Verdict with Ted Cruz - September 30, 2026


Massive Bipartisan WIN to Save College Sports

Topics
college sports economics Ole Miss Pat LSU dynamic NFL Fantasy Football Show
Hosted by
Ted Cruz
Guests
Timmy Tillman
Mentioned
Eric Schmidt Pete Hegseth John F. Kennedy Bobby Bones Faultline Haditha Patriot Mobile Lindsey Bush Steve Scalise Matt Cassel Mike Lee Ole Miss Ultras Matt Kester Bud Light-style Chuck Grassley Marco Rubio Roger Williams Andrew Siciliano Fernando Mendoza and 23 more
BONUS POD： The Fraud Epidemic： Trump's DOJ Targets Billions in Stolen Tax Dollars BONUS POD： Pilot Stabbed, Plane Plunges, Heroes Take Over at 30,000 Feet

Episode Stats


Length

47 minutes

Words per minute

201.01

Word count

9,537

Sentence count

691

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

10

sentences flagged

Hate speech

8

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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00:03:41 podcasts. Welcome, it's Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you. Senator, we get to
00:03:46 be together finally in the same studio in washington dc on a really fun week where college
00:03:52 sports got a save that's the best way i can describe it it was fun to watch the battle it
00:03:57 was fun to see like so many coaches in the country involved i was laughing because i was last night
00:04:02 as everything was going down coaches were calling different people they were asking what's happening
00:04:07 where we are in the vote you were down there making making deals as they say making sure it
00:04:12 It's passed, and it worked.
00:04:13 We had a spectacular win last night.
00:04:16 By the way, welcome to the Swamp Inn.
00:04:18 That's right.
00:04:19 We got a massive vote on the floor of the Senate in support of the Protect College Sports Act.
00:04:25 And we have a guest.
00:04:26 We have a guest, a repeat guest.
00:04:28 He's a recidivist.
00:04:30 There's a very short list of repeat guests verdict.
00:04:33 I think you're one of Mike Lee.
00:04:37 Mike Lee.
00:04:38 Have we had any other repeat?
00:04:40 You may be in, you're in a camp of two or three.
00:04:43 I was going to say, I'm trying to think if there's anybody else.
00:04:46 I think it may be you and Mike are the only two retweets.
00:04:49 I'll take it.
00:04:50 I will take that.
00:04:51 Because Lindsey was once, right?
00:04:52 Lindsey was the first guest.
00:04:54 But it was one appearance.
00:04:55 And Lindsey did, it was right at the outset, and Lindsey started it by going, 0.97
00:05:00 what in the hell is a podcast?
00:05:04 He told me the first time we played golf, when I first got up here,
00:05:08 we played golf together.
00:05:09 And he goes, do you like pro-wrestling?
00:05:12 Pro-wrestling, yeah.
00:05:14 And I said, I do.
00:05:15 He goes, you're going to like the Senate.
00:05:18 It's a combination of policy and pro-wrestling.
00:05:20 I'm like, okay, I'm going to love this place.
00:05:21 You're going to like this place.
00:05:22 I do miss that guy.
00:05:23 You and I were both good friends with him.
00:05:25 The best guy to go to dinner with.
00:05:28 He had the best sense of humor.
00:05:30 Like he could, he was hands down my favorite dinner companion in the Senate
00:05:35 because he just, your ribs would hurt.
00:05:37 You'd just be laughing.
00:05:39 You never knew what the hell he'd say.
00:05:40 It was just situational.
00:05:41 Like some people are good at telling jokes.
00:05:43 Yeah.
00:05:44 Yeah, he's witty.
00:05:45 He was witty, situational.
00:05:47 He was very funny.
00:05:48 So I used to piss off Lindsay and John Kennedy because I'd ask them both who's funnier.
00:05:52 And they both would sort of bow up.
00:05:54 Yeah.
00:05:56 But I think the answer is.
00:05:57 Is the joke now John Kennedy's funny?
00:05:59 So John Kennedy's one.
00:06:01 But look, John Kennedy is a better stand-up comedian.
00:06:04 Like John Kennedy could literally do the comedy circuits.
00:06:06 Yeah.
00:06:07 But he preps his stuff.
00:06:09 Like it's not entirely off the cuff, but he thinks about it and he delivers it.
00:06:15 Well.
00:06:16 Look, Jeff Foxworthy's got nothing on John Kennedy.
00:06:19 Yeah.
00:06:19 Lindsey was wittier.
00:06:20 He'd just sit there and like just pop things off the top of his head that were just funny.
00:06:25 You know, maybe we ought to consider like a roast.
00:06:27 We ought to do like a fundraiser or something that's a roast and we get five or six of our best people up there.
00:06:33 Did I ever tell you that I had John Kennedy to a donor retreat of mine, and he spoke at lunch, and he just did a roast of me?
00:06:41 Yeah, no, it was like, don't give this guy money, and here's 10 reasons why.
00:06:45 It was vicious.
00:06:46 I like stood up and was like, wait, I paid to fly you here. 0.94
00:06:48 What the hell are you doing?
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00:08:52 so you guys had a big week yeah let's talk about the beginning when did this become a thing because
00:08:59 i think this is people don't realize i love talking about like when this started you knew
00:09:04 there was an issue in college sports you decided to do something about it which is even harder
00:09:08 and not just complain about it so where did this begin and how do we get all the way to where we
00:09:12 are now well i you know for me i'm just a fan like actually like when i'm back home in missouri
00:09:19 Yeah.
00:09:19 The people that I hang around, they talk about sports.
00:09:22 We go to St. Louis Cardinal games.
00:09:23 We go to Mizzou football.
00:09:24 By the way, I'm feeling like a wuss because both of you guys were college athletes.
00:09:28 And I was a college debater.
00:09:30 They're not the same.
00:09:32 Yeah, they're not the same.
00:09:33 There's a totally different.
00:09:35 By the way, I'm just going to stop.
00:09:38 In between your last podcast appearance and this podcast appearance, something very important has happened,
00:09:44 which is Senator Eric Schmidt has appeared on SportsCenter.
00:09:47 This is true.
00:09:48 And he had a diving catch that was, so it's, it's amazing.
00:09:54 So major league baseball,
00:09:55 I think they calculated originally that like 92% of major league outfielders
00:10:01 would catch it. And then it became 85% and then it became 72%.
00:10:06 It was 18% catch probability, but it has made its way down to 15.
00:10:13 So that it's like a, it's like a fish story.
00:10:15 Like the one you caught by the time I'm 80 years old,
00:10:17 it'll be like a 1% catch.
00:10:19 It was a badass diving catch
00:10:22 and he cut his nose.
00:10:23 I was going to say,
00:10:23 there's blood involved.
00:10:24 All right.
00:10:25 All right.
00:10:25 Can you look in the camera
00:10:27 and say you didn't rub some dirt
00:10:28 in your nose
00:10:28 and make the blood?
00:10:29 I did not do it.
00:10:30 Although some of my friends
00:10:31 who've known me for a long time,
00:10:32 speaking of pro wrestling,
00:10:33 accused me of having a ketchup packet
00:10:35 in my back pocket
00:10:36 and putting it on my nose or something.
00:10:37 No, I didn't know.
00:10:38 First of all,
00:10:39 I didn't think I was going to get to the ball
00:10:40 and I got to the ball
00:10:41 and it's the warning track when I dove
00:10:43 and it's just gravel
00:10:44 and I guess I hit my nose.
00:10:46 I didn't really feel it.
00:10:47 somebody told me I was bleeding and about the second swipe of the nose and
00:10:51 blood going on my pants,
00:10:52 I realized this is going to look really good on television.
00:10:56 All right,
00:10:56 Ben,
00:10:56 I will bet you a hundred dollars right now.
00:10:59 I'm ready for this.
00:11:00 That Schmidt runs pictures or even better video of that catch in his reelect.
00:11:05 A hundred percent.
00:11:06 Like,
00:11:07 I won't even,
00:11:07 don't even take your money.
00:11:10 I'll lay out for you.
00:11:12 I'm all in for Missouri.
00:11:14 Yeah,
00:11:14 I can,
00:11:14 I can write.
00:11:15 Yeah,
00:11:15 I'm all in.
00:11:16 I can.
00:11:16 And were you number five on SportsCenter?
00:11:18 Yeah, I was the number five play of the day.
00:11:20 So top plays.
00:11:21 So people understand, like, the game you're talking about.
00:11:23 And by the way, you were an Ole Miss tennis player.
00:11:24 Did you ever make SportsCenter?
00:11:25 No, no, I did not make SportsCenter.
00:11:26 I mean, that's like.
00:11:28 No, it was not on my bingo card.
00:11:29 But this is a congressional baseball game,
00:11:31 so people understand the context of this.
00:11:33 It's a big game.
00:11:33 And it was genuinely.
00:11:35 So the congressional baseball game, look,
00:11:38 it's actually surprising because these are a bunch of guys
00:11:40 in, like, their 40s and 50s and even 60s.
00:11:43 Yeah.
00:11:44 Who actually play, like, real.
00:11:45 Look, it's not Major League Baseball, but it's surprisingly good given the age that these are members of Congress.
00:11:53 How many practices do you have?
00:11:55 Because that's what you would understand.
00:11:56 It's like five in the morning.
00:11:57 Roger Williams from Texas, the great state of Texas, a TCU star, is our manager.
00:12:02 And we're out there 445 or 545 in the morning D.C. time, 445 in the morning Missouri time.
00:12:07 Yeah, where you live.
00:12:08 Where I live.
00:12:09 and um we're out there um from april basically to mid-june in the mornings that we're here
00:12:15 because then we're done you know is it every day that you're yes really yes i didn't know that i
00:12:20 knew it was early wednesday thursday for the three mornings that are typically here and uh it's
00:12:24 mostly bp the irony of that catch was i don't judge fly balls for a living like i don't haven't
00:12:31 done that really for 30 years and it's the most intimidating part of the game because you have
00:12:36 the lights you have multiple levels people wearing different shirts you just don't my depth perception
00:12:39 is not the same when i was 20 years old and so the idea that like you would make a play in the
00:12:46 outfield and like catch a ball like full speed was just i would have never guessed that but it
00:12:51 was cool it was uh but no it's it's competitive and we want to win like roger williams tells the
00:12:55 team he's like listen for all the people who are out here uh unless you're one of our best nine
00:13:00 you're not going to play unless we have a huge lead then you might get into the game you might
00:13:04 Like, he wants to win.
00:13:05 And they still show up.
00:13:05 They still show up. 0.90
00:13:06 But by the way, the congressional baseball game is about to get ridiculous. 0.74
00:13:09 Oh, yeah.
00:13:10 Because Mark Teixeira.
00:13:12 From Texas.
00:13:12 Oh, yeah.
00:13:13 Is going to play.
00:13:14 So you've got a New York Yankee who's going to play.
00:13:17 Is he going to use an aluminum bat?
00:13:18 What do you think?
00:13:19 Have you asked him that?
00:13:20 He should.
00:13:21 Listen, I'm all for us winning 100 to nothing.
00:13:23 I'm actually wondering if they just intention to walk him every time.
00:13:26 They probably will, which is why I'm either, I'm lobbying to either be hit directly in front of Teixeira or directly behind Teixeira.
00:13:33 That's already happening.
00:13:34 that lobbying effort.
00:13:34 And by the way,
00:13:36 Tano Tijerina,
00:13:36 who is running in Texas,
00:13:39 was a pitcher,
00:13:40 against Henry Cuellar,
00:13:41 was a pitcher in college.
00:13:43 And I'll tell you,
00:13:44 Steve Scalise,
00:13:45 who's a buddy of ours,
00:13:46 and Steve cares a lot about the game.
00:13:48 Yes, he does.
00:13:49 So Steve sat down with Tano.
00:13:51 He said,
00:13:51 all right,
00:13:52 if you can pitch 80 miles an hour,
00:13:54 I'll give you 100 grand right now
00:13:55 for your campaign.
00:13:57 No way.
00:13:57 If you can pitch 85,
00:13:59 I'll give you 200 grand.
00:14:01 And Tano's wife,
00:14:02 And Tano's a big stripping dude.
00:14:05 Tano's wife leans in and goes, how much if he can pitch 90?
00:14:08 Really?
00:14:09 Like, I don't know if Tano will win.
00:14:12 That's going to be a close race, but he could win.
00:14:14 If Tano and Teixeira win, it may be like a 50-0 game.
00:14:21 Like that.
00:14:22 Is there a suicide limit, like runs?
00:14:23 No.
00:14:24 So you guys are right.
00:14:25 It's not like eight runs and then you switch it up.
00:14:27 It's seven innings.
00:14:27 And so we had scored 30-plus a couple of years ago.
00:14:32 And I guess it's a six-year winning streak now.
00:14:35 So what did your kids say about the catch, by the way?
00:14:37 You've got kids.
00:14:38 You know what's funny?
00:14:39 I have two daughters who were at the game at the time, what, 17 and 15.
00:14:45 And they don't.
00:14:46 All right, were they impressed?
00:14:47 Yeah, well, I was going to say, they don't care about, like,
00:14:50 they don't ask, hey, Dad, how's the banking bill going in Washington?
00:14:53 But impressing teenage daughters is hard.
00:14:55 But they were at the game, and after the game, it was just wild.
00:14:59 Like, people wanted, like, me to sign a baseball.
00:15:02 Anyway, and my daughters were actually genuinely impressed.
00:15:05 And my wife, too.
00:15:06 And we've been married for 27 years.
00:15:09 It's hard to impress my wife.
00:15:10 But they thought that was pretty cool that dad made a diving catch.
00:15:14 And they were there for the moment.
00:15:15 I promise you, when Eric is 95, and by the way, Chuck Grassley turned 93 just the other week,
00:15:21 and he has teeth falling out and no hair, he's going to be like,
00:15:25 and then I dove and catch that ball.
00:15:28 And it was like Grassley.
00:15:29 I flew it through the air.
00:15:30 That's right.
00:15:31 That might be Grandpa was kind of cool.
00:15:33 That might be what they say.
00:15:35 Amazing.
00:15:36 No, that was cool.
00:15:37 So the college sports bill, because I recognize.
00:15:41 Look.
00:15:42 By the way, I hope this is appropriate.
00:15:44 We're talking sports.
00:15:46 Tonight's sponsored by Ultras.
00:15:47 I have cracked open a beer.
00:15:49 I hope this is acceptable.
00:15:50 You represent Missouri.
00:15:52 Right.
00:15:53 We drink beer and eat pork steaks, barbecue.
00:15:55 This is what we do.
00:15:56 So hopefully.
00:15:56 You had me at barbecue.
00:15:57 And listen, that's probably worth two points in your next re-election.
00:16:01 That's right.
00:16:02 It won't hurt me at home.
00:16:03 By the way, I will say an interesting sports thing.
00:16:06 So I go to a lot of football games, baseball games, basketball games.
00:16:12 Astros game, it used to be a few years ago,
00:16:16 that every person in the stadium is drinking a Bud Light.
00:16:19 Yeah.
00:16:20 They no longer carry Bud Light in the stadium.
00:16:23 Like it's that bad.
00:16:23 Ultras probably.
00:16:24 Ultras now.
00:16:25 And I've always been, it's a little more parochial. 0.53
00:16:28 I've always been a Bush light guy.
00:16:29 So in, in St. Louis, Bush and Bush light is big.
00:16:32 That's what I've, my dad worked there.
00:16:34 My uncle worked there.
00:16:35 You beat a Bush heir in your race.
00:16:36 I did.
00:16:37 The irony of that.
00:16:38 How about that?
00:16:38 My dad worked midnights and I gave tours and took out the trash at the 0.84
00:16:44 mansion that she grew up in.
00:16:46 And they, it's called, it's called Grant's farm.
00:16:48 She grew up.
00:16:48 And so that was a, the liberal media hated that.
00:16:51 Like I was doing these ads about how it came from a working class family
00:16:54 and took out the trash at the mansion she grew up.
00:16:56 They didn't know how to process this whole thing.
00:16:58 So anyway, yes, it worked out just fine.
00:17:01 But yeah, no, we're, I like to say Budweiser was in my bottle growing up.
00:17:05 That's kind of the way it works in St. Louis.
00:17:07 So there is a fabulous meme that I shared with Mike Lee and Marco Rubio.
00:17:14 And Mike and Marco are both six months younger than I am.
00:17:17 So we're almost the identical age.
00:17:19 it's a meme that has it it it has a picture of a dad feeding his two-year-old a beer and it says 0.75
00:17:26 gen x the last great generation before all you sissies were born yeah well i'm gen x too i'm
00:17:32 you're i'm a little younger but i'm still how old are you i'm 51 now 51 so i'm 55 so we're not far 0.79
00:17:38 gen x is like it is like this bridge generation that knew what life was like like researching
00:17:44 on microfiche.
00:17:45 Yeah.
00:17:46 You know what I mean?
00:17:46 Like when I was in college,
00:17:48 if you did like-
00:17:48 You would go to the library.
00:17:49 You would go to the library.
00:17:50 You would go to microfiche.
00:17:51 And microfiche.
00:17:51 And by the way,
00:17:52 we were latchkey kids.
00:17:53 Like you'd go home
00:17:54 and you'd be on your own
00:17:55 and like you'd,
00:17:57 you look at things.
00:17:58 All right,
00:17:58 you're a dad with young kids.
00:17:59 Yeah.
00:18:00 You look at car seats.
00:18:02 We strap our kids in
00:18:04 like they're launching
00:18:05 on the Apollo mission to the moon.
00:18:06 Yeah, right.
00:18:07 To 17.
00:18:08 When we were kids-
00:18:08 It's a 17-point harness.
00:18:09 You had a station wagon.
00:18:10 You had a friend
00:18:10 that had a station wagon.
00:18:11 There were no seat belts.
00:18:12 You look backwards or sideways.
00:18:13 Yeah, because that was safe.
00:18:14 I may or may not have had a grandfather that had a pickup that had one of the, like, the, whatever, the shields over it.
00:18:21 And there were no, we were just hanging out.
00:18:23 So my dad, we had a wood-paneled station wagon.
00:18:29 And my dad would have me sit on the armrest with his arm around me.
00:18:34 No seatbelt.
00:18:35 I'm, like, seven.
00:18:36 And it's just the windshield is this death-like map.
00:18:41 And it was fine.
00:18:42 My dad was not trying to murder me.
00:18:44 It was just a different era where you're like, you know, most of the kids survive.
00:18:48 You know what's amazing about that, though?
00:18:49 One of the things that there's very few things that actually kind of changed pretty quickly.
00:18:54 That probably is a good development.
00:18:56 Do you remember, like, when we were going, people would just throw trash out the window.
00:18:59 Out the window.
00:19:00 Like literally.
00:19:00 The whole bag from McDonald's out the window.
00:19:02 Just like a McDonald's just throw it out the window.
00:19:04 And I'm actually glad that's changed.
00:19:07 Can I tell you a fun story about that?
00:19:08 do you know the phrase don't mess with texas oh yeah i've you told this at a lunch yes so i have
00:19:15 boots that have don't mess with texas yeah do you know where that came from i'm assuming from trash
00:19:19 texdot the texas department of transportation has the trademark because it was an anti-litter
00:19:25 campaign in the 70s this is a great and this is okay so ben is like 40 held 45 now 45 getting old
00:19:31 so the difference of 10 years is interesting you may not remember what eric and i do which is in
00:19:36 the 70s literally people would drive down the road and just throw crap out the window like it was
00:19:42 normal and the highways you just have garbage everywhere and and it's an amazing and my dad
00:19:48 said in tennessee the reason why there's so much trash do you remember that sir yeah i do because
00:19:51 he said the reason why people did it is it was a way to punish the guys that had to pick up the
00:19:57 trash that were the prisoners on the side of the road like the chain gangs yeah but it was like
00:20:00 That'll teach him to not rob or steal or cheat.
00:20:02 So it was like, you're, and the whole culture has changed.
00:20:05 Go ahead, pick up my trash.
00:20:06 Can you imagine how you would react today if you're driving down the road and someone
00:20:09 like throw a bag out the window?
00:20:10 Oh, he would honk, and it would be like, what the hell is wrong with like here?
00:20:14 It is, it is actually societally like one of the most remarkable changes that happened
00:20:18 in like, in like a 10 year period.
00:20:20 Like it just, the flip, the switch flipped.
00:20:23 I ever watch the episode, the series Mad Men?
00:20:26 Yeah.
00:20:26 So there's a, and Mad Men is great.
00:20:28 I've watched every episode, but there's a,
00:20:29 there's an episode where there's a pregnant woman in a bar drinking 1.00
00:20:33 martinis and smoking. And you're like, ah, like, like it.
00:20:36 And that was normal. Smoking on airplanes.
00:20:39 And by the way, let me be clear. My mother drank and smoked when she was pregnant 0.97
00:20:43 with me. That may explain a lot. I'm just saying,
00:20:47 and I bet your mom did too. I'm just saying it was a different era where
00:20:50 nobody like, it wasn't a thing. No. Yeah. There wasn't a lot of like,
00:20:54 you just went out and we played wiffle ball. We played baseball.
00:20:57 we played hot box or some people call it pickle yeah and you came home like when the lights when
00:21:01 the lights went out that was it yeah we'd play kick the can and we'd like run around and we'd
00:21:06 play other games whose names i won't repeat because they're not politically correct but
00:21:09 you know it was a different era you did all right and that is well let's bring this all together
00:21:14 that is we fell in love with sports we fell in love with sports and so i feel like uh and ted
00:21:20 and i've talked about this a lot if you would ask me a few years ago about whether or not
00:21:24 congress would be involved in this or i would be involved this i would have been very very
00:21:28 skeptical but the truth is uh where it's at now um is just pretty wild like you have a situation
00:21:35 literally you can go pro uh if you let's say you were in college for four years go pro come back
00:21:42 be 27 years old and compete against a 17 year old that might be on campus and by the way you
00:21:46 got pros that are leaving because they can make more money in college yes and and it's just the
00:21:51 chaos is an utter mess. And for me, like you asked, how did this start? So for me,
00:21:56 it started four years ago. So four years ago, I became the ranking member of the Senate Commerce
00:22:00 Committee. And when I became the ranker, I began having initially Texas colleges
00:22:06 coming in and just saying, college sports is a disaster. We need Congress to get involved.
00:22:14 And I started having conferences come in and the chaos. And some people have asked,
00:22:19 all right why did congress do this yeah why should congress get involved and the answer is
00:22:23 because congress screwed it up i mean there used to be rules and what happened is you had lawsuits
00:22:29 that struck down virtually every rule under the federal antitrust laws now if it's the federal
00:22:34 antitrust laws that caused the problem you got to fix it it's only congress are the only ones
00:22:39 yeah the only ones who can do it and and so the chaos right now you've got athletes transferring
00:22:46 through the transfer portal two, three, four times, you get to the end of a season and half
00:22:51 or more of your team can leave. You've got 27, 28-year-olds competing. You've got people
00:22:59 competing seven, eight years. You've got pros playing. And the spending spiral, almost every
00:23:05 athletic department in the country is losing millions of dollars. Many of them are losing
00:23:09 tens of millions of dollars. They can't afford it. And so every week they're canceling different
00:23:14 programs. They're canceling women's sports. They're canceling Olympic sports. And if we do
00:23:18 nothing, I think in five years, there will be 30 to 50 competitive football programs in the country,
00:23:27 basically a mini NFL. So let's take Texas. You and I both live in Texas. In Texas, the University
00:23:32 of Texas and A&M are going to survive regardless. Like if chaos continues, they've got such a big
00:23:38 donor network. All right. If there are 30 schools that play, UT and A&M will be among the 30 and
00:23:42 they've got enough donors, they can compete. It'll be a mini NFL. I don't know that another
00:23:48 school in Texas survives. I look at TCU, SMU, Baylor, Texas Tech, Rice, U of H. I think all of
00:23:58 them could go under. I love UT. I love A&M representing the whole state. It's great fun
00:24:03 to cheer for them. By the way, I don't know that Mizzou survives. I don't know that you have a
00:24:08 single school that survives in that chaos. Well, I think Mizzou does, but I don't know that
00:24:13 Missouri State probably does. I think there's no way Missouri State does. And even Mizzou is
00:24:19 stretching to be able to compete at that, like with the same level of donations that a UT or
00:24:25 Michigan or Ohio State. LSU. And LSU, by the way, is in debt. Did you see that? Like an $80 million
00:24:31 budget. Yeah, that's not where they're at. Yeah, that's not where they're at. They're probably
00:24:36 middle middle of the road on budget in the sec which is by the way uh a huge advantage versus
00:24:42 most other schools but if you're gonna if you're gonna have this kind of you know trajectory that
00:24:49 we've seen with the spending and the debt and the deficits that are happening it's just a matter of
00:24:54 time before you whittle out because of the old model of course was college football paid and
00:24:58 subsidized all the non-revenue sports but what happens when like you're losing money on football
00:25:02 or all your money is going towards football.
00:25:05 You're just necessarily going to get rid of all those non-revenue sports.
00:25:09 And that's an important thing to understand is the economics of college sports,
00:25:13 which is football generates virtually 100% of the revenue.
00:25:18 Occasionally men's basketball, but it's rare.
00:25:20 You've got to have a Duke, you've got to have a Gonzaga.
00:25:22 Like there are only a handful of programs where men's basketball generates money,
00:25:26 but every other sport loses money.
00:25:29 and if you have football go away from all but 30 to 50 schools yeah they don't have the funding so
00:25:36 they lose every other sport they lose and then it's not just losing sports
00:25:41 but a lot of schools i think you could see a lot of universities go under because a successful
00:25:49 athletic program you get alumni to give you get students to apply i mean it's i mean look at any
00:25:55 school that wins a national championship what happens next five years they have all right let
00:26:00 me ask you a serious question you were mildly slightly a tiny bit excited when Ole Miss beat
00:26:06 LSU yes I've never seen this guy more like like there's the birth of your children and there's
00:26:13 Ole Miss beating LSU and it's pretty and it's not even close I mean you love your boys so you're
00:26:19 gonna tell them but it's not yeah I mean I'm just saying it was yeah if you my aura ring that day
00:26:24 It was just peaking and solid.
00:26:25 I want to know, but I'm going to predict that Ole Miss's applications went up thousands.
00:26:33 Yeah, I'm sure.
00:26:34 Like the number of people who will apply to Ole Miss because of that one game.
00:26:37 And they saw it and they go, I want to be a part of that.
00:26:39 Yeah, like that's an amazing.
00:26:41 And so that dynamic.
00:26:43 Look at Giant Manziel and what it did for A&M.
00:26:45 I mean, look at Florida games.
00:26:47 They're still talking about 10-0.
00:26:48 I can tell you when a couple years ago, when I went to the game down in Dallas,
00:26:51 when Mizzou beat Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl,
00:26:53 they will track the views on their website
00:26:56 and the applications that come within a week.
00:26:59 And it's dramatic.
00:27:00 People are like, they see the exposure, they love it.
00:27:02 And that's just a reality of the situation.
00:27:04 Yeah, people want to go to school
00:27:05 where they can like cheer on their team
00:27:06 and it's fun and there's school spirit.
00:27:08 But that dynamic, the challenge we were facing was massive.
00:27:15 And so it was four years ago that I started working on this
00:27:19 and started negotiating with Democrats.
00:27:21 and and to try to get bipartisan legislation try to get bipartisan legislation on anything
00:27:27 it's really hard really hard yeah but this in particular for at least two years when i was
00:27:33 ranking member i was just banking banging my head against a wall like the democrats would not budge
00:27:38 we i was trying we did meeting after meeting we're going nowhere when i became chairman
00:27:43 i i said look this is a real priority this matters and part of why it matters i'd never
00:27:50 to focus on this i don't know if you ever thought about this college sports is unique to america
00:27:56 and i've been a fan my whole life but i hadn't really thought about it there are more than 500
00:28:01 000 college athletes in america right now yeah nobody else has that europe doesn't have that
00:28:07 asia doesn't have that latin america africa like it doesn't exist this and if we don't act
00:28:12 hundreds of thousands of those scholarship positions and and roster slots will go away
00:28:18 disappear and and but the ncaa ad that i love the best ad they've ever had about student athletes
00:28:23 was and 99 percent will go pro in something else yeah referring to you go to college you may get
00:28:31 a scholarship you may be full ride you may be amazing by the way 99 repeat that stat more than
00:28:36 99 percent of college athletes will never go to the nba the nfl they won't play pro ball they go
00:28:43 but their skills and eric and i did this at one senate lunch we asked around the table 53
00:28:48 republicans how many of y'all played college sports and it was what maybe 15 20 percent yeah
00:28:54 it was an impressive number i think i think what's what's fascinating about it the more you talk about
00:28:59 this with people there's so many lessons right it's discipline showing up on time i don't know
00:29:04 about you but i hire a lot of college athletes absolutely because you kind of know that i learned
00:29:09 a lot of grit from it show up you show up there's a lot of like that wind sprint you don't want to
00:29:13 do that you do you mentally excuses are usually not absolutely and you also realize like i don't 0.96
00:29:18 this person's next to me they're black they're hispanic i don't give it i don't care at all
00:29:21 they're my teammate and i want to go and look i didn't have the skill to play college sports but 0.99
00:29:25 i was a high school athlete and like you know when i mean my our high school basketball coach
00:29:29 would have us run sprints till we puked and like that experience of like being there and the grit
00:29:36 I mean, it's important.
00:29:38 Absolutely.
00:29:39 Absolutely.
00:29:40 You're 6'6".
00:29:41 By the way, you've heard this, but I haven't talked with Eric on the pod.
00:29:46 Oh, yeah.
00:29:47 As you know, I challenged Pete Hegseth to play hoops.
00:29:51 And Pete played varsity basketball at Princeton.
00:29:55 And he made the tournament.
00:29:56 He played in March Madness only a minute.
00:29:59 It's still playing.
00:29:59 But, hell, that's a minute more than I played.
00:30:01 Yeah, you still play.
00:30:02 You're in the dance.
00:30:04 And so I challenged him to play.
00:30:06 And he came and he brought three guys from the Department of War to come with him.
00:30:10 And so I put together a senator's team.
00:30:11 And it was Eric and it was John Husted who played college football.
00:30:14 He was not a basketball player, but he's a good athlete.
00:30:16 And then I got a guy from my staff, actually two guys, Sam Cooper, who played D2 basketball.
00:30:23 And then Gray Harker, who played football at Arkansas.
00:30:27 Who, by the way, tore his ACL.
00:30:29 And his meniscus, both.
00:30:30 Like the first game we played.
00:30:32 Yeah. So we played and I got to say, I think Pete thought it was a joke. Like we're going up against a bunch of old fat senators. This is going to be fun. And we played two games scoring by one to 15 and we beat them both times.
00:30:46 No way. And and I went and told the press afterwards. I said, look, Pete was engaged in some really good ledge affairs. He threw the games. It was smart. He was kissing up to the Senate. I'm here to tell you, look, I don't believe in lying. I was lying.
00:30:59 I was flat out lying to the press
00:31:02 Pete wanted to win
00:31:04 Oh yeah
00:31:04 He's competitive
00:31:05 And the second game
00:31:06 Like when he lost the first
00:31:08 I am certain 1.00
00:31:09 He chewed the ass 1.00
00:31:11 Of his Pentagon guys 1.00
00:31:12 Well let me tell you something
00:31:13 You remember the first game
00:31:14 Early on
00:31:15 You were feeding me the ball down low
00:31:17 And I was kind of scoring
00:31:18 At will early
00:31:19 Now these are guys
00:31:20 Playing with Pete Hegseth
00:31:21 The Secretary of War
00:31:22 Who wanted to impress their boss
00:31:24 Yeah
00:31:24 They did not want to be scored upon
00:31:26 Like that
00:31:26 They were fouling the hell out of it
00:31:27 It was
00:31:27 I was
00:31:28 You know
00:31:29 So it was a, like, it was.
00:31:30 What was the score of the first game?
00:31:31 It was like 15-13.
00:31:33 It was close.
00:31:33 It got very physical.
00:31:36 And they were, look, Eric's 6'6", and frankly, I rode him like a rented mule.
00:31:42 Like, I'm like, he knew how to post up, and I played point guard.
00:31:45 You just feed the ball.
00:31:46 And so I could feed the ball, but they were every play they would foul.
00:31:50 You had bruises, because they were hitting you hard, and you're not 22 anymore.
00:31:55 No, no, no.
00:31:55 We were, I don't know if you remember this,
00:31:57 We had an all-senator briefing, like, the next day in the skiff.
00:32:00 And I saw those guys. 0.98
00:32:01 I'm like, you guys beat the shit out of me. 0.95
00:32:03 You know, I'm sore. 0.94
00:32:04 I was walking.
00:32:04 I took some Advil before I walked in.
00:32:05 You should, yeah.
00:32:07 I mean, it was.
00:32:07 You wake up in the morning, you're like, what car wreck did I get in?
00:32:09 I was like, what am I doing?
00:32:10 I will say this.
00:32:12 Hegseth stole the ball from me.
00:32:14 And we play.
00:32:15 You've been up there.
00:32:16 We play.
00:32:17 It's in the Senate office building.
00:32:19 There's actually an indoor tennis court that has a backboard to hoop on it.
00:32:23 And so it's a tennis court surface.
00:32:24 It's a terrible basketball surface.
00:32:26 service is bad for your knees it's terrible but it's what we got yeah so pete dove on the tennis
00:32:34 court to steal the ball and he ripped up his knee his knee was bleeding yeah and he got the ball
00:32:38 because i sure as hell wanted like i'm like you want and i told him afterwards i said pete i am
00:32:44 proud i want our secretary of war to want to dive on a dive and be bleeding like i feel i feel safer
00:32:51 Agreed. And to Pete's credit, remember, he rattled off two or three or four threes in a row.
00:32:56 They got back in that second game. Now, we still won.
00:32:59 He's a good ball player.
00:33:00 How close was the second game?
00:33:02 They were both within a point.
00:33:03 So it was down to the wire.
00:33:04 They were hard fought. And I was covering Pete, and he's a much better ball player than I am.
00:33:10 Has he asked for the rematch?
00:33:11 No.
00:33:12 Oh, okay.
00:33:12 But I can tell you this, and you played ball with me.
00:33:15 What I can do is lay a little bit of wood on you.
00:33:17 I get on defense. I'm not a small man.
00:33:21 Translation, he can foul you.
00:33:22 I fouled them.
00:33:24 That's what it means.
00:33:25 They were beating up Eric, but I was beating up Pete.
00:33:28 And it was like, all right.
00:33:29 And by the way, he also drew a charge.
00:33:32 He did.
00:33:33 I've never seen that.
00:33:34 Questionable call for it to actually be a charge.
00:33:37 Yeah, we gave it to him.
00:33:38 We kind of gave it to him.
00:33:39 But it was a little bit.
00:33:40 It was on the air.
00:33:41 You know, St. Louis just recently got the F-47 and the F-A-X-X.
00:33:46 So, you know, I was judicious with my.
00:33:49 several billion dollars and you're like yeah that's a charge clearly like okay that's a charge
00:33:53 for this one i do want to talk to you about an organization that is near and dear to my heart
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00:34:58 All right. So I want to ask you guys back to the bill. You get it passed. And the big question
00:35:03 that so many people are going to ask now is what happens next? Yes. This is a huge victory. The
00:35:07 House is gone. They've got their reelect. They're back home campaigning. And now people are like,
00:35:12 was it law? Well, it's passed the Senate. What happens next? Let's explain where that goes for
00:35:17 now so people understand. So where we are right now, we had it passed 77 votes in favor. We
00:35:22 actually have 78 because Dan Sullivan supports it, but he was still in Alaska, so he didn't vote. So
00:35:25 we had 78 senators support it. We got every Republican but two. So it was a massive vote
00:35:31 on the Republican side. We got more than half the Democrats. We got a majority of the Democrat
00:35:37 caucus which is insane yeah that never happens you can't get 77 votes to congratulate santa
00:35:43 claus at christmas time yeah that's the reality socialist like he's giving away stuff for free
00:35:49 like i'm a no on that dad he's like you just made my point yeah yeah even santa claus can't get
00:35:59 these kind of votes um so it goes the house so now it goes to the house look here's what i think
00:36:06 will happen when i want to happen i want the speaker to call the house back and you think
00:36:11 they will i think there's a real possibility of it so they're gone right now the house is scheduled
00:36:17 to be gone until election day and they're out campaigning because look the house is up every
00:36:20 two years they're campaigning this is a rough election season that's no secret so they're out
00:36:25 campaigning i sat down we had the the republican convention a few weeks ago in dallas and so i
00:36:31 spent a half hour with the speaker there and i made the case to him look if we get this done and
00:36:36 i think we're going to get a big bipartisan bill i said and mike is a close friend he's a great
00:36:42 american i love the man he's principled he's a great human being i said look if we get it done
00:36:48 you ought to call the house back and by the way the house can move fast it's not long unlike the
00:36:52 senate the house can pass that in a day yeah and i said look there's nothing more productive you
00:36:57 can do all your members are running for re-elect then come back pass this bill in 24 hours
00:37:05 it polls north of 80 20 yeah and by the way there are millions of people who are college sports fans
00:37:13 who don't pay attention to politics it'll go i'll be damned like congress can do something
00:37:18 yeah that matters that that actually actually like it pertains to my saturday in my life look
00:37:23 i said this is good politics and what i want to see happen and i've suggested this president trump
00:37:29 i want to see him sign it and college game on the set of college game day and i actually have
00:37:34 suggested a game i actually think a&m alabama would be a great game it's kind of mid-october
00:37:39 it's the right time although i will say a&m's last game well i got another game for you i got
00:37:44 another game for you in early november texas at missouri that would be a good game is it before
00:37:50 after election day. It's Saturday after the election. So Cassidy was pitching Texas LSU,
00:37:55 which I liked, but it's, it's the week after election day. And so I'm like, no, we need,
00:37:59 we need it before election day. Yeah. I'm fine with that. If it gets it done, I'm all for it.
00:38:03 But if it somehow slips, then we'll do the Texas. I wanted Texas, Ohio state, but we didn't get it
00:38:08 done in time. Cause that would have been to have it. Um, but I'll say this bill, I believe we will
00:38:15 get it done. Look, does it happen before election day or not? I don't know for sure. I will say
00:38:19 last night i i spoke with the president he was elated yeah and and president trump wants the
00:38:26 house to come back and let me tell you something i talked to him too yeah he is not he is a real
00:38:30 sports fan like i think some presidents are kind of phony you know he loves ball people like he
00:38:35 loves this he's followed it his whole life he wants this is a he wants this done i think that
00:38:40 will matter with them i hope it matters with them um and like ted said it's like this is something
00:38:46 that they can do like in a day day and a half yeah and be a big win it's a cultural thing this
00:38:50 is not political people don't want this to be right no no they want this to be like hey that's
00:38:55 their team it's their region it's their conference it's their school that matters a lot more than
00:39:00 like red jersey blue jersey on this which is i think the secret sauce for all this that's how
00:39:04 we approached it was here are problems let's go try to solve the problem let's take our passion
00:39:08 that we have for sports and let's turn it into legislation that can matter and we did it like
00:39:13 we did it in the senate it's not easy to do but we were able to pull it off so ben at every stage
00:39:17 the critics thought we had no prayer before we introduced it the critics said there's no chance
00:39:23 you can't get bipartisan agreement we introduced it when we introduced it initially we had two
00:39:27 democrats two republicans so it was eric and me on the republican side we had maria cantwell as
00:39:31 the ranking member on the commerce committee democrat from washington state and maria put
00:39:36 an enormous amount of time and energy to this and then chris coons democrat from delaware so
00:39:40 And initially it was the four of us, two D's, two R's. 0.98
00:39:42 Yeah.
00:39:43 People were shocked.
00:39:44 Like when we introduced it, they're like, wait, these guys came together and did this.
00:39:48 Then we had the markup in the Commerce Committee.
00:39:51 And early on, the SEC and Big Ten were opposed to this.
00:39:54 And they were actively and vigorously lobbying against it.
00:39:57 And they're the two most powerful conferences.
00:39:59 They get 70% of the eyeballs.
00:40:02 Both Eric and I care deeply about the SEC because they matter a lot to our state.
00:40:05 So it took some courage for us to stand up and like.
00:40:08 Say, hold on a second.
00:40:09 Yeah.
00:40:10 And all the critics said, okay, SEC and Big Ten are lobbying against this.
00:40:14 You're done.
00:40:14 This is going nowhere.
00:40:15 It fails in the Commerce Committee, or maybe it's a party line vote.
00:40:19 We end up voting it out 19 to 9.
00:40:22 Yeah.
00:40:23 70% of the committee votes.
00:40:24 That was the pay attention moment.
00:40:26 That was a moment, and it ended up, I mean, we negotiated with the SEC and Big Ten,
00:40:30 and we brought them on board.
00:40:31 So they're supporting it now.
00:40:32 And look, Greg Sankey, Tony Petiti, the commissioners, they're good guys.
00:40:36 I know them well.
00:40:37 both both both eric and i spent a ton of time with them we made some concessions we got them
00:40:42 on board the whole process of this bill was growing the the coalition growing and expanding
00:40:48 it when we went to the senate floor this week i mean there were a lot of skeptics and to see the
00:40:54 votes and we had a by the way a bunch of amendments and we ended up building and building in the
00:41:00 coalition that that is a powerful thing and i would say for most people they probably think
00:41:07 that's how the Senate operates all the time.
00:41:10 That is not.
00:41:10 It almost never does.
00:41:12 It doesn't happen.
00:41:12 Most of it's kabuki theater.
00:41:14 Most of it's whatever.
00:41:15 It was like, wouldn't it be nice
00:41:17 if it happened like this?
00:41:18 Right, but it was actually legislating
00:41:19 because you didn't have some of the same constraints
00:41:22 that you would normally have on something.
00:41:23 You listened to people, when we did,
00:41:26 and you figured out.
00:41:27 Adopted amendments that got people on board.
00:41:29 Exactly, and that's kind of how it's supposed to work
00:41:31 on something like this.
00:41:32 And I will tell you something, Ben.
00:41:34 Eric was hugely helpful.
00:41:35 It was interesting.
00:41:36 eric and and maria and chris kind of everyone was lobbying different people and we had sort of a
00:41:42 team and look with 100 senators you got a lot of people so eric spent a lot of time and we had this
00:41:46 vote that was unhappy this vote was unhappy and so he was out negotiating we did i i hosted a party
00:41:52 for for the four senators who led this and for the staff and i i gave bottles of scotch to everyone
00:41:57 that's awesome i mean it was a a celebration of like i i will say it's your dream of coming to
00:42:02 Senate and how it's supposed to work.
00:42:04 And this was the most complicated
00:42:06 thing I've ever negotiated.
00:42:09 Listen, this makes 0.96
00:42:10 Middle East peace seem simple.
00:42:12 And by the way, people care less about Middle East peace
00:42:14 than they care about college football.
00:42:16 Well, let me say two
00:42:18 things. One, congrats. What a fun
00:42:20 week. Two, it was fun to watch. Three, we
00:42:22 get to now see what happens on the House side.
00:42:25 And it's going to be really fun. And for
00:42:26 everybody that's watching right now, don't forget.
00:42:28 Ben, close by telling the
00:42:30 story of when the baseball team
00:42:32 and the tennis team at Ole Miss went to,
00:42:34 was it batting practice?
00:42:35 We went to batting practice.
00:42:36 So when I was at Ole Miss,
00:42:37 the teams would trade off and you would play.
00:42:39 We played the baseball team
00:42:40 and then smoked them in tennis.
00:42:41 They were terrible.
00:42:42 And then they went and said,
00:42:43 well, you're going to come to batting practice.
00:42:44 Well, we all had eye hand coordination.
00:42:46 We had balls hitting at 120 on the concrete
00:42:48 and you're hitting it back.
00:42:49 And we were just hitting dingers off the machine
00:42:51 because it was just pure straight.
00:42:52 And then one of the guys on the team,
00:42:54 the coach tried to actually recruit
00:42:55 and our coach was in his face.
00:42:56 You're not touching my tennis guys.
00:42:58 You're not touching, but it was so much fun
00:42:59 because like, how do you guys do that?
00:43:00 I'm like, guys, we are used to hitting a ball that's bouncing 120.
00:43:04 It's coming straight every time in the same place.
00:43:06 You can get bat on ball really fast.
00:43:08 It was fun.
00:43:08 That's cool.
00:43:09 Yeah, we beat those guys well.
00:43:10 You told a more pro tennis story this time than last time.
00:43:14 Well, I mean, we said it.
00:43:15 It's like Eric's couch story.
00:43:17 It's getting better, Ben.
00:43:18 It's getting better, yeah.
00:43:19 Because the last time I heard the story, you said, wow, a fastball comes fast.
00:43:24 Did I tell you the catch probability in that game is 5%.
00:43:29 5%, by golly.
00:43:30 There's the fish.
00:43:31 Don't forget we do this podcast Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
00:43:33 Hit that subscribe or auto-download button.
00:43:35 You can also watch this episode on YouTube as well.
00:43:38 From the swamp, it's always great having you guys with us,
00:43:40 and we'll see you back here on Friday morning.
00:43:43 I believe that whoever was in that room and did that was a murderer.
00:43:47 A new podcast series, Faultline Haditha,
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00:44:03 your color. Listen to Faultline Haditha on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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00:45:27 Lots to Say, with me, Bobby Bones, and Matt Cassel.
00:45:30 You're in training camp, and the rookie quarterback has one good throwing session in front of the media.
00:45:35 Suddenly, everybody online says he should start over you week one.
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00:46:51 The World Cup is over, but if you caught the soccer bug and aren't sure what to do now,
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00:47:18 Soccer. Just don't tell my coaches I said that.
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