Ted Cruz Wants To BAN The Next Lane Kiffin Move

Added: 2026-06-01

[00:00:00]Trey Wallace here, alkick.com with a special edition of the pulse. Today we are joined by Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. And yes, we are going to discuss the Protect College Sports Act uh that was introduced this week. Senator, how are you? How have things been since you first introduced this? I know you've been working on it for a long time.

[00:00:21]>> Trey, it's great to be with you. Thank you for having me. Uh you know, I'll tell you the reaction has been incredibly positive. It's been three years that I've been been working on this bill and and trying very hard uh to bring Democrats and Republicans together. To have any bill that will pass, we've got to be able to get at least 60 votes in the Senate, which means we need both Democrats and Republicans to find common ground. Uh and this week, we introduced this bill.

[00:00:45]I negotiated it principally with Maria Canwell, uh Democrat from Washington State. I I'm the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over about 40% of the US economy, including all of sports. And and Maria is the senior Democrat, the ranking member on the Commerce Committee. And so where the two of us for the last month, we've been sitting in a room 68 hours a day negotiating provision by provision. We introduced it also along with Eric Schmidt, Republican from Missouri, and Chris Coons, Democrat from Delaware. So we've got two Democrats on board. I think we will see many others come on board. That is my hope. And and the reason we introduced it is is that that college sports is is is an incredible institution in America.

[00:01:32]Uh it is something that brings us together. It is something that has provided opportunity for millions of young men and women to get an education, to get life skills, to get training, to be set up for success. And it is in crisis right now. I I think if Congress doesn't act, we're going to see comp continued chaos and continued devastation.

[00:01:52]The transfer portal is out of out of control. You see athletes going to three, four, five institutions, one after the other after the other.

[00:02:00]Eligibility standards are basically non-existence. You see people six, seven years playing in college sports. You you see players who are 27, 28 years old playing. You see former pros playing college sports. And and what is happening is there's a cost spiral that is out of control and almost every college athletic program in the country is losing millions and in many instances tens of millions of dollars. And so as a result, every week we see a different program being cut, women's sports being cut, track and field being cut, Olympic sports being cut, tennis being cut, and and if we don't act, I think we're going to see college sports utterly devastated. So, this bill I is designed to try to save college sports and bring order back to the chaos.

[00:02:47]>> Senator, I was in Destin, Florida this week covering SEC spring meetings >> and something that that stood out to me in listening to Greg Sanki speak who I I I know you have a relationship with and had conversation with about um something sparked in my head and I'm curious your thoughts here. How do you build agreement with this legislation amongst all conferences, but specifically the Big 10 and the SEC as well?

[00:03:20]>> Yep.

[00:03:20]>> To know that >> the health of college athletics is at stake here moving forward. I'm a University of South Alabama graduate, Sunb Belt Conference. Yeah, >> I understand where we're at, but there seems to be a divided line between two conferences compared to others with with pooling media rights along with certain other things. But >> how do you personally and Senator Canwell and Schmidt and others, >> right? How do you build this thing up and and and and maybe assure them enough to make sure that we can get through this and we can actually do something to save college athletics and maybe try to come together on one or two, you know, disagreements here.

[00:04:02]>> Yeah. So, look, I I know Sanki well.

[00:04:05]Greg's a good man. He's a friend and and also Patiti at the Big 10 is is also a friend and I've worked closely with him for a long time. As I look at this problem, there are two halves to the problem.

[00:04:17]One half is the cost side, the other half is the revenue side. On the cost side, everyone including Sanki and Petiti agree with me and agree with what this bill is trying to do, which is the cost is getting out of control. And by the way, it's it's not just the conferences outside the SEC and Big 10.

[00:04:34]A couple of weeks ago, Arkansas canceled men's and women's tennis. Uh now, they're in the SEC, but but they they didn't have the money to survive. Now, fortunately, a booster stepped in and saved their tennis program, but it illustrates that dynamic is hitting almost everybody. And and so we put in this bill the protections that Sanki and Petiti really wanted to see that let college sports continue and thrive and be vibrant. So, I think that part of the bill I believe they're very, very happy with. Now, the other part of the bill is the revenue side. And there are two things in there that that they don't like. one, we explicitly prohibit a s super league. There's been a lot of discussion of the SEC and the Big 10 merging. This bill says they can't merge. Um, I think that'd be a disaster.

[00:05:21]If if you saw a super league, you'd have a league, if the two merge, maybe 30 to 50 teams that become basically a mini NFL, and it would destroy every other football team in the country. They'd basically become high school teams without TV revenue and and without any real competitive uh national competitiveness on the national level.

[00:05:44]That would be disastrous for sports. I think that's bad for the sport. Now, now look, they disagree on the pooling the revenue.

[00:05:54]They also disagree with this. But here here's the most important thing on on pooling media rights. It is entirely voluntary. The way it is written is it says colleges can if they so choose come together and bargain collectively for media rights with pulled media rights. I believe if they did so they would get billions of dollars more. If if you look at dollars in in sports, you know, the 800 lb gorilla is the NFL. It has the most eyeballs and it and it gets the most money. The second most viewed sport is college football. And yet, even though college football has many more eyeballs, college football collectively generates a lot less money than the NBA does. And and one of the big reasons is the NBA negotiates as a unit. You don't have the Rockets negotiating against the Knicks. The NBA sells rights for for the whole product. You know, imagine if the NFL if you had the NFC and the AFC negotiating against each other. No, you the NFL does it as a unit. I think the same thing for college sports. You would end up with a lot more revenue for college football. Now, now listen, what I've told Sanki Patitz, I said it's voluntary and it's not complicated. You guys get over 2/3 of the eyeballs and produce over twothirds of the revenue.

[00:07:09]This will only work if the other schools come to you and cut a deal that is a win-win that generates more money for you. You don't have to do it. You have the ability to say no. and and and so I don't understand the argument that it's somehow a bad thing for Congress to create an avenue that gives them the choice to expand their revenue other than they'd like to form a super league.

[00:07:33]And I I got to tell you, I think all of Congress is united against a super league. I think that'd be a very bad outcome. If you take that off the table, pulling media rights is a win-win for everybody. Do but do are you in agreement or disagreement of this that it is the job of Greg Seni and Tony Patiti to look out in the best interest of Big 10 presidents and chancellors along with Greg Sanki when it comes to presidents and chancellors of their conference. So when we talk about pooling media rights, um were probably the better part is were you expecting the push back when it came from the media rights because they have to look out for their own in a time where if we're being honest, the future of college athletics is so up in the air because of the money we've spent.

[00:08:20]>> Yeah. Look, I I understand it. I actually sat down with Sanki and Petiti the week before we introduced the bill.

[00:08:25]So I mean, I know them well. I've talked through it. I I knew they didn't like that aspect of it. Here's one reality, though.

[00:08:33]Maria Canwell was explicit. She does not join this bill if the media rights pooling isn't in there. So, I'll tell you, the SEC and Big 10 really want the cost controls. Well, you ain't going to get it without the other half. And and so, there's a choice. Look, and it's one of the real differences, say, between the House and the Senate. The House is designed, the majority can ram through its priorities and there's there's nothing the minority can do. That's just the way the House operates. The Senate, under the filibuster rules, you've got to get at least 60 votes. We only have 53 Republicans. That means we need at least seven Democrats. And and so as a result, the reason this negotiation was so painstaking is because Maria and I, we we sat in in rooms together for hours and hours on end, and we each made concessions.

[00:09:25]Neither one of us, it couldn't be a far-right bill or a far-left bill. We had to find common ground to solve the problem. And look, I'll tell you, I've met with many of the institutions in the SEC and in in the Big 10, and they desperately want to see Congress pass a bill stopping the out of control costs.

[00:09:44]They're facing that. And and so they may not like the pooling aspects, although I actually think the member institutions in the SEC and Big 10 like it a lot more than the commissioners do. That that there is a division there that that having had those conversations, that's just the reality.

[00:10:01]My view is, look, if pooling media rights produces a much bigger pie, where there's more revenue to go around for everyone, that's a win-win. And if it doesn't, you don't have to do it. So, we're not forcing you to do it. Um, I think at the end of the day, this bill is going to get a lot of support. I think we're going to get it passed into law. And and I got to say, I think we have a real urgency to do so because if we don't, we're going to see a a unique institution. No country on earth has something like what America has with college sports. And and I think we have a real responsibility to make sure that we don't don't see it destroyed.

[00:10:40]>> Yeah. Somebody that covers it, I completely agree that that that there is something special about it. Two more questions and I'll and I'll let you get out of here. Senator, um the perceived lane keen rule.

[00:10:50]>> Yeah. as as somebody that covered it uh when it was going down, it was fascinating to to watch in in person and in real time. I look at the bill and and maybe you can help clarify the situation. Um in the legislation, it it's talking about other schools cannot go after a head coach.

[00:11:12]>> Yeah.

[00:11:13]>> Um until seasons end.

[00:11:15]>> Yep.

[00:11:16]>> Two parts of this thing. If a school were to Penn State fired James Franklin last year and James Franklin was on the market for a number of months after the college football playoff was even in it before he took the Virginia Tech job.

[00:11:33]>> Right.

[00:11:33]>> Lane Keifin was a little bit different.

[00:11:35]He was at Old Miss and they were fighting for the CFP and they actually got in and he left. Is there any kind of wiggle rooms or amendments that you could see where schools can't really go because of the NCAA calendar by the way in the transfer portal and when it starts because the portal actually opens during the college football playoff. So I'm curious as into your thoughts here.

[00:12:01]How would they be able to get around being able to potentially go out, interview a coach, have that person in place while at the same time the transfer portal is already open?

[00:12:14]>> Yeah, look, I I think it's a very good question. And the way we wrote the the Lane Keifin rule and that was very much designed for what happened there um is to say that an institution cannot recruit or hire uh a coach, a head coach or an offensive coordinator or defensive coordinator during the season or during the playoffs. And and I think what happened there was just wrong. It was it was unfair to the student athletes to have their coach leave as they're heading into the playoffs and and to have their coach picked off by a rival made it even worse. And and so what we did is we adopted the same rule the NFL has. The NFL has a rule that look in the NFL you see people poaching coaches all the time, but you have to do it during the offseason. And I think that's a a fair and reasonable rule to say if you want to go do that, don't do it while the kids are playing and while they're in the middle of playing for the coach.

[00:13:03]Now, in terms of the timing with the transfer portal, the bill doesn't fix the timing of the transfer portal. So, I think that's something the NCAA could adjust, right?

[00:13:12]>> Uh, in in terms of the timing. What the bill does on the transfer portal, though, is is it fixes the problem of non-stop transfers and and the bill provides every athlete is entitled by right to one transfer. So, you get one free transfer wherever you like. For a second transfer, there's specified exception. So, if your head coach leaves, you can transfer. If your program is canled, you can transfer. or if you're a victim of sexual assault or sexual harassment, you can transfer.

[00:13:42]Other than that, if you transfer a second time, you can do it, but you have to red shirt a year. And and and we did that because I think it is bad for athletes, it's bad for schools, and it's bad for fans to have players going from school to school to school to school.

[00:13:57]That we need to have some continuity.

[00:13:59]That's better for education for the student athletes, it's better for the teams, and it's better for the sport.

[00:14:04]>> Just a quick followup to that. So, if schools, and I know this is going to continue, and there's going to be arguments about this, but we both know how agents work in the business where there's going to be back channel communications to see if a coach could end up at this spot, essentially how Lane Keifin ended up at LSU. Would that then fall on the federal government?

[00:14:26]>> No.

[00:14:26]>> To police that or would that fall on the NCAA or any type of legislation that that it is approved? So, so the authority to police this is the NCAA.

[00:14:36]And what what the the approach of this bill is to lay out clear rules and then give either the NCAA or conferences the authority to enforce those rules that Congress has laid out. So it so it would not be some government official doing it. We would have set the standard and and then and then the the conferences or the the NCAA would be enforcing them.

[00:14:58]Yeah, I think that part needed to be cleared up just from social media reactions that were a little stunned by it. Last question and I truly appreciate your time, Senator.

[00:15:06]>> College athletics right now and with the athletes and and you've named Arch Manning a couple of times in this. There are plenty of players out there that off their name, image, and likeness can make a lot of money in this game. There are concerns from those players that this legislation will hamper them when it comes to making money off third party NIL deals, >> but also through revshare through the schools. What do you say to that? That this could potentially harm the athletes and the money that they're making for the schools, by the way, uh, in the long term. Look, any any concerns like that are are are mistaken because this bill right at the front explicitly protects the rights of athletes to be compensated and to be fairly and well compensated.

[00:15:57]Look, I think the old way we did it where athletes couldn't receive compensation. That that was wildly unfair. Everyone was getting rich on sports except the athletes. And and I think that was exploitative. It was abusive. And and as a conservative, I I think you ought to be able to to to to reap the fruits of your labors. If you to develop a skill that is incredibly valuable, that generates a lot of value, you ought to receive the rewards from that. So what this bill does, it explicitly, as a matter of federal law, protects the right of a student athlete to receive name, image, and likeness, real NIL. So, if you're a quarterback and you can sell a bunch of tennis shoes, you ought to be able to reap every dollar you can make from a real NIL deal where your name, image, and likeness is is producing value. It also explicitly protects revenue sharing. So, so schools can can share significant portions of the revenue they're generating from sports with their athletes directly. Both of those are protected. And then what it does is it prohibits fake NIL. So, it prohibits a booster with a bag of cash in a dark alley handing it to a player and saying, "I really want you to play at my school." That is prohibited. But real NIL and revenue sharing is explicitly and statutoily protected.

[00:17:13]>> It that makes sense. I mean, it would be going back to the old days where you're dropping a bag off at the front doorstep or the back doorstep for an athlete to to sign on. Real quick, one on the last way out. We kind of a timeline with this. Senator Cruz, uh, Congress will have a recess in August. Um, I know you you have a hearing coming up next week regarding this on Wednesday of it. Does this thing have to get done by August?

[00:17:40]And then then because of the midterms that are coming up uh, and the election process or what is your feel on the timeline for this? because there's a lot of folks that are under the impression if we don't get this done before they go on recess and then they have midterms, this thing can be pushed off for a while.

[00:17:57]>> Yeah. Look, we need to get it done fast and and I am pressing to get it done very fast. It's taken three years to get here. It's been excruciating. Look, we're in a very divided time. We're in a partisan time. Getting bipartisan agreement on on major important issues is incredibly hard right now. So, so it took thousands of hours to get where we are. We have this bill now. As you mentioned, I've called a hearing next week. So, we're moving fast. The hearing is next week. It is my hope very quickly thereafter to move the bill out of the Commerce Committee to get it on the Senate floor. And I'm hopeful the Senate will take it up and pass it quickly. I don't know how quickly. That decision is is a decision John Thoon makes. I I don't control the floor schedule. Uh but but I believe if we pass it out of committee, particularly with with a good good bipartisan vote, I think we'll get floor time pretty quickly and move it move it out of the Senate. And and it's my objective here. I don't want to squeak by with just 60 votes. I'd like to get a lot more than 60 because if we voted out of the Senate with a big bipartisan vote, I think it comes over to the House with real momentum. Uh, and I think in that case, I think the House takes it up and passes it and and and the president the president will will sign it into law and I'd love to see that done very very quickly because I think every day we delay is a day that college sports is in jeopardy.

[00:19:24]>> Senator Cruz, I appreciate your time.

[00:19:26]Wish you the best of luck with this. Uh, thank you for joining and next time I I'll get your input on this Texas Tech Texas rivalry that has seemed to spur up over the last few days. I I got to say text challenge has has been wild. I I did text my buddy Cody Campbell and I'm like, "All right, that that that that's a full-on baller move. I'll give you that." So So we'll see what happens. I love them both, so I so I'm not picking favorites, but but I am I am chuckling on social media at the back and forth right now.

[00:19:54]>> Senator, have a great week. I appreciate you joining.

[00:19:56]>> Thank you.