation environment right now of we're just gonna run to a local judge and sue, that's not sustainable for smaller athletic programs. Rick Outzen: The w talk about the health pro insurance part too. That was something that's new. ⁓ Lumpy DeWeese: It covers there's coverages for athletes five years after you graduate. And so there's a bunch of lingering stuff that happens while you're playing college sports that you don't necessarily want to get done while you're playing. having added to bill is big for the athletes specifically. Rick Outzen: Yeah, when you looked at at going up there, was it like to to be standing, you know, on national TV on C SPAN and be next John Calapari? Lumpy DeWeese: think the who support it really shows how important it is. you know, have Coach Saban go and testify and then Coach Calapari, Coach Few, Coach Samson from Houston, all these legendary coaches, know what college sports is supposed to look like. And so for them to get involved tells you that this is really what needs to happen. Rick Outzen: Do you have any good conversations with them or Lumpy DeWeese: Yeah, yeah, Coach Calapari he he said his son just started coaching so that's why he wanted to really get involved and ⁓ sure to leave it better and he found it. Rick Outzen: The ⁓ you look at coming back, how are you ⁓ what's in the bill since then? Yeah, I know you ⁓ you've that advantage of being an intern, so you kinda know how le you not kind of you do know how legislation works. Lumpy DeWeese: So the first procedural bill passed, so it's gonna be the floor for a vote within the next eight or nine days, so either before the end of this week or next week. and then it's looking like it's gonna pass the Senate with a big, majority. And so it'll to the House, but the House won't be back until after the midterm, it's looking like. So hopefully they're able to it through in that lame duck session and get it to the desk. ⁓ Rick Outzen: Well and it sounded you know, coach I mean ⁓ Senator Cruz, Ted Cruz one of the sponsors of the bill, mentioned that he felt like fairly confident ⁓ the President would sign it. Lumpy DeWeese: Absolutely. He recommended that the president go on college game day to sign it before the end of the season, so Rick Outzen: Well Ted Cruz did it last week in the Texas Ohio State game, so I'm sure he'd think about it. As as you look at it coming back, what do think this bill's gonna do for UWF sports? Lumpy DeWeese: I think it kinda secures their place in the environment college athletics and I think that really will allow UWF to prosper and to finally have locked in rules ⁓ consistently follow because ⁓ for past few years it's been just trying to ⁓ catch and play like keep up with what's on f ⁓ in terms the NCAA, in terms of ⁓ what a judge and wherever Mississippi's saying. so I think them allow them to really plan and allow them To s succeed. Rick Outzen: Do you think the the environment the way it is now, does it allow not the best type of operators to get involved in the locker rooms trying to push kids ⁓ one or another or do you do you s get a sense of some of that happening? Lumpy DeWeese: A big thing this bill kinda legislates on is what agents are allowed to do. And so right now there's a lot of predatory agents who are going after athletes because they know they can get them at for a much higher percent than say an NFL guy. So really cracks down on the agents and that's one of the main people who oppose this bill is the agencies. Rick Outzen: Yeah, you got you did get a taste of some people not in favor 'cause you did a little bit of politicking while you were up there. And it's interesting to see. ⁓ college has a different view of it depending on the conference or where or where they're at. I thought it was impressive to have so many conferences there. Absolutely. wanting to do something. I think that was and and of course ⁓ A Sun ⁓ you know, a big part of it that we were Lumpy DeWeese: The most represented conference there. We had three athletes. Rick Outzen: ⁓ that's great. That's great. So you're back in town, you gotta go you gotta prep, got a big game this weekend. Talk a little bit about it. We'll get a little football in. Yeah we Lumpy DeWeese: We've got top 20 matchup at Penn Air Field Saturday. Austin P's coming to town. They got a really good quarterback, really good roster all around. I know they have a kid I played against in high school, Markel Redding, ⁓ played West Florida. And so it'll be a cool game, ⁓ fun, fun ⁓ Rick Outzen: Good. And it it it's been it y'all are the talk of ⁓ of college football right now. ⁓ it's it's really been amazing to watch it go. Great opportunity you getting that little more taste in politics, Lumpy. So ⁓ it's fun. Thank you so much. ⁓ If you to follow the bill, we'll be doing it with the blog rixblog.biz. You've got you can read ⁓ Lumpy's his that he wrote that we put in the paper. Lumpy DeWeese: Thank you for having me. It's been great to come talk. Rick Outzen: it is it's an issue I think for college sports we need to bring some order to the chaos ⁓ and this will do it. and ⁓ we'll keep we'll keep abreast of what's going on with it. Hopefully a vote in the Senate, like Lumpy said, ⁓ within the week or so, and then we'll have to wait till after the election for the House to vote on it. But hopefully by the of this semester we'll see a new some guardrails in place. We'll go ahead and take a break. We'll be right back. I'm Rick Outson and this is Rick's Blog Live.