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College Soccer at a Crossroads; Tom Hindle Joins to Break Down NCAA Decision · Inside American Soccer with Tom Bogert and Tab Ramos

0:03
Speaker 1: What's going on, everybody?
0:04
Speaker 2: Welcome back to a special bonus episode of Inside American Soccer.
0:07
Speaker 1: I am USMNT insider Tom Bogert.
0:09
Speaker 2: And I will very soon be joined by one of
0:11
Speaker 2: the greatest players in USMNT history, Tab Ramos, as well
0:13
Speaker 2: as Goal.com's Tom Hindle. The reason why we're here for
0:16
Speaker 2: a special episode is because of the fascinating case that
0:19
Speaker 2: is going on in Division I men's soccer. Initially, there
0:23
Speaker 2: was a vote to change the season to two semesters,
0:26
Speaker 2: so it would mirror professional soccer in NCAA. Well, that
0:30
Speaker 2: vote ended up getting rescinded in spectacular fashion to keep
0:34
Speaker 2: college soccer the way it is, which is one semester.
0:36
Speaker 2: Tab has some strong opinions about that, and Tom Hindle
0:38
Speaker 2: has all your info and analysis on what it means
0:40
Speaker 2: for player youth development, what it means for the future
0:42
Speaker 2: of college soccer. But instead of talking about it, let's
0:45
Speaker 2: get right into this interview with Tab, Tom, and Tom.
0:58
Speaker 2: All right, now it's time to shift focus to college soccer.
1:01
Speaker 2: And it's been a bit of a crazy week around
1:04
Speaker 2: the NCAA and men's soccer. So we're going to bring
1:07
Speaker 2: in my good friend Tom Hindle from goal.com. He has
1:09
Speaker 2: been all over this college soccer story of the initial
1:13
Speaker 2: proposal to make men's college soccer a two semester sport,
1:16
Speaker 2: which initially got passed. And then there was a period
1:18
Speaker 2: it could get rescinded. And then it got rescinded in
1:21
Speaker 2: particularly spectacular fashion. So Tom, thank you for joining us.
1:24
Speaker 2: I know you've been all over the story. So Just
1:27
Speaker 2: for the layman's maybe who weren't following it until this week.
1:30
Speaker 2: Give us the backstory of college soccer. There was a
1:33
Speaker 2: proposal to make it a two semester sport instead of
1:35
Speaker 2: just the fall that initially passed and then got rescinded.
1:38
Speaker 1: What happened here?
1:39
Speaker 3: Yeah, basically. Well, first of all, thanks for having me on, guys. Secondly,
1:43
Speaker 3: I'm exhausted. I don't get how you can be like
1:45
Speaker 3: Tom Bogut now. Do you know what I mean? Like
1:47
Speaker 3: I've been trying to stay on top of like a
1:49
Speaker 3: scoopy sort of storyline. And my God, this man.
1:52
Speaker 4: I've been saying that for two years now.
1:56
Speaker 3: But anyway, okay. So on October the 7th, there was
1:59
Speaker 3: a big old vote where a series of athletic directors, coaches,
2:05
Speaker 3: and senior officials in college soccer got to vote on
2:08
Speaker 3: this two semester model that would, well, yeah, spread out
2:12
Speaker 3: college soccer over two semesters. they needed 75% of the
2:17
Speaker 3: people in that room to vote yes in order to
2:21
Speaker 3: implement this thing automatically. It's, to use the easy soccer method,
2:25
Speaker 3: it's a tap-in. Like, this has been going on for
2:27
Speaker 3: six months. In that room, and the athletic director at Pitt,
2:32
Speaker 3: not to put him on blast, but to put him
2:34
Speaker 3: on blast, he voted no. And that opened the door
2:38
Speaker 3: for a rescind. I am told, that even after that happened,
2:43
Speaker 3: on October 7th, everyone was like, bish, bash, bosh, job done.
2:46
Speaker 3: There is no way that anyone can possibly vote to
2:49
Speaker 3: rescind this thing. What you have in the following month,
2:53
Speaker 3: or almost exactly 30 days, in fact, is this wave
2:57
Speaker 3: of what you would probably say mid-major or smaller schools
3:01
Speaker 3: outside of the Power Four, with all due respect, rallying
3:04
Speaker 3: votes behind the scenes to get a two-thirds majority of
3:09
Speaker 3: all NCAA Division I schools to therefore overturn this, i.e.
3:13
Speaker 3: rescind it. The complexity is that there are 213 schools
3:19
Speaker 3: that play NCAA men's soccer at Division I level. There
3:25
Speaker 3: are 368 Division I schools. So do the maths. You
3:30
Speaker 3: have a bunch of schools that don't play men's college soccer,
3:34
Speaker 3: and they need to be convinced to vote against this.
3:38
Speaker 3: And at the end of the day, that was the
3:40
Speaker 3: crux of it. 104 schools that do not have men's
3:44
Speaker 3: college soccer voted to kill what would have been the future, basically,
3:50
Speaker 3: of men's college soccer. And that's the drama, the tension,
3:54
Speaker 3: if you will. So, Tom.
3:57
Speaker 2: Initially, the vote passed on this proposal to make it
4:01
Speaker 2: the two semesters.
4:03
Speaker 1: Totally fine.
4:05
Speaker 2: 50% passes it, and then 75% is the supermajority where
4:08
Speaker 2: there is no more debate.
4:09
Speaker 3: Yes.
4:10
Speaker 2: And as you say, in that room, and in your
4:13
Speaker 2: great reporting, which I would encourage anybody interested in this
4:15
Speaker 2: to go read on Goal.com, you said that, sorry if
4:19
Speaker 2: I'm paraphrasing, tell me if I'm wrong, that the Pitt AD,
4:22
Speaker 2: and while you singled him out, the plan was him
4:25
Speaker 2: to vote yes. And the head coach of Pitt's men's
4:28
Speaker 2: soccer expected his AD to vote yes. And then he
4:32
Speaker 2: went into that room and ended up voting no, which
4:34
Speaker 2: was one of a handful of votes that swung this
4:37
Speaker 2: from a super majority to a normal majority and thus
4:40
Speaker 2: this period.
4:41
Speaker 3: Well, when you say a handful, Tom, that was the vote.
4:45
Speaker 2: So I guess I just want to be careful, because
4:48
Speaker 2: he's not the only person who voted no, right?
4:49
Speaker 3: Yes, I agree. I agree. You make a fair point.
4:52
Speaker 3: There was always going to be a minority of skeptics here.
4:55
Speaker 3: The point is, is that he was not expected to
4:57
Speaker 3: be one of them. And his head coach, Jay Vidovich,
5:01
Speaker 3: is one of the most outspoken proponents of this model.
5:06
Speaker 3: If you look at a bunch of local news and
5:08
Speaker 3: the Pittsburgh student newspaper actually did some excellent reporting on
5:11
Speaker 3: this as well. He has been in favor for this
5:14
Speaker 3: for years, not just the last few months. We're talking five,
5:17
Speaker 3: ten years. So, yes. Now, the reason that this guy
5:24
Speaker 3: voted no, if that's kind of the follow-up that I'm
5:28
Speaker 3: preempting you on there, you're welcome, is, well, there are numerous,
5:35
Speaker 3: but the conspiracy theorists kind of say that he was
5:39
Speaker 3: gotten to. that there was this campaign orchestrated in the
5:42
Speaker 3: background and someone's had a word in Alan's ear and said, hey, mate,
5:47
Speaker 3: maybe this isn't for you. Now, I'm not fully sure.
5:52
Speaker 3: I'm unable to confirm that report.
5:54
Speaker 1: Leading with the conspiracy theory.
5:56
Speaker 3: No, I should point out, I am unable to confirm
5:58
Speaker 3: that report, but multiple sources on the proponent side have
6:02
Speaker 3: said they reckon this happened as part of what is
6:05
Speaker 3: a massive kind of smear campaign against this model. Pitt,
6:09
Speaker 3: deny that. They always have. They denied it to me.
6:13
Speaker 3: And I'm sure they've denied it behind the scenes as well.
6:17
Speaker 3: But that is basically the crucial vote. And it's also
6:20
Speaker 3: worth noting, Tom, that this lad was new on the committee.
6:23
Speaker 3: He'd only been there for about a month or two
6:25
Speaker 3: because this has been going on for so long that
6:29
Speaker 3: committee members have moved in and out. So the guy
6:32
Speaker 3: before him, also an AT & T athletic director, would
6:36
Speaker 3: have voted yes. Fine, done. But this nuance has not.
6:41
Speaker 4: Well, let's see. Where do we start?
6:44
Speaker 5: Because there's no question that here, Tom and Tom, we
6:48
Speaker 5: have to start with what do we want out of
6:50
Speaker 5: college soccer, right? That's the bottom question because, you know,
6:54
Speaker 5: soccer is a sport that's played all year round. You know,
6:56
Speaker 5: when you watch college football, the college football season mirrors
7:00
Speaker 5: professional football. The basketball season pretty much mirrors, starts a
7:04
Speaker 5: little bit earlier, ends a little bit earlier, but pretty
7:06
Speaker 5: much mirrors the NBA. Soccer is a sport that's played
7:10
Speaker 5: all year round. So are we saying here with this
7:12
Speaker 5: voting that, you know, we want to keep soccer in
7:15
Speaker 5: college as a rec sport is basically what we're saying,
7:18
Speaker 5: because it doesn't mirror what soccer is about. Soccer is
7:21
Speaker 5: an all year round sport that has a break in
7:23
Speaker 5: the summer. That's basically what it is. In order for
7:26
Speaker 5: athletes who go to college, if they want to continue
7:28
Speaker 5: a career after playing in college, they're going to have
7:32
Speaker 5: to play all year round. And this doesn't mirror that
7:34
Speaker 5: at all. So, you know, To be fair, I don't
7:38
Speaker 5: care about the Pittsburgh AD. What I care about is
7:41
Speaker 5: that I'm old enough to know that I've been living
7:46
Speaker 5: this in soccer for about four or five decades now,
7:49
Speaker 5: where soccer just gets thrown to the curb as is
7:51
Speaker 5: not a real sport.
7:53
Speaker 4: And this is the consensus. This is what we're talking about.
7:56
Speaker 5: So when we talk about the fact that there's 300,
7:57
Speaker 5: I think, Tom, you said 350 schools or something.
7:59
Speaker 4: Let's say 350 schools that play NCAA sports and only
8:00
Speaker 4: 250 or 210 have men's soccer.
8:01
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous.
8:11
Speaker 5: That is completely ridiculous to start with. Every school should
8:15
Speaker 5: have the best sport in the world. And we're 40
8:18
Speaker 5: years removed from where we were nobodies when we didn't
8:21
Speaker 5: qualify to the World Cup, when soccer didn't exist.
8:23
Speaker 4: Now we have a real league. We have a real
8:25
Speaker 4: league that's competitive. We have a real league that, sure,
8:28
Speaker 4: you can argue with me, but potentially top 10 league
8:31
Speaker 4: in the world. It's arguable.
8:33
Speaker 5: You can argue that anywhere. You know, We have good players.
8:37
Speaker 5: Our national team is in the top 20 in the world.
8:40
Speaker 5: You can argue that, but that's a fact. That's what happens.
8:42
Speaker 5: That's what you see on the field. But yet in
8:45
Speaker 5: this country, we continue to not have a culture. And
8:48
Speaker 5: this is part of it because this is no different
8:50
Speaker 5: time than when I told the story about me going
8:52
Speaker 5: with my family to high school football games and the
8:55
Speaker 5: high school football games have the band there and the
8:58
Speaker 5: cheerleaders and the dancers and the ambulance and the fire
9:01
Speaker 5: department and And everybody else and their cousin is at
9:04
Speaker 5: the game, and soccer is over there in the park.
9:07
Speaker 4: Hey, we have some grass over there. You guys go
9:09
Speaker 4: play over there. This is this country.
9:11
Speaker 5: Guys, this vote has really nothing to do with NCAA soccer.
9:15
Speaker 5: It has to do with the fact that soccer in
9:17
Speaker 5: this country keeps getting thrown into the curve. And until
9:21
Speaker 5: we have people who are willing to fight at the
9:24
Speaker 5: government level, at the congressional level, for these tens of.
9:27
Speaker 4: Billions of dollars that go into.
9:29
Speaker 5: college sports that soccer doesn't get, we need to go
9:33
Speaker 5: fight for those.
9:34
Speaker 4: That's when the real fight starts.
9:36
Speaker 3: Well, do you know what, Tab? Sorry to interrupt one
9:41
Speaker 3: of the hosts of this podcast, but Tab, you have
9:44
Speaker 3: basically summarized what people have been telling me for the
9:46
Speaker 3: past week, right? That if people were serious about college soccer,
9:51
Speaker 3: this would have never happened. And I think one thing
9:54
Speaker 3: that's also really worth pointing out is that there has
9:57
Speaker 3: been kind of some infighting among other sports. so five
10:00
Speaker 3: years ago a significant figure in college lacrosse sent an
10:05
Speaker 3: email around to all other college lacrosse coaches saying please
10:11
Speaker 3: kill this motion before it even gets off the ground
10:14
Speaker 3: last week there was a statement put out from the
10:17
Speaker 3: head of the College Lacrosse Association, effectively, saying this is stupid.
10:25
Speaker 3: We do not need this. This poses an immediate threat
10:28
Speaker 3: to lacrosse, right? If a big change is made in soccer.
10:34
Speaker 3: That was then put to the North Carolina head coach,
10:36
Speaker 3: and he said, imagine if soccer had the absolute nerve
10:41
Speaker 3: to have a go at another sport where we would
10:43
Speaker 3: be told to go.
10:45
Speaker 1: We should.
10:47
Speaker 3: But he said, funnily enough, he said we will be
10:49
Speaker 3: even further down the totem pole. This just tells us
10:52
Speaker 3: how college soccer is treated. And it is not my
10:55
Speaker 3: job to agree or disagree with him. I would make
10:57
Speaker 3: that point to have this your job. You're very much
10:59
Speaker 3: better at it than I am. But I just found
11:02
Speaker 3: that I found that point really interesting.
11:04
Speaker 5: Well, you know, it's confusing because last time I checked
11:07
Speaker 5: the lacrosse World Cup made how many billion again? What
11:10
Speaker 5: are we talking about here? What are we talking about here?
11:14
Speaker 5: Soccer is not lacrosse. Soccer is not badminton. Soccer is
11:18
Speaker 5: the number one sport in the world. What are we
11:21
Speaker 5: talking about? Why are we fighting with these other sports
11:23
Speaker 5: that really we shouldn't be fighting with? And until that changes,
11:27
Speaker 5: it doesn't matter that MLS exists. It doesn't matter that
11:30
Speaker 5: our national team has great players all over the world.
11:33
Speaker 5: That doesn't matter until people take us seriously in this country.
11:37
Speaker 5: Who is fighting for that? That's what I want to know.
11:40
Speaker 1: So, Tab, my.
11:42
Speaker 2: I, the sentiment of everything you're saying, I agree with
11:44
Speaker 2: the devil's advocate here would be like, you know, not
11:47
Speaker 2: take our ball and go home. But so if you're
11:50
Speaker 2: a big time D one soccer program that really wanted this,
11:54
Speaker 2: why wouldn't MLS next pro or USL league two or
11:57
Speaker 2: want to say, Hey, North Carolina men's soccer, you're a,
12:01
Speaker 2: you can just join our professional league. And like, that's
12:04
Speaker 2: kind of where college football is going to not to
12:05
Speaker 2: get too grandiose about this, but my overall point of like,
12:08
Speaker 2: I agree with you. So if the NCAA is going
12:11
Speaker 2: to marginalize US soccer or say, hey, the majority of
12:14
Speaker 2: the people voting in this measure that don't have a
12:17
Speaker 2: men's soccer team, why do they have a voice in this? Okay, thanks, NCAA.
12:21
Speaker 2: We're either going to take all of those kids out
12:24
Speaker 2: or just silo the program into USL or MLS Next
12:28
Speaker 2: Four or something like that. In this scenario, would you
12:31
Speaker 2: want to see that or do you want to keep
12:33
Speaker 2: the tradition of men's soccer being part of the scholastic And,
12:38
Speaker 2: you know, the SEC, the Big Ten or whatever, or
12:40
Speaker 2: would you rather see these teams? OK, NCA, we're going
12:43
Speaker 2: to go do the two semester model away from.
12:46
Speaker 5: No, I would rather it works within the university system.
12:50
Speaker 5: You know, I would rather we continue to have what
12:52
Speaker 5: we have. I think it's good for students. I think
12:54
Speaker 5: it's a good experience for them. But but obviously, you know,
12:57
Speaker 5: it depends. universities can be a late development program for
13:01
Speaker 5: kids who are still going in the pros. And by
13:03
Speaker 5: the way, it could be for kids who never play
13:05
Speaker 5: again after this, after college. But I think while they're
13:08
Speaker 5: in college, how about we have them play in real soccer?
13:10
Speaker 5: Cause we don't go to basketball and say, Hey, you
13:12
Speaker 5: know what? You're going to college. Your season's only going
13:15
Speaker 5: to be September for four weeks.
13:17
Speaker 4: That's it.
13:17
Speaker 5: So piling 50 games in September, you play twice every
13:21
Speaker 5: night and then, and that's your season. We don't do
13:23
Speaker 5: that in other sports. We have to seriously fight for soccer.
13:27
Speaker 5: This is not a real fight here. I think we
13:29
Speaker 5: have to fight above the NCAA. That's where we have
13:33
Speaker 5: to go.
13:34
Speaker 4: I don't think this is working.
13:35
Speaker 2: Hendo, what about creating some semblance of divisions in college soccer?
13:41
Speaker 2: Is there a compromise to be made or is this
13:44
Speaker 2: just beyond repair?
13:46
Speaker 3: You bring up the right point there, Tom. And that
13:49
Speaker 3: was kind of one of the final conversations I've had.
13:52
Speaker 3: And I know that that discussion is in some form
13:55
Speaker 3: ongoing with U.S. soccer. That's still the leaders of this,
13:58
Speaker 3: if you will, you know, the biggest figures. So you
14:01
Speaker 3: talk about Sasha Swarovski at the University of Maryland being
14:03
Speaker 3: kind of the primary one, if you will, kind of
14:07
Speaker 3: saying that they want an FBS, FCS situation where, you know,
14:11
Speaker 3: the biggest call them 60 to 80 schools and men's
14:14
Speaker 3: college soccer who fought for this. who fill your stadiums,
14:18
Speaker 3: who generate the most pros, et cetera, et cetera, say,
14:21
Speaker 3: you know what? We'll have our bit and we'll do
14:24
Speaker 3: a two-semester model. We'll take this in the direction that
14:27
Speaker 3: we have wanted to take this to, you know, in
14:29
Speaker 3: some cases, three decades, and then the rest of you
14:33
Speaker 3: guys figure it out. Do I say that or do
14:38
Speaker 3: I think that is a realistic path? The way that
14:41
Speaker 3: it was put to me was that would be even
14:45
Speaker 3: more effing complicated than getting a two-semester model together for everyone.
14:51
Speaker 3: So I think an old editor of mine used to
14:54
Speaker 3: use the word crossroads a lot. He'd always used to
14:57
Speaker 3: say that something was at a crossroads. And I think
15:00
Speaker 3: that's kind of where we are with men's Division I
15:03
Speaker 3: college soccer.
15:06
Speaker 2: Tab, what could Division I college soccer be for the
15:11
Speaker 2: player pathway? Like you said, there'll be plenty of kids
15:14
Speaker 2: that don't go on to play pro, but This could
15:16
Speaker 2: be like the step between Academy football and first team football.
15:20
Speaker 2: And obviously there's MLSX Pro, there's USL, there's all these
15:23
Speaker 2: other options. But you got a lot of kids in
15:25
Speaker 2: this country.
15:26
Speaker 1: A lot of kids.
15:27
Speaker 4: Go ahead, Tom. Jump in if you wanted to jump in.
15:29
Speaker 3: No, I just, I mean.
15:31
Speaker 4: Please do.
15:32
Speaker 1: I don't want to hear from Tab Ramos.
15:33
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can tell Tab to shut up
15:36
Speaker 3: at any time if you need. More importantly, Tab should
15:39
Speaker 3: tell me to shut up at any time if you need.
15:41
Speaker 1: That was what my joke was there.
15:43
Speaker 2: Right.
15:44
Speaker 3: Very nice. But one thing that I've heard a lot
15:49
Speaker 3: in this process is that MLS Next Pro, or the
15:52
Speaker 3: perspective from college coaches, right, is that MLS Next Pro
15:55
Speaker 3: is kind of a broken system as well. The team
15:56
Speaker 3: that won that championship was European vets, right? They're all
16:00
Speaker 3: 20 to, you know, their keeper's what, 42 years old?
16:03
Speaker 5: Yeah.
16:03
Speaker 3: Like, Yeah, and that's a great story. But the point
16:07
Speaker 3: is that MLS Next Pro isn't necessarily the development league
16:11
Speaker 3: that the league has been selling it as. You've got
16:13
Speaker 3: independent franchises coming in. It's not quite the pipeline. It
16:17
Speaker 3: hasn't proved to be yet. I think that proponents of
16:21
Speaker 3: college soccer, and to be honest, I'd consider myself one
16:24
Speaker 3: of them in terms of the development of the game,
16:27
Speaker 3: would say that in an ideal world, a year-round model
16:31
Speaker 3: is the best way for players to be developed and
16:34
Speaker 3: ushered into the system. whether it's MLS, whether it's USL.
16:38
Speaker 3: I think we probably think a bit too, like, grandiosely,
16:41
Speaker 3: if that's even a word, about, like, every single fucking
16:44
Speaker 3: 17-year-old has to someday kick a ball for the US
16:47
Speaker 3: men's national team. That's not how football works worldwide. Like,
16:52
Speaker 3: do you know how good you have to be, and Tab,
16:54
Speaker 3: you can say something about this, like, to be a
16:56
Speaker 3: professional footballer full stop? Like, there is nothing wrong with
17:01
Speaker 3: going to college and making a really good living out
17:03
Speaker 3: of being an MLS, or hopefully, sometime soon, a USL
17:07
Speaker 3: player as well. So I think that's where college fits
17:10
Speaker 3: the mold. We're sitting here being like, where's the next,
17:13
Speaker 3: I don't know, why isn't Christian Pulisic coming out of
17:17
Speaker 3: like the University of Maryland? Well, the University of Maryland
17:20
Speaker 3: can't develop Christian Pulisic anymore, right? Or, I mean, obviously
17:23
Speaker 3: they didn't. But you know what I mean? Like that
17:25
Speaker 3: scale of player maybe doesn't come through college soccer, but
17:28
Speaker 3: you can still get a bunch of good pros from that.
17:30
Speaker 3: You just have to, in some way, figure out the system.
17:33
Speaker 3: And I think there is a crucially, a consensus among
17:37
Speaker 3: the people in the system that the system is a
17:40
Speaker 3: little bit broken. And I've finished it that way to
17:43
Speaker 3: non-commit to one way or the other.
17:46
Speaker 4: No, no. And I understand that.
17:48
Speaker 5: And I know you don't have a lot of time,
17:50
Speaker 5: but the one thing that I'm protecting more than anything
17:53
Speaker 5: else is not the next professional player that's going to
17:55
Speaker 5: come out of college. What I want to protect is
17:59
Speaker 5: the game. I want to protect the game. I want
18:02
Speaker 5: to protect the purity of the game. So, so a
18:05
Speaker 5: few years ago, back when I was a youth technical
18:07
Speaker 5: director at us soccer, we ran a pilot program for, um,
18:11
Speaker 5: for schools and we had, we had most of the
18:14
Speaker 5: ACC schools. We included Georgetown in that. So we had Georgetown,
18:18
Speaker 5: we had the Clemson, we had wake forest, we had
18:21
Speaker 5: North Carolina. We had a bunch of schools and we
18:24
Speaker 5: ran a spring season with five games. under FIFA rules.
18:28
Speaker 5: And the school loved it. I remember meeting with all
18:30
Speaker 5: the coaches. We had coaches meeting. We shared technical information.
18:34
Speaker 5: It was sort of bringing real soccer to college. And
18:37
Speaker 5: I think that's what these coaches want. including Vidovic at Pittsburgh, right?
18:41
Speaker 5: They want to be coaching the real thing. And what
18:44
Speaker 5: I'd like to protect is I'd like to fight for
18:47
Speaker 5: the real thing. If you're going to college and you're
18:49
Speaker 5: going to play soccer in college, you know that soccer
18:52
Speaker 5: is about 10 months out of the year. And that's
18:54
Speaker 5: what you do.
18:55
Speaker 4: That's how you play.
18:56
Speaker 5: You don't go to play two months and try to
18:57
Speaker 5: fit as many games as you can just so you're
18:59
Speaker 5: out of the way for the rest of the year
19:01
Speaker 5: because your trainer can't work extra hours in the spring
19:04
Speaker 5: when there's $ 10 billion going into college sports. either from
19:12
Speaker 5: donations or within college subsidies or student fees. That's without
19:19
Speaker 5: counting government subsidies and everything else that goes into college.
19:22
Speaker 5: Don't tell me there's no money for soccer and that
19:25
Speaker 5: your trainer can't work a couple hours longer in the spring.
19:28
Speaker 4: I don't buy it. They're fine. The excuses are fine.
19:32
Speaker 5: I understand that people need to work for a period
19:34
Speaker 5: of time, but the bottom line is, We have to
19:36
Speaker 5: start protecting the purity of the sport in this country
19:40
Speaker 5: if we're going to be serious contenders 20, 30 years
19:43
Speaker 5: down the road. Otherwise, where we are right now with
19:46
Speaker 5: this vote, it's the same place that we were when
19:48
Speaker 5: I went to college.
19:49
Speaker 4: And that was about a million years ago.
19:52
Speaker 5: And if we don't start changing now, it's going to
19:54
Speaker 5: be the same a million years from now.
19:57
Speaker 2: It's a complex, a deep issue. Seemed like it was
20:02
Speaker 2: evolving to the modern world. And unfortunately, though, the rug
20:04
Speaker 2: got pulled from underneath us all. But Tom Hindle, you
20:07
Speaker 2: can read his work at gold.com. He covers this, covers
20:09
Speaker 2: a lot of things, a lot of good features and
20:11
Speaker 2: all that. So I'd encourage you to check it out, Tom.
20:13
Speaker 2: I'm sure that there's going to be more and more
20:14
Speaker 2: fallout from this decision and we'll see kind of what
20:17
Speaker 2: evolves from here on out over the next couple of
20:20
Speaker 2: months over through the winter. And maybe we'll have you
20:22
Speaker 2: back on to talk about it again in the future.
20:23
Speaker 1: But Tom, thanks for joining us.
20:25
Speaker 3: Cheers, guys. I'm sick of my phone, but thanks for
20:27
Speaker 3: having me.
20:28
Speaker 1: Thanks, Tom.
20:29
Speaker 4: We'll have you in happy times next time.
20:32
Speaker 3: Please do.