← The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
The 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson
How the College Sports Crisis Could Cost Athletes Everything
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- [00:00]
Podcast Host
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Ben Ferguson
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Ben Ferguson
Your bill, ladies.
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Podcast Host
I got it. No, I got it. Seriously, I insist. I insisted first. Don't be silly. You don't be silly.
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Ben Ferguson
I'm Glenn Washington, host of Snap Judgment, the award winning storytelling podcast from kqed. And every week Snap deals a new card, like jumping on Rihanna's private plane or the accidental bank robber or even the man who was swallowed by a hippo.
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What?
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Ben Ferguson
Pick a card, any card. Snap Judgment from kqed new episodes every Thursday. Wherever you get your podcast.
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Nick Saban
And that's the reason that I always like college athletics more than the NFL is because you had the opportunity to develop young people. So, and I want their quality of life to be good. I think, as I said before, name, image and likeness is a great opportunity for them to create a brand for themselves. I'm not against that at all. But to come up with some kind of a system that still can help the development of young people I think is paramount to the future of college athletics.
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You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Good Saturday morning. It's so nice to have you with us on the 47 Morning Update. And we've got a very special show for you. Saving college sports. Well, it may be closer to death than you realize, all because of the massive amounts of money that are pouring into football with NIL deals. The problem is other sports, Olympic sports, are being left behind. And if there isn't a change soon, you may see countless sports completely disappear from universities. And that means countless student athletes that no longer get the scholarships they need to be able to attend a university. Well, the good news is this. There is some fixes and it's bipartisan. And the President of the United States of America is behind it as well. It's the 47 Morning Update, and it starts right now. Story number one, there aren't many issues in Washington these days that can bring Republicans and Democrats together, but one of them may be the future of saving college athletics. And frankly, it's about time. For years, we've watched the NIL era spiral further and further out of control. And this is coming from a former college athlete. The transfer portal has become free agency. Coaches are struggling to build teams, and other coaches can just bail for bigger paydays even when they're headed to the national championship championships. Rivalries are disappearing. Athletes are bouncing from school to school, chasing the next big paycheck. And many athletic directors are warning that women's sports, Olympic sports, and smaller programs like tennis and golf, well, they could be on the chopping block if something doesn't change fast. Now, for the first time, here's the good news. There actually appears to be a serious bipartisan effort to restore some order. The Protect College Sports act that's been led by Senator Ted Cruz and Senator Maria Cantwell is now gaining momentum in Washington. And today it got a major boost from President Donald Trump himself. The legislation would create national NIL standards, bring stability to transfers and eligibility rules. And yes, there's even the Lane Kiffin rule after he screwed the University of Mississippi, AKA my alma mater, Ole Miss, as we headed to a national championship run. This is exactly why the bill is definitely needed. It gives college sports a much needed framework to prevent complete chaos and a total collapse of so many sports that aren't, quote, revenue making. President Trump made it clear that he believes Congress must act. His endorsement of the legislation, he called it a strong foundation to not only save college sports, but he argued that executive action alone are not enough. He said that after meeting with university leaders, coaches and athletic officials, it became clear that a legislative solution is needed to preserve the future of college athletics. And this isn't a new issue for President Trump. Either. Earlier this year, he warned that college sports could be lost forever without major reforms and describe the current environment as an out of control financial arms race that threatens scholarships, competitive balance and opportunities for so many future athletes. The reality is simple. Nil isn't going away. And by the way, as a former college athlete, I think college athletes should be able to make money. Athletes deserve the opportunity to profit from their name, their image and their likeness. But what we've created is also, well, unsustainable. College football wasn't supposed to become the NFL free agency with dorm rooms and coaches were supposed to actually coach their team to the end of the season, not leave them behind like Lane Kiffin did. This may be one of the rare moments where Republicans, Democrats, coaches, athletic directors and even the White House all agree on something. If we don't fix Coward Sports now, we, we may not recognize it in five years from today. Which brings me to the conversation that Senator Cruz and I were able to have about this legislation. It's an incredibly important bill and I want you to hear the framework behind it and how it actually works. Take a listen to our conversation.
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Ben Ferguson
Well, this week I, I chaired a hearing on, on college sports and saving college sports. And, and we've talked before on verdict about how college sports is in crisis right now. It is chaos. You've got an out of control transfer portal with as athletes transferring three, four, five times. You've got people playing until they're 26, 27, 28 years old. You've got people with six, seven years of playing time. You have virtually every athletics program in the country losing money and losing millions or even tens of millions of dollars. Schools are going broke, they're canceling programs every week. You're seeing women's sports getting canceled. You're seeing Olympic sports getting canceled. You're seeing your favorite tennis getting canceled. That happened at Arkansas just a few weeks ago. And it is, if we don't act, we are going to see much of college sports decimated and destroyed. And so last week I introduced bipartisan legislation with Maria Cantwell. Maria Cantwell is a Democrat from Washington State. She is the ranking member, the senior Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. This week we had a big hearing and we heard testimony from leaders in college athletics about the urgency of solving the crisis. Now one of our witnesses was Coach Nick Saban, the legendary coach of Alabama. And Coach Saban's testimony was incredibly powerful. And give a listen to a little bit of Coach Nick Saban on why congress needs to pass our protect college sports act.
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Nick Saban
Take a look, Listen, let me give you the history. My first year we had collective at Alabama 2.7 million. Next year 7 million. Next year 10 million. I retired. Next year 17 million. Next year 24 million. Now you have schools that have close to $40 million rosters. So if we continue to do that, we're going to lose olympic sports, we're going to lose non revenue sports, we're going to lose scholarships and basically what's going to happen is you're going to have football and basketball succeed and we'll have club sports for everything else.
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He's not wrong by the way. Center I, I was in one of those non money making sports. Tennis, right. You had a lot of friends that you, that you get to know that are in those Olympic sports, for example, that would all disappear. And when you think about having a college roster at 80 million, if you're a student athlete, that in theory sounds great. But that's only in two sports. Really. The majority of that 80 are. You know, he's talking about Alabama. I mean, there's not that much in basketball, I promise you, at Alabama. So unless you pick football, you're left behind. And that's the reason why you're taking this action now. And, and why Saban was saying what he was saying at the time.
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Ben Ferguson
Well, and that there's only a handful of powerhouses that, that, that, that generate and can dominate football. And, and so what if we don't act? I, I think within five years we will see 30 to 50 colleges that, that, that, that have a football program and they'll basically be an NFL.
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Yeah.
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Ben Ferguson
And the rest of the schools, their programs will be obliterated. And, and there are a lot of reasons that's tragic. One is just sports brings us together. Sports is so much fun. Look, we're divided on so many issues today. We scream at each other. We're like, it really is hard to find common ground. And yet you can go cheer on your alma mater and you can be there with people of different parties, people of different races, people of different religions, and you're all standing together. That's really important. Every bit as critical as that is, college sports is an amazing avenue for education for millions of young men and women. And until I really started diving in to this topic and working to save college sports, I hadn't really focused on how college athletics is something that is unique in the United States. No other country has anything remotely resembling what we have here with college sports. There are today more than a half million college athletes right now every year. Athletics enables kids, many kids from low income homes, many minority kids who otherwise might not have had a chance to go to college. It enables them to go to college, to study, to get a degree, to learn skills, to learn hard work and discipline and teamwork and sportsmanship.
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Accountability, just showing up. I can't tell you how much I learned from just the accountability, which by the way made me a better person. It made me better in business, it made me better in my job that I, that I did afterwards. There are so many young men when I was at Ole Miss that said they literally believe they would either have been dead, they would have been in a gang if it wasn't for sports keeping them out of trouble in high school. And then they said if it wasn't for college and getting that college education, they would have immediately been into bad stuff on the streets. They said that sports actually save life. And not only save their life, a lot of them, they were the first member of their family to ever go to college. And they went because they were an incredible athlete. It gave them the opportunity. It gave them a free education that seemed unattainable, and it completely changed their family's trajectory in life. I think that's one of the most important things about college sports that people don't talk about.
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Ben Ferguson
No, that. That is exactly right. And the status quo is unsustainable. If Congress doesn't act, we will end up with hundreds of thousands of those college athletic positions going away, and those kids, many of them, having no chance to go to school, to go to college, to get those skills, those life skills that set them up for success. And, look, the way I approach this, I didn't worry too much about the top 1%. I didn't worry about the Michael Jordans or Arch Mannings. I worried about the 99% of college athletes who are never gonna play pro ball. But it's giving them opportunity.
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I had a ton of people, Senator, that were calling me. I had friends and people I've known in the past come out of the woodwork because they knew how important this bill was. They knew how important it was to you, asking me questions. There was a lot of people saying they're just not gonna be able to get this done. There's no way you'll get bipartisanship here. That seems to not be true. And they said, well, there's no way, even though he'll be able to get the White House behind it. That also doesn't seem to be true either. There is a lot of growing bipartisan support here to get this thing done.
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Ben Ferguson
Well, there is. And I worked for months. Maria Cantwell and I negotiated. We sat in a conference room six, six, eight hours a day, negotiating provision by provision by provision. We introduced it with Cantwell and myself, a Democrat and Republican, and also with Eric Schmidt, a Republican from Missouri, and Chris Coons, a Democrat from Delaware. So we had two Democrats, two Republicans on the bill, and we've seen phenomenal support for it. So the ACC has come out emphatically in support of it. The Big 12 has come out emphatically in support of it. Condoleezza Rice at Stanford has come out emphatically in support of it. At the hearing, Pete Bavacqua, the athletic director at Notre Dame, testified strongly in support of it. Gordon Gee testified at the hearing, former president of West Virginia University, also Vanderbilt has been a president of actually five universities. He testified that this is a crisis and this bill is the only hope to save college sports. And we've had already We've had over 130 signatures from leaders at more than 65 universities come out in support of the bill. And importantly this week, President Donald J. Trump came out strongly in support of the bill. He sent a truth social that I want to read to you. Here's what he said. College sports, a great American institution that produces our many athletes, leaders and Olympic dominance, is a total mess. And everyone is saying that it must be fixed. After unending lawsuits and crazed rulings, there are virtually no limits anymore. And soon most colleges won't have sports because each and every one of them will be bankrupt, never to be heard from again. Women's sports and the Olympics itself are in the most danger from this catastrophic situation. College sports are turning into pro sports, except with absolutely no rules, a result no one wants. University presidents, conference commissioners, student athletes, coaches and athletic directors all complained to me that it has become a disaster after years of no action and that schools were losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year. They compared it to a freight train that can't be stopped. That is why a few months ago I convened a roundtable bringing together a world class team of some of the best sports executives, student athletes and political leaders in our country. The goal was to find a bipartisan solution to fix the problem. Based on these meetings and the expertise of the leading authorities, I signed an executive order. But I always said that the best solution was to get a bipartisan act through Congress to my desk in order to save a long and embarrassing rode through hell for these institutions. I'd like to thank Senators Ted Cruz, Eric Schmidt, Maria Cantwell and Chris Coons, among others, for introducing the Protect College Sports Act. This law resolves many of the most urgent issues challenging our universities and student athletes, stops the chaos, and most importantly, it may be the last chance to save college sports and colleges themselves before it's too late. The House has worked long and hard on this issue as well, and I'm very grateful to Speaker Mike Johnson and Leader Steve Scalise for their work to fix this very major problem. I urge the House and Senate to come together to pass a final bipartisan law that I can sign this summer that reflects the views and input of both chambers and in all caps, we have to save college sports. Thank you for your attention to this Matter President Donald J. Trump. The support we're seeing is really significant. And I think we're gonna see, I hope and believe, a big bipartisan vote in the Senate behind this bill.
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What's the timeline now and how much is there gonna be people pushing since now this has become so, you know, such a big discussion to try to change things last minute. Is that gonna be a problem? And what does that look like?
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Ben Ferguson
Oh, look, that is going on, and there are. There are a handful of people that are criticizing and throwing. But I'll tell you, most people are shocked that we could actually find a bipartisan compromise. And listen, one of the natures of that, that means that I had to give quite a bit and the Democrats had to give quite a bit to find a common ground, because we can't pass this bill unless you get at least 60 votes in the Senate. That means you need at least seven Democrats. There are only 53 Republicans. And my objective, frankly, is to get a lot more than 60 votes. I'd like to see a big bipartisan vote come out of the Senate. The House has tried several times to fix this problem, and unfortunately, every time they try to take up a bill, it's failed in the House. And so I think the Senate has got to step in because the clock is ticking. And I will say that there's a real risk also of the biggest players coming together to form a super league. And I think that would be disastrous for everybody else and not good for fans. Let's take my home state of Texas. Look, my home state of Texas, if Congress does nothing in three to five years, I am certain that the University of Texas will survive, and I'm certain A and M will survive. They're so big, they have such a big donor base and alumni base. They'll survive no matter what happens. But it's not at all clear that the other players in Texas survive. It's not clear that TCU or SMU or University of Houston or Rice or Texas Tech or Baylor, all of the different programs in Texas, they could go under in the status quo. And I think that would be a terrible outcome if we lose historic programs all over Texas. Not just football, but when you lose football, football pays for all the other sports. So when you lose football, you end up losing the. The entire array of sports. That would be tragic, and we can't let it happen.
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Ad/Promo Announcer
Yeah, you're absolutely right there. If people want to get behind this legislation, is this one of those where they talk to their and their congressman, who do they need to contact Quickly.
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Ben Ferguson
Look, the first order of business is your senator. And urging your senator, whether your senator is a Republican or Democrat, urging your senator get behind this bill, the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act. There's an urgency I am hoping to move quickly on this. I'd like to get a big vote in the Senate. Once we get it out of the Senate, then the next step will be the House. But calling your senator, going on social media, speaking out and saying that sports, college sports should be saved, that's really valuable.
- [22:00]
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Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson. Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now. And for more in depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson podcast and we will see you back here on Monday morning.
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Ben Ferguson
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Your bill, ladies.
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Podcast Host
I got it. I got it.
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Ben Ferguson
No, I got it.
- [23:25]
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Seriously, I get this. I assisted first. Oh, don't be silly. You don't be silly.
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Okay. Rock, paper, scissors for it.
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Rock, paper, scissors. Shoot.
- [23:40]
Ben Ferguson
No.
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Ben Ferguson
Because it's the best thing ever. We can play games with astronauts, wild animals and superheroes.
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So no dinosaurs.
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Ben Ferguson
And dinosaurs, mango kids. Everything kids love, download it for free.