Dom Amore: How do UConn coaches feel about Senate bill that could change college sports?

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SOUTHINGTON — The U.S. Senate is taking on the spiraling, out-of-control state of college athletics. The Protect College Sports Act now being discussed is a wide-ranging bill that could have profound effect, and there is much here that could impact UConn.

Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban was a star witness in hearings before the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Tuesday and urged congress to “bring order” back to college sports. Among the rules the bill tries to establish are limiting athletes to transferring only one time without penalty; limiting athlete eligibility to a maximum of five years; prohibiting former professional athletes from playing in college, and prohibiting schools from hiring a coach from another school during a season.

“We’re fixing it? Man, that’s great news, that’s good to hear,” said Jason Candle, new UConn football coach, sounding a big skeptical, after the Coaches Road Show on Tuesday night.  “… Obviously, there’s change on the horizon, change coming. Any speculation on what that looks like would be foolish. Anybody in the business, from the coaching standpoint of it, knows this is not a sustainable model for institutions, conferences or student athletes, so we’ve got to put our heads together and make sure we do what’s right for the student athletes and what’s right to to preserve our great game.”

Last November, UConn lost its football coach, Jim Mora, to Colorado State, and hired Candle, who was at Toledo, with bowl games still to be played. There are also references in the bill to power conferences and pooling revenue, capping revenue sharing and name-image-likeness payments to athletes.

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“There’s obviously a lot of good things in there,” UConn AD David Benedict said. “My concern is, what is the real appetite, federally, to get involved? It’s nice that it is a bipartisan bill. I do think there are some things that are beneficial, but it’s interesting that college athletics, if you look at Division I and especially the power four (conferences), they’re not aligned on it. It’s clear the SEC, the Big Ten, are not supportive of it.”

For generations, the NCAA enforced a thick rule book with iron fists, but athletes won the right to be paid for the use of their name, image and likeness, won the right to share in the revenue they help generate, and the courts have continued hacking away at virtually any rule, for eligibility or otherwise, that is imposed.

Various recent cases have ruled athletes who have played professionally to return to play in college, for example. If new laws prohibit players who have played professionally overseas to play college basketball or hockey in the U.S., that could certainly change UConn’s recruiting and rosters going forward. The NCAA is considering a rule that limits eligibility to five years within a five-year window following high school graduation.

“How do you define a pro player?” Benedict said. “The current age-based eligibility model that is current being discussed and should be voted on by the NCAA Board of Governors is a very good step. Until it’s passed, I’m not sure how a pro would be defined, but with the age-based model you’re defining when a clock starts from an eligibility standpoint, so even if you are playing in some sort of club organization where you’re getting paid, if you have been doing that for three or four years, there’s a good chance those individuals wouldn’t have any eligibility left.”

Stronger antitrust exemptions would protect the NCAA from lawsuits and allow it to enforce its rules. The power conferences, which have expanded to as many as 20 teams, have been raking in billions in TV revenue. UConn, left out in the various rounds of conference realignment, is playing in the Big East in most sports, but operating as an FBS independent in football. Its programs have sustained, for the last several years, at least, extraordinary success, particularly in men’s and women’s basketball, despite the vast disadvantage in revenue coming in. Getting the power conferences to go along with sharing of TV money does not figure to be easy.

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“Let’s pool all our media rights, in what world do you think that’s going to happen?” UConn women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma said. “That the SEC and Big Ten will say, ‘yeah, we’re going to put (all the money) in together.’ That’s just one example. If they address unlimited transfers, and they address some sort of transparency in the salary cap, not that you’d want to call it a cap, there are legit things that are really at the heart of all this. And at the heart of all this is unlimited free agency all year round and the disparity in what people can spend relative to other people. That exists everywhere, I get that, but there should be some guard rails on that.”

Auriemma, too, supports age restrictions and the age-based “five-in-five” rule, which the NCAA is debating separate from congress.

“But whatever they do, it’s got to be judge-proof,” Auriemma said. “The only thing a lot of coaches in the country do today better than recruit good players is recruit good judges. So as long as that’s allowed you’re going to have problems.”

There have been several bills before congress to address college athletics. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy (D) has been an advocate for student-athletes rights, and was skeptical of the Protect College Sports Act. “Its primary effect seems to be to limit the compensation of athletes while protecting the huge salaries of all the adults — coaches, ADs, sports industry executives — who are getting rich off the performance of the players,” Murphy said in a statement  issued May 27. “And it gives the NCAA an antitrust exemption that no other industry gets just so they can keep underpaying the athletes. Sure, there are some good things for players in this bill, but this seems like a great deal for the NCAA and the rich guys who run college sports, and a bad deal for athletes.”

Saban, in his testimony, noted the bill is “not perfect,” but Sen Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who co-sponsored the bill with Maria Cantwell (D-Washington) Eric Schmitt (R-Missouri) and Chris Coons (D-Delaware) told ESPN he is confident he can get the 60 votes necessary to pass the PCSA.

“I think it’s important we continue to try,” Benedict said. “It addresses some things, but it doesn’t go as far as addressing employment. The question is, is a half measure better than no measure?”

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