Verdict with Ted Cruz - Saving College Sports—Landmark New Legislation that’s a Massive Win for Athletes, Colleges & Fans

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00:00:36.700 Welcome. It is Verdict with Senator Ted Cruz, Ben Ferguson with you as well. And it's so nice to

00:00:41.560 have some of you listening on the radio around the country. We've got a lot that we're going

00:00:45.660 to be talking about, but before we even get to the topics, I got to say, Senator, I know you.

00:00:51.220 I feel like I know you well. I feel like you're one of my best friends. The idea that for 25

00:00:57.920 years. There is one woman who has put up with you for 25 years is truly incredible. I don't know if

00:01:06.720 this is a rapture alert. I don't know if you've gotten really good at gift giving, but congratulations,

00:01:12.000 25 years. You have been married. That is incredible. Well done. Well, thank you. We

00:01:17.700 celebrated our 25th anniversary on Wednesday this week. Heidi says 25 years of marriage. It's been

00:01:25.340 21 of the happiest years of her life so so i i i'll take i'll take that ratio that that's not

00:01:31.020 bad i'm i'm i'm i'm exceeding asking for which four years she's describing as the other ones

00:01:35.980 right and she didn't she didn't say they were contiguous it's just you know it's i'm batting

00:01:40.640 well over 500 i'm happy with that um we we had actually a fabulous anniversary we we started

00:01:47.440 the day we went and had brunch together we we spent the day just kind of we look through our

00:01:52.540 wedding albums. It's unbelievable. It was 25 years ago, May 27th, 2001. And my God, we were

00:02:00.160 kids. Like it really, I mean, you know, you're, you're still young in the Senate, but you're not

00:02:04.500 young anymore when you look at your wedding pictures. That's the best way you can describe

00:02:07.780 it, right? So I'll tell you the weird thing, Ben, is, is Heidi's parents were my age when we got

00:02:14.280 married and, and we thought of them as like unbelievably old. Um, and you know, 25 years is

00:02:20.700 a long time, but it was, you know, our nephews and nieces were two and four, and they were like

00:02:27.820 the flower girl and the little ring bearers, and they were so cute. And all four of them now are

00:02:34.900 grown and married. They're great kids, but, you know, 25 years added to two and four gets you old

00:02:40.820 enough to be grown and married and a full-on adult. So we spent the whole day together just

00:02:46.060 reflecting on kind of what the last 25 years were what surprised us on the good side what

00:02:51.620 surprised us on the bad side and then uh wednesday night we went out and had a nice romantic dinner

00:02:57.920 together um it was funny we each got cards and we both wrote the same thing in the card to each

00:03:06.680 other we both wrote i can't wait for the next 50 years together and there you go and when i read

00:03:13.300 Heidi's note that's how she closed it I just started laughing because she hadn't read my card

00:03:17.320 yet and that's how I closed mine I was gonna say was somebody cheating did someone leave their

00:03:21.340 card out the other person saw the card so that was genuine authentic it wasn't okay no cheating

00:03:25.700 involved there I love that turns out 25 years you kind of know how each other thinks and uh

00:03:30.660 okay I'm gonna tell you a quick funny story then we're gonna get to substance but but I

00:03:34.440 you know I went to get her I got her two dozen roses for the 25th anniversary and and so I met

00:03:39.300 at whole foods right down the street from us bought the roses yeah um i wanted to get 25

00:03:44.020 but they only had them in 12 uh bundles and and they didn't have any loose roses and there was

00:03:49.040 nobody working the darn counter so i got it i got her 24 i gave her the 24 when she said that she

00:03:54.980 said did you get 25 and i said i said sweetheart you're the 25th rose oh look at you and it was 0.94

00:04:04.200 a moment look look i'm usually not very slick but it was a moment she just cracked up laughing

00:04:08.780 And it was like, all right, that wasn't bad.

00:04:10.700 Like, I turned to our girls.

00:04:12.120 I'm like, hey, Dad's got a little game here.

00:04:14.180 That worked.

00:04:16.200 That's good.

00:04:17.220 But I got her a card, and it was a card that was in the tray on the little carousel that said blank.

00:04:23.260 And it had a really pretty, almost like silk drawing of a flower that was just really pretty.

00:04:29.660 It was blank, and I figured I'd write her a nice note in it.

00:04:32.340 Yeah.

00:04:32.940 And I'm at the checkout counter, and as I'm paying for it, it flashes up on the screen,

00:04:38.020 and suddenly it says, sympathy card.

00:04:41.260 And I stopped.

00:04:43.380 I'm like, wait a second.

00:04:44.660 I go look at the thing.

00:04:45.640 And even though it was in the blank shelf,

00:04:47.680 it said in it, I'm so sorry for your loss

00:04:50.840 and I'm hurting with you for all your suffering.

00:04:54.320 And I cracked, I didn't actually end up giving it to Heidi

00:04:59.320 because she's pretty literal.

00:05:00.560 And I don't know that she would have thought

00:05:01.840 it was very funny, but Caroline, our eldest daughter,

00:05:04.800 I told her that tonight and she cracked up.

00:05:06.620 Caroline thought it was funny.

00:05:07.840 I would give Caroline a sympathy card, but Heidi would find it less amusing.

00:05:14.060 And so instead, I went and got an actual blank card and wrote a note.

00:05:17.320 So many times, I hate cheesy cards.

00:05:19.700 Valentine's Day, I will actually get two cards.

00:05:21.820 I'll get the cheesy one, and then I'll get the humorous, fun one that's like a cartoon or something.

00:05:27.180 And I'm like, this is the one I really wanted to get you.

00:05:29.280 Here's the one I know you really want.

00:05:30.700 And so it's now become a thing we give to.

00:05:32.880 So 25 years, I've got to ask you one last question.

00:05:35.540 I'm assuming a 25-year gift is like, you know me, my love language is gifts.

00:05:42.380 I'm a jewelry person, Anna benefits from that.

00:05:45.640 What did you get for the 25-year anniversary?

00:05:48.920 And I hope it was good because everyone's judging you otherwise right now.

00:05:51.960 Yeah, look, I got Heidi some earrings.

00:05:53.980 We actually went to the jewelry store together and got the earrings, and she really likes the earrings.

00:05:58.160 They're nice earrings, and she really likes them.

00:06:01.940 And I, for a lot of vacations, jewelry is sort of my, like, for birthdays and Christmas, you know, I'd get a bracelet or a jewelry or something.

00:06:11.620 And so it, I think, she picked out the earrings and she really liked them.

00:06:16.000 There you go.

00:06:16.480 See, you know you didn't go wrong if she picked it out.

00:06:18.600 It's on her at that point.

00:06:19.840 Heidi has strong opinions and it is dangerous.

00:06:22.900 I would say fully half of the gifts I've gotten her that she didn't see, she returns.

00:06:30.120 and and the first i don't know five ten years of marriage i'd get kind of hurt my feelings would

00:06:35.420 be hurt and then i was just like look this is an opinionated lady she knows what she thinks

00:06:40.000 yeah i i take a shot sometimes and and if i get something that i think's really nice and she's

00:06:45.500 like no thanks i just here's the gift receipt go take it back get something you want and and uh

00:06:50.340 and and you got it final question and i've i've let's see 16 years in so i'm behind you clearly

00:06:58.620 I don't think, yeah, I'm behind you here.

00:07:01.340 What is your one piece of advice for everyone?

00:07:03.780 By the way, how old are you right now, Ben?

00:07:05.800 44.

00:07:07.080 44, so nine years from now, you'll be 53.

00:07:09.980 So just two years behind me when you hit your 25th.

00:07:12.760 Yeah, when I hit my 25th, exactly.

00:07:14.520 So what is your one piece of advice?

00:07:16.320 Like, what is the advice you have the whole day of the ups and downs?

00:07:20.800 What's the one thing you would give for people on how to make it to 25 years?

00:07:24.620 Besides the fact that you need to almost always be wrong all the time.

00:07:27.520 Yeah, look, there are lots of things that are trite. I mean, marriage is work. It's hard work. It's a decision we're going to go through. There are times, I will say this is something I wrote in my card, that there are times when the highs exceeded anything we could imagine, and there have been times when the lows exceeded anything we could imagine.

00:07:47.160 And it's, you know, I remember as a kid, I used to watch soap operas and think soap operas were overstated.

00:07:52.680 And the longer I lived, the more I realized man is a fallen creature and this journey.

00:07:57.780 There are times when you're grieving.

00:07:59.560 There are times when you're weeping.

00:08:00.840 There are times when you're celebrating.

00:08:02.380 And look, part of going the distance is don't get too excited at the highs.

00:08:05.740 Don't get too sad at the lows.

00:08:08.040 You know, this is a marathon, not a sprint.

00:08:11.160 But I remember also when we got married, the pastor who married us, we got married in California, Santa Barbara, California.

00:08:17.160 California at the Museum of Natural History, because Heidi's a native Californian. She grew

00:08:21.480 up in San Luis Obispo, just north of there. And it was an outdoor wedding. Heidi's theme was

00:08:27.420 Midsummer Night's Evening. It was a beautiful wedding. I had nothing to do with designing it.

00:08:33.000 She designed everything. But the pastor who married us, he said up there, he said, look,

00:08:37.620 there are going to be times when you have fights and sometimes knock down, drag out fights.

00:08:41.500 And he said, if you're thinking, maybe I'm the one who should apologize, you're right.

00:08:49.220 You should.

00:08:50.040 And he said that to me, and he said that to her.

00:08:51.760 He said, it doesn't matter who's right or wrong.

00:08:53.740 It's up to you, the husband. 0.98

00:08:56.140 It's up to you, the wife. 0.90

00:08:58.060 Even if you're totally in the right and she's totally in the wrong, go and say, I'm sorry, and make the peace.

00:09:02.900 Now, we don't always do that, but I remember his words, and that's really good counsel for a long and hopefully another 50 years of marriage.

00:09:10.260 All right, Senator, before we get into this legislation, I do want to take a moment and just talk about something that's really important.

00:09:17.220 And some of you listening, I think you're going to want to know about, and that is Americans United for Life.

00:09:22.800 For over the past 50 years, AUL has filed more than 200 legal briefs and helped create at least 400 pro-life bills in over 50 states.

00:09:35.520 They're writing model legislation and consulting with the state legislators and defending their own laws and other pro-life statues in court.

00:09:46.580 Now, Americans United for Life has a dual front approach of not only writing, but then defending legislation.

00:09:53.120 And it's proved an effective one that could become even more impactful as pro-life state legislatures are moving to enact protections for pre-born babies after the downfall of Roe v. Wade.

00:10:06.600 They're also protecting the mothers.

00:10:09.040 And now they are also doing everything they can to fight on the legality of abortion that is returned to the states.

00:10:17.220 And that's where you come in.

00:10:18.880 You now have the opportunity to overturn pro-abortion laws and advance pro-life legislation that attacks the most vulnerable in our society, from the womb to the tomb.

00:10:30.160 Together, we can shape the future of our nation through life-affirming legislation in every state.

00:10:37.360 A gift of just $25 helps hold abortion providers accountable and helps protect women and unborn children across the country.

00:10:47.040 And now through a match, your gift is doubled.

00:10:50.960 You can donate securely at aul.org slash verdict.

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00:11:00.980 Sponsored by Americans United for Life.

00:11:03.540 Senator, I got to say, I have never felt like you had my back more than watching you do sports talk radio as shows over the last 24 hours.

00:11:16.380 and you did something that desperately needed to be done

00:11:20.580 if you care about sports, if you love sports,

00:11:23.040 and you did something that dealt with Lane Kiffin in his name,

00:11:26.760 the guy who used to be at my alma mater, Ole Miss,

00:11:29.460 and then screwed us and went down to LSU.

00:11:32.240 I have lots of animosity there,

00:11:34.200 but the Lane Kiffin rule is now going to become an actual thing, hopefully.

00:11:38.640 Let's break down the NIL, explain why this matters,

00:11:42.800 and this is really, I truly believe, about saving college sports.

00:11:46.000 I played in college. It was broken system for a long time. The pendulum swung a law far, far the

00:11:52.620 other way. And now we're trying to find a happy medium here. Well, listen, you're right. I spent

00:11:58.700 much of this week doing sports radio, sports TV, doing interviews with Sports Illustrated, ESPN,

00:12:04.620 Stephen A. Smith, and talking about college sports. And this week, I believe, was a really

00:12:10.160 consequential week for college sports. I introduced a major bipartisan bill that I wrote alongside

00:12:18.400 Maria Cantwell. Maria Cantwell is a Democrat from Washington State. I'm the chairman of the Senate

00:12:23.360 Commerce Committee. Maria is the ranking member, the senior Democrat on the Senate Commerce

00:12:27.220 Committee. And this is a bill that I've spent three years working on and thousands of hours

00:12:33.620 trying to bring Republicans and Democrats together. And we introduced it this week. I got

00:12:38.960 to say most observers thought there was no way Republicans and Democrats could find common ground

00:12:43.780 on saving college sports. We managed to do it. And so I want to break it down. And on this pod,

00:12:50.320 we're going to go into a little bit of depth because I think this topic really matters. But

00:12:53.800 let's start with, look, sports is an amazing, and college sports is an amazing institution in

00:13:01.280 America. It's something that no other country has the equivalent of college sports in their nation.

00:13:07.640 You know, today there are more than 500,000 college athletes right now competing. And you look at that and college athletics and sports generally is something that brings us together. In an era where we're so divided, we're so angry, you can go and root for your team and we come together.

00:13:29.280 It doesn't matter. You can be from different parties. You can be different races. You can be different religions. It doesn't matter. You're all cheering for the home team. That is an awesome thing. And over the years, college sports has been an avenue for millions of young men and women to get a college education, many of whom might never have had a chance to do that before.

00:13:52.120 And right now, I believe college sports is in absolute crisis.

00:13:57.580 Right now, we have chaos in college sports.

00:14:00.480 So we've got the transfer portal.

00:14:03.260 You've got athletes that are transferring two, three, four, five times, going every year to a different school.

00:14:09.620 You've got at the end of the season, your school's team can be blown up as all the star players are recruited to other schools.

00:14:18.160 The kids who are doing that end up not getting a very good education.

00:14:22.120 you've got kids challenging every eligibility rule. So you have players playing seven years.

00:14:29.080 You have players playing college sports when they're 27, 28 years old. You have pros

00:14:34.160 coming back to college sports. It is messed up. And what is happening, Ben, every week,

00:14:41.580 a different college program across the country announces they're cutting a sport. They're,

00:14:47.380 they're cutting women's sports. They're cutting track and field. They're cutting Olympic sports. 1.00

00:14:51.420 They're cutting tennis.

00:14:52.800 They're cutting non-money-making sports, which, by the way, to be clear,

00:14:56.620 is the overwhelming majority of college sports,

00:15:00.160 just so people understand the economics of this.

00:15:03.560 In most schools, they make money off football.

00:15:06.380 If it's Division I, they make money off basketball.

00:15:09.880 And then the scale is just nosediving after that.

00:15:13.320 And there's so many sports that don't make money.

00:15:15.180 And that's why Arkansas this year, they decided to get rid of the tennis team,

00:15:18.060 and then luckily somebody came in last moment and said,

00:15:20.220 we'll fund it for you. But they had shut down men and women's tennis and it was just like,

00:15:24.680 sorry, it is what it is. Yeah, that was just a few weeks ago. Arkansas canceled both men's

00:15:29.500 and women's tennis. I texted that to you. And as a former SEC varsity tennis player, you shed a

00:15:36.840 tear. Thankfully, a booster came in and saved tennis for them. But it gives a sense of what's

00:15:43.340 going on. And if anything, you understated where the revenue comes from. The overwhelming majority,

00:15:50.980 the vast majority is men's football. That is the driver of revenue. Second place is basketball,

00:15:59.220 but it is basketball makes a little bit of money. It is football that feeds the entire beast and

00:16:05.740 virtually no other sport is a moneymaker across college athletics. All of the other sports are

00:16:11.920 sports are surviving on the revenue from football. And what is happening is we're in a nonstop

00:16:19.420 spending war where the budgets are going up and up and up. And I believe if Congress doesn't act

00:16:24.980 in three to five years, we will see 30 to 50 colleges across America that will still have

00:16:33.320 football teams. And it'll basically be a mini NFL. It will be a pro football league,

00:16:39.180 kind of the the g league for the nfl yeah and and the rest of the and by the way many of the athletes

00:16:45.120 make more money playing in college now than they do if they get drafted yeah if they're not a top

00:16:50.740 draft pick you actually can make more money and that's part of what people understand is a lot of

00:16:55.620 these athletes are staying around as you mentioned it like till they're 27 28 and playing five six

00:16:59.540 seven years and transferring all the time they're making more money than going pro because the cash

00:17:05.020 is so big to play in college now that they're like, why would I go to the pros unless I'm a

00:17:10.200 top 10 draft pick? After that, the economics of it say stay in college longer. And listen,

00:17:16.400 I don't begrudge the athletes making money. And I think it's important. I think it's fair that

00:17:20.360 they make money, that they be fairly compensated. And this bill that we drafted does that.

00:17:25.520 But the system is broken. What is happening is there's a bidding war where the vast majority

00:17:30.580 of schools right now are losing millions and in some cases tens of millions of dollars on sports

00:17:36.100 and and it's why they're canceling all the other programs because they're just pouring money into

00:17:40.380 football trying to stay competitive and you've got these schools that that that are very rich

00:17:45.600 institutions that have big alumni donor bases that can fund that constant arms race but but

00:17:51.740 everyone else is losing so for example let's take you're in my home state of texas if the system

00:17:57.900 continues on the path it's on, there are only two schools that I am certain would survive,

00:18:02.140 University of Texas and Texas A&M. They have a big enough donor base that no matter what happens,

00:18:06.800 those two survive. But if we're sitting here three, five years from now and the other schools,

00:18:12.160 University of Houston, Baylor, TCU, SMU, Texas Tech, Rice, if the other college programs in

00:18:19.060 Texas go under, that's terrible for Texas. It's terrible for athletes. It's terrible for the sport.

00:18:24.660 But let me be clear. This is not a done deal by any means. We still have a long road to go.

00:18:30.500 We introduced the bill this week, which shocked people. They didn't think we could get a bipartisan

00:18:34.800 bill. And we introduced it with two Republican senators, two Democrat senators. So Maria

00:18:39.420 Cantwell and I introduced it. We were joined by Eric Schmidt, Republican from Missouri,

00:18:43.880 and Chris Coons, Democrat from Delaware. So four of us introduced it. We're going to have next week,

00:18:49.320 I'm going to chair a hearing on the bill, and we're going to hear from witnesses about what's

00:18:53.080 happening in college sports. And then my intention is very shortly thereafter that to mark up the

00:18:58.440 bill, hopefully to vote it out of committee. But for this bill to pass, we've got to get at least

00:19:03.220 seven Democrats. We've got to get to 60 senators. And my goal is to get a lot more than 60, to have

00:19:08.040 a big bipartisan vote. But we've got to get it out of the Senate and then move it over to the House

00:19:13.020 and have the House pass it. And so the bill is designed to, number one, to find common ground

00:19:20.880 and build a broad coalition.

00:19:22.420 So what does it do?

00:19:23.080 It starts out by protecting athletes

00:19:24.920 and their right to be compensated.

00:19:27.100 And listen, the old system that was around

00:19:28.980 for a long, long time,

00:19:30.320 athletes could not get any compensation.

00:19:32.660 And it was really unfair.

00:19:33.940 It didn't make sense.

00:19:34.860 Lots of people were getting rich off college athletics,

00:19:37.760 everyone except the athletes.

00:19:39.300 And I think as a conservative,

00:19:41.600 I think you ought to have a right

00:19:43.100 to enjoy the fruits of your labor,

00:19:44.580 that if you work hard, you develop a skill,

00:19:47.140 you ought to be able to benefit from it.

00:19:48.840 I've said this on this show before.

00:19:50.360 student athletes were before we had nil they were modern day slaves that you could be lied to by a

00:19:56.460 coach you signed with that university they owned you and if you wanted to transfer and they didn't

00:20:01.420 give you a release they then made you sit out for a year which made you completely irrelevant because

00:20:06.760 a younger person would come along and they'd been playing and they had stats and you weren't on the

00:20:10.780 sidelines you you had to fix that and and that's what the nil did is that it was like okay we're

00:20:17.140 going to give some freedom. But then, as you mentioned, should you be able to, as a student

00:20:20.800 athlete, transfer every single year? You lose the team aspect of sports as well.

00:20:27.520 Well, so what this bill does, it protects, number one, the right of every athlete to get compensated

00:20:33.560 for real NIL, for name, image, and likeness. So if a quarterback is selling tennis shoes,

00:20:38.440 and if that quarterback can sell millions of tennis shoes, that quarterback should be

00:20:42.240 compensated millions of dollars. If you're producing that value, those contracts should

00:20:46.760 be fully honored. This bill protects that. It also protects the rights of athletes to participate in

00:20:52.080 revenue sharing. And there was a big litigation over college sports and a settlement that agreed

00:20:57.560 to a revenue sharing agreement so that universities now can pass on significant portions of the

00:21:04.300 revenue that is being earned to the athletes. And so that's protected. But what it doesn't allow

00:21:10.020 is fake NIL deals.

00:21:11.920 What it doesn't allow is a booster

00:21:13.660 handing a bag of cash to an athlete

00:21:16.480 in a dark alley

00:21:17.840 just to get that athlete to play at their school. 0.56

00:21:21.260 And so it draws a line between real NIL

00:21:23.740 and just fake boosters trying to game the system.

00:21:27.600 What else does it do?

00:21:28.720 You mentioned transfers.

00:21:30.860 By the way, to be clear,

00:21:31.880 what you just described,

00:21:32.760 there's a lot of that happening.

00:21:33.940 And that's the dark world of sports

00:21:38.080 that I don't think people understand

00:21:39.440 until they actually see it i i tell the story i i had a buddy of mine who played football and his

00:21:46.100 mom traveled every game and his brothers came to every game and i knew their financial situation

00:21:50.980 i just asked him and we were friends like how does it work he was like you want to see how it

00:21:54.700 works like yeah he goes watch he goes after the game saturday walk with me afterwards meet me at

00:22:00.720 the lockers and i'll show you how it works and and i don't blame him i want to be clear this is

00:22:06.220 how it worked at every SC school in the country you had a bag he had his bag and it was his

00:22:12.120 locker room bag and it was about you know this big and you throw your sneakers stuff in there

00:22:16.100 he would walk into a booster's tent put that bag down the corner we'd eat a little food we'd leave

00:22:21.860 he'd pick the bag up and there was cash in the bag he was in knew which booster to go to next

00:22:26.840 they were told the boosters to go to and they would go to the next booster they put a little

00:22:31.360 cash in that bag same thing and work it and then we went back to the to the dorm room and we're

00:22:35.860 counting cash. He's like, yeah, this is going to get my mom's plane ticket, my brother's plane

00:22:40.700 ticket, my grandmother's plane ticket. Otherwise, they'll never see me play a game. It covers their

00:22:45.100 hotels and their meals. And that's how the system works. So like cleaning that up is great. And but

00:22:50.480 it's still happening. As you describe it, there's still bags of money coming in dark alleys.

00:22:54.620 And by the way, one of the things this bill protects explicitly is the ability of programs

00:22:59.420 to cover travel expenses for the family of players. So that's something that is explicitly

00:23:04.360 allowed under the bill and carved out as legitimate. This bill also ratchets up health

00:23:10.600 and safety standards for student athletes, and it puts in place rules that you can't just ignore

00:23:16.000 a concussion. You've got to have health and safety standards. It requires far more extensive

00:23:20.800 health insurance for student athletes than you have right now, including five years of health

00:23:25.880 insurance after playing for injuries or disease from things that occurred while playing.

00:23:31.980 Thank you, because the day you leave, I say this because I witnessed it.

00:23:36.500 The day you leave, I blew up my shoulder.

00:23:39.140 It would have been within the five years.

00:23:41.100 It was clearly damage done during my time playing.

00:23:44.740 All of that is on me.

00:23:46.400 All the deductible, all the rehab.

00:23:48.560 If you don't have great insurance, it's on you.

00:23:50.520 My buddies that played that had herniated discs, they had back surgeries afterwards.

00:23:55.500 They missed work.

00:23:56.940 And then you talk about the brain injuries of athletes and the concussion.

00:24:00.580 that they knew and there was a clear decision made in college sports that we can use up your

00:24:07.320 body and duct tape it to success and as soon as you either graduated or were off scholarship or

00:24:14.260 walked out of that locker room for the last time we had zero liability so i i mean this when i say

00:24:19.460 thank you because that may be the most important thing you guys put in there five years is adequate

00:24:24.220 because i i know my shoulder surgery the rehab and everything else out of my own pocket that was on

00:24:29.580 me. And there's a lot of players that have to deal with that. It's unfair. Yeah. And look,

00:24:33.480 something like your shoulder injury, this mandates zero out-of-pocket expense for the

00:24:37.800 athlete for those five years, that it has to be covered by the insurance with no out-of-pocket

00:24:42.220 expense. It also creates a $60 million medical trust fund so that institutions that don't have

00:24:47.860 the resources to provide that insurance, institutions like historically black colleges

00:24:54.180 and universities, that trust fund is there paid for by the giant schools that are generating a

00:24:58.960 lot of money, and so it improves the standards, and it also has protections for scholarships,

00:25:05.400 academic protection, so a coach can't say to a player, you can't take that course, a coach can't

00:25:10.340 make a player not be able to go to class. There are lots of protections that are written in for

00:25:15.440 the athletes, but then the system, you mentioned the transfer portal. What the bill provides is

00:25:21.160 that every athlete is entitled to one free transfer, so you can transfer anytime, no questions asked.

00:25:26.200 for a second transfer it lays out specific reasons so number one if your coach quits if your coach

00:25:31.980 quits you can transfer somewhere else number two if your program is canceled well if your program

00:25:37.240 is canceled you can transfer somewhere else if you want to play in another school or number three

00:25:41.520 if you're a victim of sexual assault or sexual harassment those exceptions are carved out you

00:25:46.460 can have a second transfer but other than those exceptions if you transfer a second time you're

00:25:52.640 required a red shirt for a year. You're required to sit out for a year because look, my approach

00:25:58.300 focusing on this bill is I didn't spend a lot of time worrying about the superstars. I didn't spend

00:26:04.020 a lot of time worrying about the Michael Jordans or the Arch Mannings. You know, there are people

00:26:10.400 that are going to make millions in the NBA, the NFL, and they're going to be fine. But 99% of

00:26:15.580 college athletes are like you, Ben. They're folks who played in college, but never played in the

00:26:20.900 NFL, the NBA, 99% of the athletes in college are never going to play pro ball of any kind.

00:26:25.880 And my focus was on those guys, that I want them to be able to get an opportunity to get an

00:26:32.420 education. And for millions of low-income kids, many African-American or Hispanic, without

00:26:38.700 athletics, they would not have the chance. They wouldn't be able to afford college and to get an

00:26:43.420 education, to get a degree, but also to learn everything you get from sports, hard work,

00:26:49.120 discipline teamwork sportsmanship all of that can can help set them up for success in life

00:26:55.620 even if they don't earn a paycheck as a professional athlete and so look for for an

00:27:01.300 athlete if you end up going to four or five schools in in four or five years you're not

00:27:06.500 getting a good education you're just going from one school to the other and playing and playing

00:27:10.260 and playing at the end of your time you're done you're not a student athlete anymore you're an

00:27:14.500 athlete. You're an athlete that's getting traded from one team to another. So the transfer portal

00:27:19.280 reform is really important. And eligibility, we put in clear rules that every athlete's entitled

00:27:24.880 to five years of eligibility and a hard cap of age 24 is the oldest you can be. I love that rule.

00:27:32.180 You know, we're not going to have 27, 28-year-old guys. It's not fair for a 28-year-old guy to play

00:27:38.020 against an 18-year-old guy. There's just differences that make it not fair. My sports

00:27:43.240 brain's going insane right now i have a question what if you serve in the military is there a is

00:27:48.940 there a yes there is there is an exception for the military explicitly okay so if you're over 24 you

00:27:55.140 serve you come back you can play again all right i have another question you said it also specifies

00:27:59.760 pros can't go uh go in and play college sports i gotta admit i was joking with with charlie baker

00:28:06.400 who's the head of the NCAA, I said, I said, Charlie, I, for one, am really looking forward

00:28:13.180 to seeing LeBron James's college career. Because right now in the current system, he never played

00:28:17.940 in college. He could go back. Could you imagine being a 17 year old kid, a freshman in college

00:28:22.080 and discover that you're guarding LeBron James? Canadian women are looking for more, 1.00

00:28:28.560 more of themselves, their businesses, their elected leaders, and the world around them. 0.89

00:28:32.560 And that's why we're thrilled to introduce the Honest Talk podcast.

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00:29:24.960 I Heart Radio.

00:29:28.820 Senator, I want to get back into this.

00:29:30.180 You mentioned something I want to clarify.

00:29:32.280 You said that you get two transfers.

00:29:33.860 This is the first time in my life I've ever wanted to be a witness in anything in government

00:29:37.020 and the Senate or the House.

00:29:39.220 As a witness, I would ask this question to the body, so I'll ask it to you.

00:29:43.940 If I go to a school freshman year and the coach recruits me, he quits, disappears, leaves,

00:29:49.940 whatever, I get to transfer.

00:29:51.820 What if I go to another school and then that coach takes another job?

00:29:55.160 Do I get another transfer?

00:29:56.600 Yes.

00:29:56.760 Anytime your coach quits, it's not fair to you to punish you.

00:30:00.180 If you were recruited for a coach and the coach leaves.

00:30:01.840 Okay, so it's not just a minimum of one.

00:30:02.700 It's unlimited there.

00:30:03.600 Right, right.

00:30:04.180 In that exception, because that's a legitimate reason to leave.

00:30:07.400 And that's not going to happen as a widespread matter.

00:30:09.500 That's not going to lead to, you know, every starting basketball player being recruited away at the end of every season from a team, which is what we're seeing sometimes now.

00:30:18.920 Yeah.

00:30:19.240 Oh, no.

00:30:19.600 I mean, I laugh.

00:30:20.600 There's football teams now where there was like zero members from the prior year on the football team.

00:30:24.580 Yeah.

00:30:24.740 And that's a football team, which is huge.

00:30:27.100 So who is against this legislation, and where's the pushback coming from?

00:30:32.840 Well, I have to say, so we introduced it this week, and there's been surprisingly little pushback.

00:30:37.480 It has been very well received.

00:30:38.960 As I said, people were astonished that we could get there.

00:30:41.800 Things are so broken down and partisan that they just believe there was no way Democrats and Republicans could come together. 0.99

00:30:48.080 I mean, Coons, let's be clear, pretty liberal guy. 0.99

00:30:50.280 Like, you and him, y'all are not usually one-on-one like this. 1.00

00:30:53.020 Well, actually, Chris and I work on a number of things together. Maria Cantwell is my lead partner on this. She's the ranking member on commerce. And we literally have been negotiating for the last month. We've been spending six to eight hours a day in a room negotiating directly provision by provision. It has been painstaking.

00:31:10.720 And we had to reach middle grounds where there are provisions in there that don't go as far as I would like, but don't go as far as she would like.

00:31:18.200 And that's how you have to get there.

00:31:20.260 But our opposition is coming from two places.

00:31:23.380 Number one, the extreme far left, and number two, big money.

00:31:27.240 And let me break that down.

00:31:28.360 The extreme far left, to date, only one senator out of 100 has publicly criticized that.

00:31:33.760 That's Chris Murphy, the very liberal senator from Connecticut, who's blasted this.

00:31:38.380 says this doesn't do enough for athletes and it just helps millionaires. And it's,

00:31:43.180 look, the far left is listening to union bosses and trial lawyers that want a system

00:31:51.620 where number one, they're constant lawsuits. Every university is being sued nonstop. Every

00:31:56.980 conference being sued nonstop. Every league is being sued nonstop. And number two, every student

00:32:03.900 athlete is an employee. They're unionized. They're union members. They're paying union dues. Those

00:32:08.320 junior dues are going to fund Democrat candidates. Both of those are terrible outcomes for college

00:32:14.260 sports. And a whole lot of the programs, the historically black colleges and universities

00:32:18.760 have said if that happens, they'll shut down their entire athletic department. I mean, that's the

00:32:22.960 consequence. That would end up taking away athletic opportunity for over time, millions of kids. So

00:32:30.340 that's a terrible outcome. But that's one area of pushback is the very far left. The other area

00:32:35.840 pushback is big money. And, you know, I mentioned that we're on a path to consolidation in 30 to 50

00:32:41.900 schools. In college football, there are two conferences that account for more than two

00:32:47.040 thirds of the revenue, and that is the SEC and the Big Ten. That's where the eyeballs are. They

00:32:52.480 generate massive revenue because, look, that's where most of the best football in America is

00:32:57.140 being played is the SEC and Big Ten. Not exclusively, but very heavily, those two conferences.

00:33:02.540 There has been a lot of talk in those two conferences about merging and forming a Super League.

00:33:09.680 Now, I think that would be a terrible outcome.

00:33:11.620 You'd end up with the rich getting richer, but all of the rest of college sports would be left behind.

00:33:16.660 It would basically transform the other schools into essentially high school.

00:33:21.640 I would describe it as Division II.

00:33:23.120 You wouldn't be able to compete at the same level.

00:33:24.840 You wouldn't have the same quality players.

00:33:27.240 Anybody that cared about football and wanted to play at the highest level and play for a national championship

00:33:31.080 would go to the super conference, right?

00:33:32.680 Like right now, you want to go to the SEC,

00:33:34.620 and if you're from the North, Northeast,

00:33:35.880 you may want to go in other schools.

00:33:37.640 But in general, that's the holy grail.

00:33:39.860 You do what you just described

00:33:41.180 and have them two come together. 0.97

00:33:42.700 Every other school in America is a loser now. 0.91

00:33:44.800 And by the way, it's even worse than that

00:33:46.880 because they lose essentially all of their TV revenue,

00:33:49.520 which funds the rest of their athletic department.

00:33:51.680 So the other schools cancel all the non-revenue torts.

00:33:54.560 They slash athletics altogether.

00:33:56.320 They eliminate scholarships.

00:33:57.440 So you end up with millions of kids over time

00:34:00.320 not being able to go to school to play sports, and it's not just those kids, because an awful

00:34:07.960 lot of eyeballs, people learn about a school by watching March Madness, by watching sports,

00:34:13.440 and they end up applying to the school, and, you know, a Gonzaga, you know, I mean, and they end

00:34:20.280 up, it drives, when your school does well in athletics, your applications soar, your donations

00:34:25.160 from alumni sore. And so you end up badly damaging a bunch of schools, not just in sports, but

00:34:30.700 altogether and hurting universities. So what does this bill do? Number one, it explicitly prohibits

00:34:37.000 a Super League. It prohibits the Big Ten and the SEC from combining. It just says, no,

00:34:41.900 that's bad for sports. It's bad for athletes. It's bad for football. That is prohibited. Now,

00:34:46.920 you know what? The leadership of the SEC in particular is not happy about prohibiting a

00:34:51.900 Super League. But secondly, so the way I looked at this problem, there are two elements. There's

00:34:57.880 a cost element and a revenue element. On the cost side, you want to slow down the out-of-control

00:35:02.800 spiraling that is bankrupting most of the programs so that the programs can stay vibrant and kids can

00:35:08.180 keep having these opportunities. But on the revenue side, we looked hard for how do we grow the

00:35:13.580 revenue that is available to fund college sports. And what we do is we allow colleges to join

00:35:19.260 together and negotiate for media rights jointly, that I believe will significantly increase the

00:35:26.220 revenue. So for example, the number one source of eyeballs and revenue in TV is the NFL. It's

00:35:32.460 massive. The number two is college football. And yet amazingly, even though a lot more people

00:35:37.700 watch college football than the NBA, the NBA makes billions more in its media contracts. And there's

00:35:44.500 a reason. The NBA negotiates as one unit. You don't have the Houston Rockets negotiating against

00:35:49.920 the Knicks and fighting each other, and yet in college conferences, that's what you have.

00:35:54.340 So this allows conferences to come together. It's voluntary, so no one's forced to come together.

00:35:59.000 Yeah, no one's forced to.

00:36:00.060 But it lets them come together and negotiate jointly for media rights. I believe that would

00:36:05.720 expand by billions of dollars, the money coming in, which means that there's more money for the

00:36:11.460 other sports. And we write in that if you do this, if you get joint media rights, you must maintain

00:36:17.500 every single roster spot and every single scholarship spot for women's and men's sports,

00:36:22.880 for Olympic sports, for track and field, for tennis, for all the non-revenue sports. You got

00:36:28.000 to maintain them if you're getting a lot more money through football. And so it's designed to

00:36:32.080 be a win-win for everyone. But look, the leadership of the SEC has said that they're not interested.

00:36:39.320 And look, Greg Sankey, I know well, Tony Petitti, who leads the Big Ten, I know him well.

00:36:44.460 I've talked to both of them, and I've said, listen, this is voluntary.

00:36:47.420 It only works if you guys choose to participate.

00:36:50.240 That means the other schools have to offer you a good enough deal that y'all are making a lot more money, and so are they.

00:36:56.380 That is a win-win for everyone.

00:36:58.620 That's the outcome I hope we see, because I want to see college sports continue to be an amazing thing for athletes, for students,

00:37:06.680 continue to be an amazing thing for universities.

00:37:09.320 And a great thing for fans.

00:37:10.800 Look, it is an awesome thing to cheer on your school.

00:37:13.840 And you asked about the Lane Kiffin rule.

00:37:15.740 It provides that coaches cannot be hired away during the season or during the playoffs.

00:37:21.380 We adopt the same rule as the NFL, which is you've got to wait until the offseason.

00:37:25.960 Because it's not fair to do what happened to the fans of Ole Miss to take their coach right going into the playoffs.

00:37:31.720 That's just wrong.

00:37:32.500 I love it.

00:37:33.140 Don't forget we do this show as a podcast three days a week.

00:37:35.640 It is Verdict with Ted Cruz.

00:37:37.100 Download it wherever you can.

00:37:37.980 and we'll see you back here on this radio station as well next week.

00:38:07.980 it for free have a great day

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Verdict with Ted Cruz - May 29, 2026

Saving College Sports—Landmark New Legislation that’s a Massive Win for Athletes, Colleges & Fans

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