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Does Ohio State Actually Want Congress To Step In To Fix College Sports? · Buckeyes TomOrrow Morning

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  Speaker 1: Welcome to Buckeyes tomorrow morning for Wednesday, July. First time
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  Speaker 1: your host Tom or the ball State game in sixty
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  Speaker 1: six days, the game gets Michigan in one hundred and
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  Speaker 1: All right, on today's show, you're going to get to
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  Speaker 1: hear a little bit from Ohio State Athletic Director Ross Buyork.
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  Speaker 1: We got a chance to talk to Ross for about
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  Speaker 1: an hour last week, and there was a ton of
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  Speaker 1: interesting stuff in that conversation. So we're going to have
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  Speaker 1: some a little bit of each of those topics, a
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  Speaker 1: bunch of different topics spread over the next few days.
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  Speaker 1: We'll have some other shows mixed in there as well,
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  Speaker 1: but over the holiday weekend you're going to get to
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  Speaker 1: hear a good bit from Ross about a bunch of
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  Speaker 1: different topics and how they impact Ohio State. Because it
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  Speaker 1: was a lot of really good information and a lot
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  Speaker 1: of answers that I think a lot of about Higo
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  Speaker 1: State fans are going to want to hear. So let's
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  Speaker 1: start with what's going on in Congress right now. There
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  Speaker 1: are obviously there's a bill going on Ted Cruz, Marie
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  Speaker 1: Cantwell kind of work that through the Senate. They're still
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  Speaker 1: not done yet, but Congress just getting involved on the whole.
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  Speaker 1: What does ross by Orke, What is Ohio State? What
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  Speaker 1: does maybe the Big ten want to see out of that?
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  Speaker 1: And how concerned is Ross about you know, the SEC
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  Speaker 1: and the Big Ten maybe being on the opposite side
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  Speaker 1: of the table from the rest of the leagues.
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  Speaker 2: Let's go back to Civics class right and talk about this.
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  Speaker 2: You know, look, it's hard to get into the dynamics
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  Speaker 2: of sort of the process and the communication. What I
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  Speaker 2: will say is, I know myself and our colleagues, Big Ten,
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  Speaker 2: the SEC, we all want this stability to happen. And
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  Speaker 2: in our mind, based on everything going on in the
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  Speaker 2: court system, the legal system, you know, the threats that
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  Speaker 2: come out pretty much every day.
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  Speaker 3: About when we make a rule. Now there's a new lawsuit.
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  Speaker 2: You can't govern that way, and I think everyone recognizes that,
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  Speaker 2: including you know, our politicians.
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  Speaker 3: They recognize that.
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  Speaker 2: So in our mind, we've got to communicate around this bill,
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  Speaker 2: and we have the Big Ten has been you know,
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  Speaker 2: at the table, the sec has been at the table.
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  Speaker 2: But unless you have the antitrust protection codified in a
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  Speaker 2: very very tight window and tight way, and unless you
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  Speaker 2: have state law preemption that does not allow state law
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  Speaker 2: to continue, then I'm not sure the rest of it
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  Speaker 2: has any legal liability protection. So to me, those are
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  Speaker 2: the two anchor points that have to be tightened up
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  Speaker 2: in some way. So we've expressed that, we'll continue to
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  Speaker 2: express that because then you can actually make rules around
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  Speaker 2: transfer windows, around five years of eligibility.
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  Speaker 3: Around all these other things.
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  Speaker 2: But if you don't have the state law preemption and
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  Speaker 2: you don't have the anti trust as tight as it
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  Speaker 2: can be.
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  Speaker 3: The rest of it doesn't matter.
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  Speaker 2: So, you know what's been described, this is a compromise
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  Speaker 2: bill right between you know, a Republican senator and a
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  Speaker 2: Democratic senator that you know oversee this committee that has jurisdiction,
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  Speaker 2: and so we're communicating with our delegation, we're communicating with
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  Speaker 2: lots of leaders around this, but we've got to start there.
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  Speaker 2: And then there's some other things that you know, need
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  Speaker 2: clarification around house case settlement terms and what nil means
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  Speaker 2: in this bill, you know, sports sponsorship. There's all kinds
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  Speaker 2: of other you know, sort of nits and gnats around it.
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  Speaker 2: But unless you start with those two things, the rest
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  Speaker 2: of it may not have any teeth to survive any
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  Speaker 2: sort of legal threat.
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  Speaker 1: So this is one of those questions that I've had
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  Speaker 1: for a long time, and I've never really heard anyone
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  Speaker 1: give this answer before. This explanation before it is remarkably straightforward.
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  Speaker 1: But why not just make student athletes employees? Doesn't that
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  Speaker 1: sort of solve a lot of the problems.
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  Speaker 2: Because we're a country of fifty states, and there's a
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  Speaker 2: court case, legal case from the nineteen thirties that said
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  Speaker 2: that employment rights belong to the states right and also
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  Speaker 2: you have differences between public companies and private companies. So
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  Speaker 2: the complication in each state footprint, the fact that the
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  Speaker 2: states own those rights around employment matters. It just layers
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  Speaker 2: in the complexities. So, yes, those are the things we
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  Speaker 2: have to talk about, that we have to talk about.
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  Speaker 2: Is there a structure beside that, is there a structure
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  Speaker 2: that happens maybe within the Big ten model, where could
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  Speaker 2: the Big ten house you know, some structure with the athletes,
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  Speaker 2: but you also commit to coming to Ohio State. Here's
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  Speaker 2: your Ohio State financial package, but then here's a Big
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  Speaker 2: ten structure. Those are the kind of things that we
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  Speaker 2: need to continue to talk about and maybe that's the
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  Speaker 2: pathway to get something done.
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  Speaker 1: Now, the two cop sponsors of that bill are Ted
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  Speaker 1: crew he was a Republican from Texas and Maria Cantwell,
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  Speaker 1: a Democrat from the state of Washington. Now those are
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  Speaker 1: interesting places to be from because both of those people
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  Speaker 1: represent states with Big ten teams or SEC teams in them. So, okay,
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  Speaker 1: are they sort of beholding to the big schools? Well
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  Speaker 1: maybe maybe not, because of course, Washington is also the
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  Speaker 1: home of Washington State University, which is one of the
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  Speaker 1: big losers in the recent conference realignment shuffle, and Texas
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  Speaker 1: is home to all sorts of teams from the non
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  Speaker 1: power leagues and the ACC and the.
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  Speaker 3: Big twelve.
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  Speaker 1: So you've got sort of the big two leagues right
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  Speaker 1: now at odds with the a lot of the other
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  Speaker 1: leagues in terms of they want to do more, and
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  Speaker 1: there's been conversation that they may have overplayed their hands.
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  Speaker 1: And the two people who wrote the bill. Are they
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  Speaker 1: looking out for the big guys? Are they looking out
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  Speaker 1: for the little guys? It depends. So how do you
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  Speaker 1: resolve that sort of conundrum.
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  Speaker 2: When all this started, it was a very skinny what
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  Speaker 2: I'll say, a skinny package, a skinny bill, right, antitrust,
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  Speaker 2: state law preemption. Again, maybe we codify eligibility transfer. But again,
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  Speaker 2: when you talk about compromise and you need Democrats to
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  Speaker 2: support along with, then you start bringing in these other elements.
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  Speaker 2: So you know, look, here's what I would say is
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  Speaker 2: the big ten in the SEC. We provide the most
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  Speaker 2: amount of scholarships, we produce the most amount of revenue,
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  Speaker 2: We produce the most amount of nil engagements. For us
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  Speaker 2: here at Ohio State we carry almost a thousand athletes.
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  Speaker 2: We believe we're doing it the right way, and so
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  Speaker 2: we don't believe we should be boxed in in any
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  Speaker 2: certain way. We should be able to have the flexibility
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  Speaker 2: based on our resources to continue to thrive and so
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  Speaker 2: to have oversight of that. We don't feel like we
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  Speaker 2: should be boxed in. And so I don't think anyone's
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  Speaker 2: overplayed their hand. I think again this sort of gets
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  Speaker 2: back to process and procedures and who's.
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  Speaker 3: In the room and things like that.
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  Speaker 2: There's been really great dialogue and there's things that I
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  Speaker 2: think we will get in the in the long run.
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  Speaker 2: But getting there and compromising, it's probably going to come
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  Speaker 2: with some things that maybe we don't completely agree with,
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  Speaker 2: but we can live with. And that's I think that's
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  Speaker 2: the next stage in this is it's sort of in
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  Speaker 2: a quiet period because of the holiday middle of July.
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  Speaker 2: There'll be more engagement with our delegation, both locally but nationally.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe a bill gets to the floor sometime July August
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  Speaker 2: with the right kind of modification.
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  Speaker 3: So we're in favor.
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  Speaker 2: Of making this happen, but we also want to be
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  Speaker 2: able to make sure that everyone has the legal protection
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  Speaker 2: but also, you know, continue flexibility to operate.
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  Speaker 1: When you're doing a construction project, everyone knows it's easier
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  Speaker 1: if you're not there and the working work crews don't
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  Speaker 1: need to work around you.
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  Speaker 3: That's true if you're getting your kitchen er modeled.
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  Speaker 1: That's true if you're redoing a one hundred and twenty
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  Speaker 1: five million dollars football facility. So what is the plan
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  Speaker 1: for that interim period during the construction. How is the
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  Speaker 1: football program during those eighteen months of construction, because yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they're redoing the meeting rooms. Yeah, they're redoing the team room.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Oh, they're redoing all.
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  Speaker 3: Sorts of stuff.
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  Speaker 1: They still have to practicees, have to have meetings, You
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  Speaker 1: still have to be able to run a football program
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  Speaker 1: during that eighteen months. So Okay, what's the plan there.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, we have people in closets now, so we got
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  Speaker 2: we got to get them out of there.
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  Speaker 3: That's the that's the problem, right, Yeah, No, we have
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  Speaker 3: a plan.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, look, there's you guys see a lot of
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  Speaker 2: these modular things. I mean, you can walk in a
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  Speaker 2: room and like this building is amazing on the inside
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  Speaker 2: and maybe it's modular on the outside. So we also
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of space in the Fawcet Center that
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  Speaker 2: we can utilize. So between the Fawcet, between some temporary
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  Speaker 2: those are the kind of things that would be mapped
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  Speaker 2: out if we have when when we will have to
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  Speaker 2: vacate that building, if we want to build it in
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  Speaker 2: the most efficient, fastest way possible, and so we'll we'll
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  Speaker 2: have a good plan. We'll have a good plan around there,
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  Speaker 2: and that's built into the cost. All of that's built
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  Speaker 2: into that one hundred and twenty five million dollars cost.
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  Speaker 1: All right, that will do it for today's show. If
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  Speaker 1: which that is coming sooner rather than later. We are
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  Speaker 1: in July now and big ten media days, less than
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  Speaker 1: a month away, the start of fall camp just over
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  Speaker 1: a month away, the start of the football season just
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  Speaker 1: under two months away, and oh Man football season. It
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  Speaker 1: Have a great day. We'll talk to you tomorrow.