Latest / The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson / MASSIVE Victory for Student-Athletes & Fans as 3/4 of the Senate Votes for the Protect College Sports Act

Transcript

MASSIVE Victory for Student-Athletes & Fans as 3/4 of the Senate Votes for the Protect College Sports Act · The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz. Ben Ferguson
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: with you as well. Senator, we've got a lot to
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: cover on today's show. Serious legislation after the August recess.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Things are back in order and major issues in legislation
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: are all happening in D.C. this week.
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: Well, today was a very, very big day in terms
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: of legislative agenda moving forward with major steps that make
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: a difference for the American people. The biggest thing that
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I think happened today is the Senate voted finally after
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: three years on the Protect College Sports Act.
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: You know, Ben, I know that you.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Guys get accused of moving fast a lot. You know that, right?
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Look, I know that sports is not something that matters
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: to you much. And I know that the only thing
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: you care about is cheering on LSU to win.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: That's.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: Sorry, I had to pull my hand down there. Just
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: an instant reaction was about to happen on camera. That
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: would just not be nice for all the children watching
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: right now. But yeah, keep going, keep going.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: But we had the Protect College Sports Act. Look, we
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: have talked about this on length in the podcast. And
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: college sports is, number one, an amazing institution. It's a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: unique institution in America. And I got to say, that's
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: actually something I'd never really focused on until I started
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: focusing on it from a legislative side is, like, I
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: kind of took college sports for granted. That's like, you know,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: what you do, like Saturday football games. And I've never
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: really focused on no other country has this. There's no
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: other country. You go to Europe, this doesn't exist. You
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: go to Asia, this doesn't exist. Latin America, this doesn't exist.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: College sports, there are roughly 500,000 college athletes across the country.
• 1:46
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: They take, you know, young, promising stars like one Benjamin Ferguson,
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: and they teach him the skills that it takes to
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: be a chart-topping podcaster.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: And look where I am now. See, exactly. If it
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't for Ole Miss, sir, we wouldn't be sitting here.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: Never forget that, okay? It took Harvard to get you here.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: It took Ole Miss to get me here. I'm just
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: saying there's talent here that we're looking at, you know.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: And you look at– look, it's an amazing thing.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: And listen, I was a high school athlete, but I
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: wasn't even a very good high school athlete. So I
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: have total, like, envy of the jocks because that was
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: not my gig.
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: But it's a very cool gig.
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: And as you know, actually, a lot of the folks
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: that I hired on my team were college athletes because I–
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: respect it teaches discipline and hard work and and just
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: just uh sportsmanship and excellence uh and that's actually one
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: of the things as a dad that i try to
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: encourage my girls is learn excellence it doesn't even matter
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: what it is in particularly when you're young uh what
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: it's in look you're not a professional tennis player tennis
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: doesn't doesn't feed your kids it doesn't pay your mortgage
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: but learning how to practice and get excellent at tennis
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: taught you how to get excellent at other things.
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Would you agree with that?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I mean, 99.9% of even college athletes
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: don't go pro. They go pro in something else. They
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: go pro in the business world, but it does teach
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: you discipline. It teaches you to keep your head down.
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: It teaches you also to understand that there's usually like
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: a coach or someone that should mentor you in business.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: And also I think it teaches you not to be
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: a know-it-all.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 2: So, you look at the, I think that's exactly right. And, and,
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: and what is happening in college sports right now is
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: that it's total chaos. And, and, you know, some people
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: have asked, why would Congress get in the middle of this?
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: The answer is because Congress screwed it up because the
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: federal antitrust laws were passed by Congress. And, and the
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: current state of affairs is whatever happens, there are no
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: rules because anything, any rule they try to put in place,
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: they get sued and courts strike them all down under
• 3:55
  Speaker 2: the antitrust laws. And so you just have chaos. You
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: have kids transferring three, four, five times. You have no
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: eligibility rules. You have people playing six, seven, eight years.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: You have people playing at age 27, 28 against 17-year-olds,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: which is not remotely fair. You have pros playing against
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: college kids.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: And it is.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: It is the Wild West. And it also has caused
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: this bidding war where almost every college athletic program in
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the country is losing tens of millions of dollars. They're
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: hemorrhaging cash. And so what it means is everything except
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: college football gets slashed. And so women's sports get cut.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Olympic sports gets cut. Tennis gets cut. Golf gets cut.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Track and field, swimming, wrestling, volleyball. All of those are
• 4:44
  Speaker 2: just getting decimated. And we're in a spending shootout that
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: if we don't do something, look, I think within three
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: to five years, there will be 30 to 50 competitive
• 4:57
  Speaker 2: football programs and everyone else goes under. And when everyone
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: else goes under, it is college football that pays for
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: everything else. If you look at the economics of college sports,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and if you don't examine this much, you may not
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: realize it, but basically no other sport makes money except football.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: Men's basketball makes a little, and there are occasional exceptions,
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: you know, when you have, say, a Caitlin Clark or something,
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: that you'll have a moment. But as a general matter,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: the only sport that makes money is football. And so
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: at virtually every college, it is football that pays for
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: every other sport, that pays for all the men's sports,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: all the women's sports.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Everything else.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: So if most of the colleges in the country, if
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: their football programs go under, it means the revenue for
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: the rest of athletics go under. And it's not even just–
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: so listen, if we did nothing of the roughly 500,000
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: college athletes in America right now, 200,000 to 300,000 would
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: lose their roster slots, would lose their scholarships. I mean
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: we're at risk of seeing over the years millions of
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: young men and women lose their avenue to go to college,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: lose their avenue– to get an education. And many of
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: these are, are low income African-American kids, Hispanic kids who
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: might not otherwise have a chance to go to college.
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: Like sports is, is for, for, for many of these athletes,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: it's their only ticket. And, and That would truly be tragic.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: But by the way, not only do you have athletics
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: go away, but for many schools, if athletics go away,
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: their ability to attract students to apply, their ability to
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: get donors to contribute to the school goes up in
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: smoke as well. And so I think if we allow
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: college sports to crater— We will see colleges and universities
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: across the country going broke, going out of business. And
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: so it truly is a crisis, and I think a
• 6:43
  Speaker 2: crisis that mandates that Congress act.
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I want to go into actually what actually changed,
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: what this bill changed specifically, so people know what that means.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that in just a second.
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: If it feels like our country finally has momentum again, well,
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: with the leaders we have in the White House, you'd
• 7:00
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• 7:02
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• 7:07
  Speaker 1: But we've seen this before. Conservatives, we get comfortable. Then
• 7:10
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• 7:12
  Speaker 1: and bam, all of a sudden they're back in charge.
• 7:15
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• 7:18
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  Speaker 1: switch today. All right, so this bill, it is passed.
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: That's amazing. Like you said, it's been a long time
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: in the works. You got bipartisan support. Give us some
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: of the key highlights of what now changes in college
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: sports to protect all of those other sports because of
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: some of the rules that are now going to be implemented.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to tell you what's specifically in the bill,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: but let's not bury the lead. So today we had
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: a vote. It was the first time we've had a
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: vote on college sports, and there was some furious lobbying
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: against it. The people leading the lobbying against it were
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: Democrat Cory Booker and Democrat Chris Murphy, both from the
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: far left. And they were doing everything they can to
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: defeat this bill. Well, we ended up having a massive,
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: massive victory today. There were a total of 74 senators
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: that voted for the bill today.
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: By the way, that doesn't happen just to put it
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: in perspective. When was the last time on a pretty
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: intense and debated piece of legislation, not a kumbaya piece
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of something, like this was not kumbaya, where you get 74?
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: I don't remember another vote that I can think of
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: that was this significant.
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: Well, and I will say also, look, we said from
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: the beginning, I've said on this podcast a number of times,
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: my objective was not to eke by with 60. 60
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: is what you need to clear a filibuster. And to
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: be clear, Cory Booker and Chris Murphy are trying to
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: filibuster this bill. To defeat a filibuster, we needed 60.
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: And I said from the beginning, I don't want just 60.
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: I want a big bipartisan vote that is overwhelming support.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: We got 74.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: And actually, we're even stronger than that because there were
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: two Democrats who were absent today, Chris Coons and Jackie Rosen,
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: and they're both co-sponsors of the bill. So so They're
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: supporters of the bill. And so we're at 76. We
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: have more than three quarters of the Senate in support
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: of this bill. We also got 25, and with the
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: two of them, that will be 27 Democrats. So we
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: got more than half of the Democrat caucus, despite the
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: fact that multiple major interest groups on the left are
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: lobbying against it. You've got the trial lawyers lobbying against it.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: You've got the AFL-CIO lobbying against it. The NAACP is
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: lobbying against it. So it is remarkable. Why did we
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: get such a big vote? Because we've got, number one,
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: it's a really strong piece of legislation, but number two,
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: we built an amazingly strong coalition behind this bill.
• 10:55
  Speaker 3: It was bipartisan.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: That was part of your strategy to make sure this
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: was bipartisan, not with one sponsor that was a Democrat.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: It was an all-out, go find great people that understand this,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: and this shouldn't be political. This should be about saving
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: college sports.
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: Well, Maria Cantwell is the ranking member of the Senate
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: Commerce Committee. I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: So we're the top two senators on the committee. And
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: the two of us did this together. And I will
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: say negotiating it was painstaking.
• 11:23
  Speaker 3: I mean, it was.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Literally day after day, week after week, sitting in a
• 11:26
  Speaker 2: conference room for six, eight hours a day just negotiating.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: And there were times where we wanted to pull our
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: hair out. There are times certainly when Maria wanted to
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: kill me. It was unbelievably, I joke that Middle East
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: peace is easy compared to college sports, and many people
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: care about it less than college sports. But we got
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: a bipartisan bill. We had five Republican co-sponsors, five Democrat co-sponsors,
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: and then the coalition behind it, we have 29 conferences
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: supporting it, so all the major conferences are behind it.
• 12:01
  Speaker 2: We had Over 370 colleges and universities backing it. The
• 12:06
  Speaker 2: historically black colleges and universities are incredibly vocal, supporting the bill, enthusiastic,
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: supporting the bill. The major league pros, the NFL, the NBA,
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Major League Baseball, National Hockey League are all supporting the bill.
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: The NBA Players Association, the NFL Players Association are supporting
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: this bill. The Olympic Committee, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: Committee is enthusiastically supporting this bill. We have hundreds of
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: coaches across the country supporting the bill. Yesterday, we did
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: a press conference where we had student athletes from all
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: over the country come out asking Congress to pass this bill.
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: We had coaches like John Calipari, basketball legend, the old
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: Kentucky coach is now the head coach at University of Arkansas.
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: He was speaking in favor of it. Mark Few, the
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: basketball coach at Gonzaga, he was there speaking in favor
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: of it. With Craig Robinson, the head of the Basketball
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: Coaches Association of America, who happens to be Michelle Obama's brother.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: Interesting.
• 13:04
  Speaker 2: He was speaking out against it. That was very helpful
• 13:06
  Speaker 2: for getting Democrats on board. But, all right, what does
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: the bill do? It brings order out of the chaos.
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: It sets some basic rules. So one of the problems
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: is the transfer portal. And by the way, why is
• 13:19
  Speaker 2: a transfer portal such a problem? It means at the
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: end of every season, every team wins. has the potential
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: to blow up and you have a lot of the
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: players in every team leave and jump from school to school.
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: The way I described it is it would be like
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: free agency in the NFL. If every year at the
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: end of the season, every single player is up for grabs,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: you would get no continuity and you'd have every quarterback
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: in the league that would just disappear to another team.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: Every wide receiver, you'd have no franchise players. you would
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: have no team. I mean, that's what was happening in
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: college sports. Imagine if you had LeBron James playing for
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: 15 or 16 different teams in 15 years.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Well, by the way, we actually, with LeBron James, we
• 13:56
  Speaker 2: kind of have, so that may not be the perfect example.
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: But look, I mean, you want to root for players
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: and teams, for the fans, like having a team, having
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: players that are your guys, is a big part of
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: the fan experience, is part of the school experience. But
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: from the perspective of the student athletes, you mentioned before,
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: the stat is 99%, 99% of college athletes will not
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: go on to the NBA, will not go on to
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: the NFL. So they're not going to earn their living
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: playing sports after college. Yes. But what happens if a
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: student transfers, the odds of that student athlete graduating plummet.
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: And if a student transfers multiple times, the odds drop
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: to almost nothing because they You end up having a
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: student athlete. You don't get any attachment to the school.
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: You don't have any loyalty. You don't build relationships with professors.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: You end up that many of the student athletes, if
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: they're transferring multiple times, they're not really working on their
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: academic coursework. Their credits don't always transfer. They're unlikely to graduate.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: And if they're not going on to the NBA or NFL,
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: they end up coming out of it. having made a
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: little bit of money on NIL in college, not having
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: a degree, not having the skills. And what is powerful
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: about college athletics is it's an avenue for education for
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: so many young people. Now, I think it is better.
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: that student athletes are compensated. I think the old system
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: was unfair, that you had incredible athletes generating millions of
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: dollars of revenue, that everyone got rich but them. And
• 15:27
  Speaker 2: as a conservative, I think you ought to be able
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: to earn the fruits of your labor. If you produce,
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: if you're a star quarterback.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: Tim Tebow and Johnny Football are two examples of this.
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: They made, they transformed, by the way, those universities, including
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: like building the Texas A & M Stadium for what
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: it is now. That was on the back of Johnny Football.
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: The amount of booster money, the amount of money that
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: was coming to campus, and then you're having to do
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: things on the table. I don't blame, by the way,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: athletes for doing that in the past. Tim Tebow should
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: have made more money in the NCAA than he did
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: in the NFL.
• 15:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: It was not fair and it was not right. So
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: it is an improvement, I believe, that athletes can be
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: compensated if they have enormous skill. What we try to
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: do in this bill is set some basic rules. So
• 16:08
  Speaker 2: on the transfer, every athlete gets one free transfer. All right.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: So if you want to transfer, you can, but just once.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: For any reason.
• 16:15
  Speaker 3: For any reason. There are no restrictions.
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: You can have a second transfer, and we specify, you
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: can have a second transfer, number one, if your coach leaves.
• 16:23
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: Number two, if your programs cancel. You're at Ole Miss,
• 16:26
  Speaker 2: they cancel their tennis program, you can transfer and go
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: play tennis somewhere else. Or number three, if you're the
• 16:32
  Speaker 2: victim of sexual assault or sexual harassment. So those are
• 16:35
  Speaker 2: three limited exceptions. And then beyond that, if you transfer
• 16:40
  Speaker 2: a second time, you can do it, but you have
• 16:42
  Speaker 2: to sit out a year. You have to redshirt a year.
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: You lose a year of your eligibility.
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: That used to be the old rule before.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: You lose a year of eligibility. So that's the penalty.
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: Right. And that will mean that will slow down the
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: transfers massively. You may get one, but what happens, and
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: by the way, understand these are, you know, these are not,
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: pro athletes in the NFL or NBA who are 25
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: or 30 years old that are grown adults. These are
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: often kids that are 17, 18, 19 years old. So
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: they're frequently not terribly financially sophisticated. They're just showing up
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: at college. And you have agents who are unscrupulous who
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: will go to them and say, hey, Ben, I can
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: get you a little bit more money if you transferred Alabama.
• 17:23
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 17:24
  Speaker 2: And and the agents are getting a big cut of
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: the take and they don't care if it screws up
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: your education. It's terrible for you if they can get
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: you to move and they get to put some money
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: in the bank. You have this happening over and over
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: again and it's hurting the student athletes. So one transfer
• 17:39
  Speaker 2: is a big improve, but we also an eligibility. So
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: every athlete has five years of eligibility. It ends at
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: age 24. So there's not going to be 25, 26,
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: 27 year olds age 24. You're done five years.
• 17:48
  Speaker 3: You're done.
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: Those two reforms are a big deal. We also give
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: the authority to enforce basic rules like no pros. And
• 18:00
  Speaker 2: you can say you're not eligible if you're a pro.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: Right now, the leagues are not able to enforce that
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: because that gets struck down under the antitrust laws. We
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: also say you can enforce rules like no gambling. You
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: look at Brendan Sorsby, who a local hometown judge says,
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: all right, he can play at Texas Tech because we
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: want a great quarterback at Tech. That's terrible for sports.
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: Gambling is becoming more and more of a problem in sports,
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: and if there's no ability to police it, if you
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: end up having athletes betting on their own games, you
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: are inviting just massive corruption into the system.
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and it's no longer actually playing to win, it's
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: playing to get a payday.
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: Right. So we put in basic rules. By the way,
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: we also protect women's sports and we protect Olympic sports.
• 18:44
  Speaker 2: And we set the ability— Hold.
• 18:46
  Speaker 3: On, hold on.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: Before you get to that, Olympic sports, this is a
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: really interesting point that has not been brought up a
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: lot in the media, and I want to talk about that.
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: But before we get to that, I want to talk
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: to you real quick about the International Fellowship of Christians
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: and Jews. Three years ago, terrorists murdered more than 1,200
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: innocent Israelis and took 250 hostages. Today, as we remember
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: the souls lost on October the 7th, Israel is still
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: under threat from terrorists sworn to her destruction, and anti-Semitic
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: hatred and violence continues to rise. Yet as the world
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: looks away, a light shines in the darkness. Christians and
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: Jews are coming together to boldly stand with Israel through
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews program called Flags
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: of Fellowship, and it's a movement across America on the
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: anniversary of October the 7th attacks. Churches, synagogues, universities, and
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: communities are planting Israeli flags. It's a powerful declaration that
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: Israel is not alone. Now together we can combat hate
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: and anti-Semitism one flag at a time while supporting the
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: fellowship's life-saving work for people in need. So I want
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: you to think about donating today to plant your flag
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: and boldly show your support for Israel and the Jewish people.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: You can join this historic moment and this movement with
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: a gift of just $ 25. So raise your voice and
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: show the world that Israel is not alone. Visit joinfof.org.
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: That's joinfof.org. All right, Senator, I want to go back
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: to something interesting you said. You brought up the Olympics.
• 20:26
  Speaker 1: If you were in any different part of this debate,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: and I was, the Olympics never came up. And you
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: said there's something in here that deals with the Olympics.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: Explain that because that's also extremely important.
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, look, we have provisions in this bill that require
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: the larger programs to maintain their roster slots, their scholarship
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: slots for women's sports and for Olympic sports. And those are,
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: you know, you look at where, look, every couple of
• 20:54
  Speaker 2: years at the Olympics, we all cheer on America. Where
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: do you think the American athletes get their training? They
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: get their training online.
• 20:59
  Speaker 3: At U.S. colleges and universities.
• 21:01
  Speaker 2: And one of the consequences of this spending spiral and
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: what's happening is schools are spending more and more and
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: more and more on football. And so they're cutting everything else.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: They're slashing Olympic sports and women's sports. And that is
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: a terrible outcome. This bill limits the ability to do that,
• 21:19
  Speaker 2: but it also is a tradeoff. protects the ability to
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: put effectively a cap on spending. And the cap, there's
• 21:28
  Speaker 2: sort of three buckets. One bucket is a cap that
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: came out of what's called the House Settlement, which was
• 21:34
  Speaker 2: litigation that was settled. That's $ 20. 5 million of revenue sharing
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: that colleges can provide. So if they're making revenue from TV,
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: they can share $ 20. 5 million with the athletes. There's another
• 21:45
  Speaker 2: bucket this bill creates, which is what's called a retention
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: bonus of $ 22. 5 million. And that is not new athletes,
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: but you can take your existing. So if you have
• 21:55
  Speaker 2: a star running back, you can say, OK, we're going
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: to share revenue. We're going to give you a million
• 21:59
  Speaker 2: or two million bucks a year to stay. And that's
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: designed also to produce some continuity, to keep the teams together,
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: to keep student athletes there for four years. The retention
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: bonus is designed to make people stickier at the schools
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: they're at. And then we thirdly put in that there's
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: an additional $ 5 million on top of all of that
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: can be spent specifically on women's sports and non-revenue sports.
• 22:25
  Speaker 2: And that $ 5 million does not count to the cap.
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: So there's an additional $ 5 million because we said, look,
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: we don't want to use just stick.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: We want to have some carrot.
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: And so the carrot is, hey, if you spend an
• 22:37
  Speaker 2: additional $ 5 million on women's sports and Olympic sports and
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: non-revenue sports, that doesn't count against your capital. And so
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: it sets a total cap at just over $ 47 million. Look,
• 22:46
  Speaker 2: $ 47 million is a lot of money. But if you
• 22:51
  Speaker 2: compare to what the really big schools are making, you've
• 22:55
  Speaker 2: got schools that are spending 70, 80 million or more.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: And so having some competitiveness of bringing it down, even
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: the schools that are not spending that much now, they
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: feel like, OK, we can compete. We can't compete at 70,
• 23:10
  Speaker 2: 80 million. Schools like Penn State, schools like Rutgers are
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: just hemorrhaging massive amounts of money. And by having some
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: enforceable caps, you allow some competitive balance, which ends up
• 23:24
  Speaker 2: preserving the whole ecosystem.
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: How did you guys come up with that number, by
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: the way? Because it's interesting. And the reason why I
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: ask is I've had a lot of people that I've
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: debated that number with. I said, whatever the top teams
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: have got, you got to cut it by at least
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: in half to make it somewhat fair, because it's still
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: hard to come up with that amount of money every
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: single year, especially if you're at a not a top
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: premier university. And then you just have. basically 20 franchises
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: like you would have in a pro sport, and the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: rest are just scrimmages, in essence, or blowout games because
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: you don't have the cash. So how did you guys
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: come up with that number?
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: So it was negotiated, and it was a long, arduous negotiation.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: So if you look at college football, the two 800-pound
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: gorillas are the SEC and the Big Ten. And two-thirds,
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: about 70% of the eyeballs, about 70% of the revenue
• 24:17
  Speaker 2: is generated by the SEC and the Big Ten. Um, and,
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: and then you've got the power for, you have the
• 24:23
  Speaker 2: ACC of the big 12 that are beyond that. And
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: then you've got the much smaller conferences, uh, behind that
• 24:28
  Speaker 2: in terms of the revenue they generate. Um, one of the,
• 24:32
  Speaker 2: the real threats that I think if we did nothing
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: is a threat of the SEC and big 10 combining
• 24:38
  Speaker 2: and forming a super league. And they'd become essentially the only,
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: only game in town with 30, 40, 50 teams. They'd
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: have all the revenue and everyone else goes broke. Let's
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: take Texas. You and I are both Texans. Uh, Listen,
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: the two powerhouses in Texas are UT and A & M.
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: And to be honest, in any system, if Congress does nothing,
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: UT and A & M are going to be fine.
• 25:01
  Speaker 2: If we get to the world of a super league,
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: if we get to basically a mini NFL. There are
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: so many donors with money and alumni with money from UT,
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: so many alumni with money from A & M. They're
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: going to survive. They can spend $ 60, $ 70 million. They
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: could spend $ 80. They could spend $ 100 million. They've got
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: just such a deep reservoir of alumni donations. In any world,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: UT and A & M are going to field major
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: competitive teams forever. Yeah. I'm not convinced if Congress did nothing.
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: that even a single other Texas school would survive five years.
• 25:38
  Speaker 3: I agree with you, by the way. And if you
• 25:41
  Speaker 3: think about, look, I.
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: Because donors only give in sports if they're seeing results.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: So if you're Baylor or SMU or TCU... And let's
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: say when you throw up 50 million and then you
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: don't get a good return, it's a lot harder to
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: get that 50 million for the next year. And that's
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: the reason why you said after five years, you get
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: the alumni. It's like, look, we can't compete with those
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: other two schools. We're done.
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: Look, the number three school in terms of the revenue
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: they have right now is Texas Tech, but that is
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: massively driven by one donor. Cody Campbell is a good
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: friend of mine. He played football at Tech, played in
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: the NFL, and he's an oil and gas billionaire. And
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: Cody is giving north of $ 50 million a year to
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: Texas Tech, which is why they have a competitive team.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: It's literally one person writing a check. And if Cody
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: ever stopped writing a check, Tech could not compete any further.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: You know, SMU is the other school that arguably could compete.
• 26:38
  Speaker 2: They have a lot of wealthy donors, but they have
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: not had donors that are writing checks at the level.
• 26:44
  Speaker 2: They just don't have the massive alumni base.
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: They don't have the bench. I mean, look at the
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: size of SMU and the number of graduates compared to
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: A & M or to Texas.
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: Right. And so I think it would be a terrible
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: outcome if the only two football programs in Texas were...
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: were UT and A & M, and I love them both.
• 27:06
  Speaker 2: You know, you look at something like Rice, and as
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: you know, my mom is a graduate of Rice. You know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: a lot of folks don't know. Do you know Rice
• 27:13
  Speaker 2: football has a direct connection to our going to the moon?
• 27:17
  Speaker 3: No. Football? Yes. Okay, do tell.
• 27:21
  Speaker 2: All right, you remember JFK's famous speech and he came
• 27:26
  Speaker 2: to Houston, he's president, he came to Houston and he
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: laid out the commitment that within a decade we will
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: put a man on the moon and that was in
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Rice Stadium, it was in Houston.
• 27:37
  Speaker 3: And he explained.
• 27:40
  Speaker 2: Why we were going to go to the moon and
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: he said we're doing so for the same reason that
• 27:48
  Speaker 2: Rice plays the University of Texas.
• 27:52
  Speaker 3: Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
• 27:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: And that was his explanation for why we were going
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: to go to the moon. Not because it is easy,
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: but because it is hard. Look, part of what makes
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: sports fun is the underdog. Just a few years ago,
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Baylor won March Madness, was the top basketball program in
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: the country. Baylor's a small school.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: I love Baylor.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: My nephew and niece both went to Baylor. That couldn't
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: happen today. Look, the last last year, the final four
• 28:24
  Speaker 2: were all the four number one seats.
• 28:25
  Speaker 3: How boring is that?
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: And I remember the years of like Gonzaga when no
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: one even knew how to spell it or where they were.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: I mean, the Cinderella stories is what makes smart matches
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: so much fun. But you're right. It became very predictable
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: last year because you were fielding. four, five, or six,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: in essence, NBA-esque teams.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: And part of the reason is, if you have a
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: smaller school, let's say you develop a talent. You've got
• 28:47
  Speaker 2: a coach that knows how to really develop a talent.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: You recruit someone that everyone else missed, and that player
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: has a lot of skill, and you work with them,
• 28:54
  Speaker 2: and that player has a breakout year and scores 22
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: points a game and gets 11 rebounds. You know what happens?
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: Next year, that player's gone, and one of the big
• 29:01
  Speaker 2: schools sucks him away. So every good player you get,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: you can't keep.
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: Or not just get, develop. Develop is the word for me.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: If you're a coach, how demoralizing is it to coach,
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: know you develop a player, and then if they get
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: too good, you almost want to hold back and sandbag
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: just so no one takes them.
• 29:20
  Speaker 2: Look, I had one of my Senate colleagues who voted
• 29:24
  Speaker 2: for the bill describe the coach of the school who
• 29:28
  Speaker 2: was talking about how their football team was saying, all right,
• 29:33
  Speaker 2: we've got to stop throwing passes to this receiver because
• 29:36
  Speaker 2: if the receiver gets too many receptions, they'll get— recruited
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: away and we'll lose him. Like those are perverse incentives.
• 29:45
  Speaker 2: You want everyone's incentives aligned. And so I will say,
• 29:50
  Speaker 2: as we were voting on the Senate floor, and by
• 29:52
  Speaker 2: the way, there were like knock down drag out fights
• 29:56
  Speaker 2: it was not clear if we were going to get
• 29:58
  Speaker 2: the votes or not and i was on the floor
• 30:00
  Speaker 2: like working the votes to to.
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: Get by the way when you say that that that
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: you're working the votes explain what that looks like on
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: this scenario are you do you are you targeting somebody
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: that is on the democratic side is that what you
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: would describe as working the votes or a republican that
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: you know may not be there yet how and then
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: when you work them what what is it you say
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: to them how does that go.
• 30:22
  Speaker 2: Down Look, it depends on the arguments in terms of
• 30:24
  Speaker 2: who they are. And you're trying to make arguments as
• 30:28
  Speaker 2: to why it matters. One of the things I've done
• 30:30
  Speaker 2: is I've talked to a lot of coaches. I've talked
• 30:32
  Speaker 2: to a lot of university presidents, a lot of university chancellors,
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of university trustees. We've mobilized the community. I
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: talked about the big coalition we built. We told them,
• 30:40
  Speaker 2: call your senators. And listen, if you're a senator and
• 30:42
  Speaker 2: you get a call from the chancellor of the biggest
• 30:44
  Speaker 2: university in your state, you get a call from the president,
• 30:46
  Speaker 2: you get a call from the athletic director, you get
• 30:48
  Speaker 2: a call from the head coach. You're going to take
• 30:51
  Speaker 2: that call. If you get a call from the regents
• 30:53
  Speaker 2: or the trustees, regents tend to be rich guys. Rich
• 30:56
  Speaker 2: guys write big checks. Rich guys also write big checks
• 30:59
  Speaker 2: to politicians. So when rich guys who write checks to
• 31:01
  Speaker 2: politicians call, politicians take their calls.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: That's the planet on which we live.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: And so mobilizing that effort on the ground, by the way,
• 31:10
  Speaker 2: there was a national advertising campaign. that we saw ads
• 31:16
  Speaker 2: two weeks ago with Nick Saban, probably the most dominant
• 31:19
  Speaker 2: college football coach of our lifetimes.
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: Deion Sanders was in an ad as I was watching
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: the game you were at this weekend.
• 31:26
  Speaker 3: Deion Sanders.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: All right, I want you to listen to the Deion
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: Sanders ad because it's really a great ad. It just
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: ran this past weekend.
• 31:34
  Speaker 3: Here, give a listen.
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: Before we get to that, though, I do want to
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: tell you about an incredible organization called Compassion International. Right now,
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: somewhere in the world, there's a child waiting, not waiting
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: for a birthday, not waiting for Christmas, waiting for someone
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: to choose them. That's what Compassion International does every single day.
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: They connect children living in poverty with someone who will
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: know their name, who will pray for them, who will
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: encourage them, and help provide the food, the medical care, education,
• 32:07
  Speaker 1: and hope they need through a local church. This year,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: Compassion is expanding into four new countries, Malawi, Zambia, Cambodia,
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: and Myanmar, meaning thousands of children are being reached for
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: the very first time. Now, you can join me in
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: doing something that makes a difference. For just $ 43 a month,
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: you can be the reason one child stops waiting. Sponsor
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: a child today at Compassion.com. That's Compassion.com. All right, so
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: take a listen. This is a big ad that ran
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: virtually in every big game this past week. Deion Sanders
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: talking about college sports. Here's what he had to say.
• 32:46
  Speaker 4: The biggest crowds, the brightest lights.
• 32:49
  Speaker 3: Now that's prime time.
• 32:51
  Speaker 4: And as a coach and father, I'm helping the next
• 32:54
  Speaker 4: generation find their spotlight. That's why I support the Protect
• 32:58
  Speaker 4: College Sports Act. It gives student athletes a chance to
• 33:01
  Speaker 4: shine on and off the field, strengthens historically black colleges
• 33:05
  Speaker 4: and universities, and keeps both men and women's sports strong.
• 33:10
  Speaker 4: Help student athletes get their prime time moment, baby. Visit
• 33:13
  Speaker 4: savingcollegesports.com to.
• 33:15
  Speaker 3: Join the team.
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: Senator, I got to say, Deion is a perfect example.
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: He's a primetime coach that went to a university that
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: was not in the mix. There was a lot of
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: excitement when he went to the University of Colorado. And
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: it's totally changed.
• 33:28
  Speaker 3: And he transformed their program.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 33:30
  Speaker 3: Yes.
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: But if you don't have the money, which is what
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: the problem was, then that can disappear very quickly. It's
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: one of the reasons why I think he's such a
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: great advocate for this saying, hey, let us compete at
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: the same level as everybody else. That financial cap you
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: were talking about, that is the reason why they will
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: actually be able to be in the mix in the future.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: Without it, they're not.
• 33:51
  Speaker 2: And by the way, you asked in terms of how
• 33:53
  Speaker 2: the number was reached. It Let's take the Big 12.
• 33:57
  Speaker 2: So the Big 12, it's a Power 4 conference, but
• 33:59
  Speaker 2: it's not the SEC and Big 10. So it's the
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: Big 12, the average that they're spending right now is
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: about $ 38 million. So this puts the cap at $ 47.
• 34:10
  Speaker 2: Now for the Big 12, not all the schools can
• 34:12
  Speaker 2: compete at $ 47, but their view, and we're negotiating with
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: each of these conferences and schools, they're like, all right,
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: 47 is high enough that it's stretching them. But they're like,
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: you know what? If we're competing against 47, maybe we
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: don't get to that. Maybe we're at 40. But we
• 34:29
  Speaker 2: feel like we can field a good team at 40
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: if our competitor's at 47. We can't if our competitors
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: are at 80. Like it's in the realm and maybe
• 34:39
  Speaker 2: we can't compete.
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: It's like the salary cap of the NBA.
• 34:41
  Speaker 3: It's exactly that. It's exactly that.
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: And look, the salary cap of the NBA for the
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: big media markets, it is lower than they could generate
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: from revenue. For the smaller media markets, it's a stretch.
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: But that degree of parity gives competitive balance so you
• 34:57
  Speaker 2: don't just have the same teams winning over and over
• 35:00
  Speaker 2: and over again. You have some real like, hey, my
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: team can win this year.
• 35:04
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: All right. So what happens next with this? Where does
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: this move? When does this actually become a real possibility
• 35:10
  Speaker 1: of being signed and then it actually is implemented?
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: So the vote we had today was on on cloture
• 35:18
  Speaker 2: on the motion to proceed. So it's the first procedural vote.
• 35:20
  Speaker 2: If it had failed, if we hadn't gotten 60, the
• 35:23
  Speaker 2: bill would be dead. It didn't fail. We got a big,
• 35:25
  Speaker 2: big vote. Now we'll proceed voting this week. We'll have
• 35:30
  Speaker 2: another vote later this week. Other senators will file amendments.
• 35:33
  Speaker 2: If there are amendments that are reasonable and positive amendments,
• 35:36
  Speaker 2: we'll try to process some amendments, maybe try to incorporate
• 35:38
  Speaker 2: some amendments in the bill. If the opponents of the
• 35:41
  Speaker 2: bill want, if they want to delay things, they can
• 35:45
  Speaker 2: object and slow things down. If they try to be
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: maximum level obstructionist, then the Senate will pass this bill
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: at the end of next week, that it'll take basically
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: two weeks to go through if they drag everything out
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: and do maximum delay. So worst case scenario, we pass
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: it out end of next week. Once the Senate passes it,
• 36:09
  Speaker 2: and I think we will pass it either early next
• 36:12
  Speaker 2: week or end of next week, so sometime next week
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: we'll pass it. Once the Senate passes it, The House
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: is likely going out of session at the end of
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: this week, so they're going to be gone. I believe
• 36:24
  Speaker 2: what will happen when we pass it next week is
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: I think the House will come back in session to
• 36:29
  Speaker 2: pass this. I had a long conversation with with the
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: Speaker of the House last week. I think the House
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: will come back in session in the next couple of weeks.
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: They could do it in one day. They fly in
• 36:37
  Speaker 2: for one day. The House could move much faster than
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: the Senate. The Senate is, by design, slow and deliberative.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: The procedural rules let people drag things out. House leadership
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: could do the vote in a day. Everyone flies in, votes,
• 36:48
  Speaker 2: and leaves. I think that's what will end up happening.
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: President Trump, this bill does not get to this point
• 36:54
  Speaker 2: without President Trump's leadership. He was on the phone. He
• 36:56
  Speaker 2: was working the phone. He was calling senators, urging them
• 37:00
  Speaker 2: to support this. I worked very closely with President Trump.
• 37:03
  Speaker 2: He appointed a commission on college sports that's chaired by
• 37:08
  Speaker 2: Randy Levine, who's the president of the Yankees, and Cody Campbell,
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: the two of them. So I've been talking to Randy
• 37:13
  Speaker 2: and Cody. They're both incredibly talented. They have been working
• 37:17
  Speaker 2: tirelessly whipping the votes. The Senate will pass it sometime
• 37:23
  Speaker 2: next week, final passage. I think the House will pass
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: it in the next several weeks after that. And what
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: I've asked the president, he's agreed, is I want him
• 37:31
  Speaker 2: to sign it at college game day, at the set.
• 37:34
  Speaker 2: We'll figure out, depending on the timing, it'll be sometime
• 37:37
  Speaker 2: either late September or in October for a big game.
• 37:40
  Speaker 2: My hope had been to do it at UT Ohio State,
• 37:43
  Speaker 2: but we didn't get it done quite in time for that.
• 37:45
  Speaker 2: But we will have lots of good choices of college
• 37:48
  Speaker 2: game day to go. And I believe this will be
• 37:52
  Speaker 2: signed into law before election day. By the way, one
• 37:55
  Speaker 2: of the points I made to the speaker, I said, listen,
• 37:57
  Speaker 2: you know, he wants all of his members back home
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: in their districts campaigning. And I said, there are very
• 38:01
  Speaker 2: few better things that your members could do than come
• 38:05
  Speaker 2: back and pass this bill. This polls at about 80-20.
• 38:08
  Speaker 2: People really want to see college sports saved.
• 38:10
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 38:11
  Speaker 2: And I got to say, a lot of voters are
• 38:15
  Speaker 2: understandably cynical. You know, you clowns in Congress, you don't
• 38:18
  Speaker 2: do anything. You can't get anything done. If we're in
• 38:21
  Speaker 2: the middle of a reelect campaign, there are few better
• 38:23
  Speaker 2: things to do than come back and say, wow, Congress
• 38:25
  Speaker 2: actually did something and did something. And you also have people, look,
• 38:30
  Speaker 2: the folks watching college sports, some are voters, some are engaged,
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: but some are not. And the people watching college sports
• 38:37
  Speaker 2: like hot diggity damn, these people are not completely useless.
• 38:42
  Speaker 2: That is a good way to make the case, hey,
• 38:45
  Speaker 2: we can solve real problems and do something that matters
• 38:48
  Speaker 2: to you and matters to the next generation of kids.
• 38:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it is going to be really fun to watch.
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: And like you said, having him sign that game day
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: would be amazing as well. We will keep you updated
• 38:57
  Speaker 1: on it. That I can promise you. Don't forget, we
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: do this show Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. You can also
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: tell Siri or Alexa to play Vertical Tech Cruise. Bam,
• 39:05
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• 39:08
  Speaker 1: YouTube as well. So if you want to watch the
• 39:10
  Speaker 1: show on YouTube, subscribe. It's always free. Vertical Tech Cruise
• 39:14
  Speaker 1: on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. And Senator
• 39:17
  Speaker 1: and I will see you back here in a couple
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: of days.