Nebraska LOSES to the CSC in Arbitration: Why Husker players will still get paid

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]We got to talk business now.

[00:00:05]The College Sports Commission. That's the thing that got created by the House settlement. It's supposed to enforce the the quote-unquote salary cap.

[00:00:16]And basically that what how that works is schools are allowed to pay a certain amount to their athletes, currently $21.3 million a year.

[00:00:24]Beyond that, you have to have deals approved through the CSC. Nebraska had some deals rejected for 18 of his football players.

[00:00:32]So, this is a according to the CSC documentation, $7.5 million worth of of deals across 18 football players.

[00:00:41]These deals got rejected. Nebraska took the CSC to arbitration because they can't sue because Nebraska is a party to the House settlement. The players are a party to the House settlement. So, uh they have both by opting into the House settlement waived their right to sue. They have to settle things through arbitration.

[00:01:01]The CSC won. Now, Ari, I was here at ACC spring meetings last night. Brian Seely, the CEO of the CSC, was here. And I thought it was very interesting because I was a little surprised that the CSC won, but I was more surprised by his reaction to it and his response because I'm so used to the NCAA.

[00:01:25]And when they issue an enforcement thing or infractions thing, they really kind of spike the football and and they make it sound like the people doing this are criminals. And he was not like that at all. He basically was was saying, "Oh, no, Nebraska did nothing wrong. The players did nothing wrong. All they have to do is rewrite the deals and and resubmit them, and they probably will get paid."

[00:01:49]That more or less is what he said.

[00:01:51]And I found that very interesting because that is not normally how these things have gone in college sports. But, this is a different era, this is a different time.

[00:02:01]Now, if you're Nebraska, $7.5 million. You got to make sure these guys get paid.

[00:02:07]You got to make sure these guys get paid.

[00:02:11]So, if they don't get these deals cleared, that's when things go nuclear.

[00:02:19]And I I asked Brian Seeley from the CSA, is he worried about Nebraska's attorney general suing in court in Nebraska over this because the second one of these attorney generals sues, it's over.

[00:02:37]Because the the revenue cap, the the CSC, the all this, anything that that is a bunch of competitors getting together to limit what other people can get paid, illegal.

[00:02:49]Is it illegal in this country? It's illegal in the in the in federal law, it's illegal in most states, it's illegal.

[00:02:58]And they know this. And so, Well, do you have a of what Nebraska needs to rewrite or where they went wrong?

[00:03:08]Yes, I've talked to people there and they basically they did 18 deals for 18, so one deal per player, where they basically said, "I'm selling my NIL rights to this company, PlayFly."

[00:03:20]PlayFly is the multimedia rights partner for Nebraska. They work with a bunch of different schools. Uh I believe they work with LSU as well. Uh PlayFly is one big one, Learfield is the other big one that covers almost all of the schools in in the power conferences. Uh and both of those companies, like what they used to do, the way the company those companies used to work back before players getting paid, is they would pay a school like a set amount, and then they would go sell sponsorships for the school, and they would, you know, take a profit off that and whatever they sold above the amount they paid the school.

[00:03:55]Since players have been allowed to get paid, the the relationship has evolved and these companies now essentially act as pass-throughs. They still do the sponsorship stuff, but they act as pass-throughs for NIL deals that are, you know, third-party deals that are not directly from the school.

[00:04:12]And so, basically what Nebraska needs to do is rewrite this into 50 you know, if it's a million dollars worth, you rewrite that into 50 $20,000 deals.

[00:04:25]Seven and a half I'm bad at math, but that that'd be a lot if you're breaking it up 20,000 at a time, but you you kind of have to do that. And it is basically we will pay and we will put this through as long as you do the paperwork properly. And look, there's nothing these people in higher education love more than bureaucracy and paperwork.

[00:04:44]It's their favorite thing in the whole world. They love paying middlemen when they don't need to and that's what this is because Have you ever been caught in the rain without a jacket at a game, at a tailgate, on the sideline, walking to the car? You already know the problem and I'm telling you right now, Oxford, Mississippi, Georgia will miss 2024. I was getting poured on. Didn't have a rain jacket cuz I thought, "Oh, it's too bulky to bring." I don't have to worry about that now because I have the Bear Skin Heavy Storm Rain Jacket. It packs into its own pocket. You can stash in your truck, throw it in your bag, keep it in your glove box. It is always with you. It weighs almost nothing and the second the sky opens up, you pull it out and you are covered. We're talking 20,000 mm waterproof. That is expedition grade. Not a flimsy poncho, a real tape seam sealed zipper rain jacket that can handle sustained downpours. It's completely PF PFAS free. No forever chemicals, which is more than most outdoor brands can say.

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[00:06:41]We could like you come to On3 and you read about these you know, $40 million dollar rosters, and you probably ask yourself, okay, if there's a cap, how are they allowed to do that?

[00:06:52]Well, there really isn't a cap.

[00:06:54]They're going to put this through.

[00:06:56]And you know why they're going to put this through?

[00:06:58]Because the people who get paid to be part of the CSC don't have jobs if they don't put like if they do not put the Nebraska players deals through.

[00:07:06]If if Nebraska players miss even a penny of what they're supposed to get paid, Nebraska's attorney general is going to sue, and the CSC is going to explode. That will be the end of it.

[00:07:19]I don't understand why it exists, or why we're doing any of this, and I hope we don't have to keep talking about this over and over and over again moving forward, because they're never going to decline a deal.

[00:07:29]>> We will we will talk about it over and over and over again until the schools figure out, well, they're hoping to get a a law passed through Congress, which is not going to happen.

[00:07:41]Once they figure out that's not going to happen, perhaps they'll then finally realize there is only one way to have a salary cap.

[00:07:49]And it is a collective bargaining agreement. And if you have a collective bargaining agreement, you can have a salary cap, you can have eligibility rules, transfer rules, whatever you want.

[00:07:58]But both sides have to agree to it.

[00:08:01]And they would. They would cuz I've had people say, "Well, why would the players agree to anything?"

[00:08:06]Because there's always a number.

[00:08:08]There is always a number that you will agree to agree to.

[00:08:12]Yeah. It just like I kind of feels like we're walking through a maze and the end of the maze is where you started. To me.

[00:08:23]It is the people at the schools refuse to acknowledge. And this is not all of them. You've seen coaches do that. Like even Dabo Swinney did this. Dabo Swinney, who was as anti-paying players as anybody ever was, turned around this January and said, "Okay, fine.

[00:08:41]Make them employees. Let's get a CBA done and let's have some rules."

[00:08:46]This >> There are plenty of coaches and athletic directors who who who who are who are feeling that way. It's getting the the abs you know, the school presidents and and the people who make the absolute final decisions on board.

[00:08:59]This specific thing that we're talking about with Nebraska and the CSC feels like we are jumping through a bunch of unnecessary hoops and going the long way to the same destination and the destination is the starting line.

[00:09:11]Correct. Yeah. Correct. But they but they just the the people in charge of the sport keep refusing to deal with reality on reality's terms. I The day's coming where they're going to have to.

[00:09:24]And I said this when the CSC was formed, when the House settlement got approved. Like there were certain schools you cannot mess with. If you're the CSC, you you should just avoid these schools and and pick on somebody else.

[00:09:39]I came up with a final list this morning just to make sure I had it right.

[00:09:43]It's Tennessee, Tennessee number one, yeah. West Virginia, Yeah.

[00:09:49]Missouri, and the fifth one, which is another one along with Tennessee that you absolutely should never touch, is Nebraska. Yeah. Here's why. If you're the attorney general in Nebraska, 100% of the voters will be behind you if you go after the CSC for for trying to take money away from Nebraska players.

[00:10:10]100%. There are so few issues in this politically divided world where 100% of your electorate will be behind you.

[00:10:18]So, of course they're going to do that if they need to.

[00:10:27]It's I honestly like I don't want to diminish I enjoyed your column today. This is just nonsense. This whole thing is just nonsense.

[00:10:37]But, we have to keep bringing it up because these guys keep coming up with newer and different ways to bang their heads against the same brick wall. Yes.

[00:10:43]No, I'm not saying that we shouldn't be talking about it. I'm sure fans are interested in it. But, like when you really break down what's happening here, it really is like walking 4 mi when you can only when you could just walk 10 ft in order to get to the same place.

[00:10:58]Yeah. And and and the the reason we have we keep talking about it is you know, cuz fans keep hearing different things. They hear ADs and they hear school presidents and conference commissioners say, "Well, we have these rules now. We have a revenue share cap."

[00:11:14]And then they see stories from us going, "Oh, rosters are $40 million this year.

[00:11:20]They're going to be $50 million next year." And they're like, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. How but how?"

[00:11:25]Well, this is how.

[00:11:26]This is how. They're they're not really they don't care that much about it. They just want to try to restrict the players' earnings as much as they can. And as soon as they realize that that's illegal, and they'll just need to negotiate with the players, they'll be in a better place. It'll be easier.

[00:11:47]It'll be easier than this, I promise.

[00:11:50]But and I also >> a bunch of people who've been making a lot of money that want to keep making a lot of money. And then and so they're going to fight it every step of the way.

[00:11:57]Yeah.

[00:11:58]But I I wonder too if all these committees and think think tanks and lawsuits and lawyer fees and designs of new committees and all this all the money that they spend on that.

[00:12:11]Like I wonder if just like admitting that it's over and talking to players and negotiating with them would actually be cheaper in the long run than playing a It would be. fighting a losing battle that you have no shot of winning and making it annoying for everybody in the process.

[00:12:27]Yeah. As uh as my my college football enquirer co-host Steven Godfrey said on Tuesday's episode, for the amount of money spent just with this Nebraska case between the CSC and Nebraska and uh all of the legal wrangling that's going on, you could have funded a college tennis program.

[00:12:51]>> [snorts] >> Like you know, Arkansas cut the men's and women's programs last week and that was a you know, people are like, "Oh, this is a sign that football players get paid and these programs get cut." Well, you didn't care about those programs anyway, first of all. But second of all, they're wasting money on stuff like this that could pay for stuff like that.

[00:13:08]Yeah. It's just how they choose to waste their money. Yeah.

[00:13:12]Congratulations to every Nebraska football player that will be paid in full with what they were promised they were going to be paid though. Yep.

[00:13:18]Gentlemen, you're going to get paid.

[00:13:21]I feel very confident in saying you're going to get paid one way or another.

[00:13:26]You're getting that money. So, >> Mike, Mike Ermantrout >> Congratulations to you.

[00:13:29]will be made whole.

[00:13:32]>> [laughter] [snorts] >> Exactly. Exactly.