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On The Midday Show, Andy and Abe discuss the growing divide in college athletics as the Big Ten and SEC push back against a proposed college sports bill. They break down what's at stake, why the power conferences are resisting, and what the legislation could mean for the future of NIL, recruiting, and athlete compensation.
Transcript
00:00All right. Hopefully this tournament is as fun to watch as that one was. And hopefully the U.S. does
00:04as well in this one as they did in that one as well. So this is ongoing and I think
00:10that it will continue to be ongoing. I don't think there's any resolution in sight as it relates to the
00:16Protect College Sports Act that was put forth by Congress this week and or sorry, by by the Senate this
00:23week and college football and the folks that make these decisions.
00:27The Big Ten provided another joint statement with the SEC clarifying their opposition to it because they came out and
00:34were like, yeah, we don't like this. They dug a little deeper into why they don't like it. And I
00:39understand from their perspective why they don't like it. It's pretty beneficial for everyone but them. It's also pretty restrictive
00:46to like they're never going to agree to something that says that they can't expand and they shouldn't.
00:52Honestly, like it would just be bad business for those two conferences to agree to say that, yeah, we can't
00:58add new members, but other schools are allowed to. They're going to have to revise a lot of this stuff.
01:04But even still, I don't know. It's kind of feels like they're so far apart in in what the revisions
01:12would have to be that I don't know that this is ever actually going to happen.
01:15Well, the SEC and the Big Ten want a checklist. Here's what we think is wrong. Here's what we want
01:20you to fix. Do not go beyond this checklist. Do not address any issues you feel are problematic that we
01:27do not feel are problematic.
01:28And if that's part of and if that's what they want to do, then just. Well, where are you going?
01:34Just have someone be in charge. Oh, OK. Like don't. I thought you were going to say break off. No,
01:38no, no, don't. Because I don't think that's realistic. Again, I don't know.
01:41It gets more realistic when it's the pair of. This is now their second joint statement. I know. I know.
01:46After two months of being on opposite ends of all of this. Years. Like they can't. I mean, they've been
01:52fighting over everything in this NIL era because they want to be the powerful one.
01:58I guess more directly in the format, the playoff format has been A versus B, SEC versus Big Ten more
02:03direct. But yeah. Absolutely. The fact that they're agreeing on something is troubling if you're looking big picture.
02:10Or if you're the ACC in the Big 12. Like you have to start looking at it. Totally. Totally. But
02:15then the other part of it is they're the ones who've been asking for help the most.
02:20Like the the the presidents in in the SEC, some of their schools. I mean, the Georgia president last week
02:28said this is anarchy and we need someone to get control of this thing.
02:32And then when they try to get control of it, they're like, yeah, but no, not like that. So get
02:36control of it. Like we want you to have control of it where we continue to make the most money
02:40and can dominate.
02:42And we don't care about anybody else. But you just kind of restrict some of the stuff that the kids
02:47can do. Let's say I wanted to mess with our TV money.
02:49Let's say I wanted help with the ATL show. And I go to Mike Connie and say, hey, here's a
02:55couple of things that I kind of look at.
02:57And I just don't know if it's working right now. Let's see if we can help. And then he goes
03:03through it.
03:03He comes back to me. He's like, I figured out how to make the ATL show better. New host.
03:11We went from, hey, here's like a segment I'm not sure works to like, what if we changed everything? I
03:17think that's better.
03:18Yeah. And totally. I mean, the bill that they proposed has way too much stuff in it.
03:23Yeah. I think Seth Davis hits the nail on the head with with his tweet here. I'll read it.
03:28Obviously, Seth Davis, longtime college basketball insider. I think he always provides pretty, pretty level headed analysis when it comes
03:36to the games, but also the state of things in college sports.
03:39He says, I honestly don't know how things in Congress got so off track. Now, that's he's off to a
03:45bad start there in general.
03:47But I know what he means in relation to this bill. The purpose of legislation was to carve out the
03:52bare minimum antitrust exemption so that the NCAA could enforce the basic outlines of the House settlement.
03:57Yeah. Basically, just reining in all of the craziness and trying to get things back on track from a calendar
04:03perspective, maybe a transfer portal perspective and whatnot.
04:07When did the whole thing become about narrowing the gap between the Big Ten, SEC and everyone else and preventing
04:12a Super League?
04:13Why don't we start with the smallest stuff and work our way bigger?
04:16This whole thing is supposed to get passed by August 1st, and they're debating something that wasn't supposed to be
04:21at the center of the debate.
04:22Yeah. Like, if this is the debate, then it's not going to get done by August 1st, and it's not
04:27going to get done ever.
04:29There's just so much stuff in there that no one's ever going to agree to.
04:33They need to focus on the stuff that we were talking about yesterday, the calendar issues, the transfer issues.
04:39I do think the money will probably figure itself out if you just let the market dictate over time.
04:43It is going to leave a lot of schools behind, but I think a lot of the schools that are
04:48going to get left behind have already been left behind.
04:51There might be a bigger gap between the haves and the have-nots in college football.
04:54That might happen.
04:55But there's always been a really large gap between the haves and the have-nots in college football, so it's
04:59not that different.
05:00You know, it's frustrating for the fans because there are problems in the sport that could be dealt with with
05:10a relative minimal level of conversation, and you start to tick those off.
05:17Like, that's, again, everyone in every workplace, even self-employed, like, you have, here are the big issues that we've
05:27got to address at some point.
05:29Here are the medium-tiered issues that, you know, we can get to them, and then here are the small
05:34issues.
05:36Like, almost everyone tacks off the five things on the small issues list immediately.
05:41Same thing with spring cleaning, right?
05:43All right, we need to reorganize the closet.
05:45We need to do this.
05:46We need to do this.
05:47How about we just start by putting the toys away?
05:49How about we start by organizing the shoes?
05:52And then we can get to, do we want to change the artwork in the, you know what I mean?
05:57Yeah, they're talking about, I don't have a foyer, but whatever.
05:59I know, yeah.
06:00Start with the small stuff that can be fixed, that can be addressed, and then once you get a couple
06:05of those things ticked off, maybe start to address.
06:08This bill was like, hey, let's remodel the whole house from the studs, which maybe needs to happen, but it's
06:15hard to start there.
06:16That's not the process.
06:16Yeah, it's not the process that you go by.
06:18I mean, look, I do think, again, from a big picture perspective, the sport was built on such a fraudulent
06:25foundation in the first place.
06:28Student athlete?
06:30Yeah.
06:30Like, the people doing the thing weren't getting paid for it forever and ever and ever, and so much money
06:36was being made by so many people on that foundation that maybe in order for it to get to where
06:44it needs to go to, it had to get insane for a while.
06:47Because for 100 years, we've been doing it like this, and it grew increasingly ridiculous with just, you know, with
06:54the money that was being spent and the money that coaches were making and the money that was under the
06:58table and just, like, the TV money.
07:02Like, there was clearly so much money everywhere, and we were still trying to pretend that the players shouldn't be
07:06paid.
07:06Well, now, the overcorrection to that insanity is also insanity.
07:11It's just way over here on the other side.
07:14Obviously, they need to do some things to rein it in and fix it and clean up, like you said,
07:18some of the easy small issues, but maybe this had to happen.
07:22Like, maybe it had to get completely, like, lawless for a while because of what the sport was built on.
07:28Well, I also think there's a question about whose job it is to reel it back in.
07:33Is it conference commissioners?
07:35Is it school presidents?
07:37Is it the ADs?
07:39Or is it the coaches?
07:40Because in my opinion...
07:41I don't think it's any of those people's job.
07:43I would allow the coaches to tackle it first because I think they're looking at it from a football perspective
07:49more than the school president.
07:53The AD, I think it's just so much more business.
07:56I think you would argue, to some extent, the commissioners as well.
08:01But no coach is ever going to do anything that gives his team less of a chance to win, right?
08:07Correct.
08:08So asking them to compromise, I think, is really hard.
08:11But maximizing revenue for the school may still not be his number one priority.
08:15I think if you look at that from the president and maybe even from the AD perspective, it is.
08:20The hard part is the only way that any of this gets done is if the folks that are in
08:26the most power, however you want to slice it.
08:28If you want to make it the coaches, if you want to make it the ADs, the presidents, the conference
08:33commissioners, the TV folks, in order for this to actually get done in a way that is equitable, people are
08:40going to have to make compromises.
08:41And there's just nothing about what's happened over the last five to ten years that says anything about compromise.
08:47All anyone's doing is what's best for me right now where I can get the most and give us the
08:51best chance to win.
08:52And then by winning, get more and make more money and build bigger stadiums and get more lavish and all
08:59of this.
09:00Like asking these folks to compromise feels almost impossible.
09:05But that's what has to happen in order for this to work.
09:08And none of those folks you just listed are going to be willing to do that.
09:11So I don't know.
09:11That's why Congress had to get involved.
09:13But I don't think they fixed it either.
09:16So we're probably the players have a crack at it.
09:19I mean, sure.
09:22They're just as likely to compromise as anyone else.
09:26So anyway, I don't think we're all that close to any of this getting resolved.
09:30That's fine.
09:31The games are still fun.
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