College sports begged for help. Ted Cruz's 111-page answer adds more questions

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The fox has officially entered the college sports henhouse, and he came in by invitation.

Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) uncorked a whopper of a bipartisan bill last week that would seek to regulate everything from college athletes’ eligibility clock to conference realignment to rivalry games to hiring cycles to media rights money.

If you ask me, I say the federal government shouldn’t be involved in sorting out real or imagined “roster chaos,” dictating the timeline of a college football team’s hiring, or weeding out “fake NIL deals,” whatever that means.

“This (legislation) is designed to stop the chaos,” Cruz said during an interview with On3.

Ah, yes, everyone knows the surest way to eradicate “chaos” is by inserting D.C. politicians.

‘When you ask the federal government for help,’ … ‘you never know where it goes.’

Certainly, the NCAA needs some clear, enforceable rules. Count me among those who believe NBA players shouldn’t be allowed onto a college basketball court. I like the idea of a five-year eligibility clock, too, and the eradication of eighth-year seniors.

I just never thought the federal government should wade knee-deep into solving the issues of College Sports Inc., and I repeatedly sounded the alarm on the subject of college sports governance being turned over to federal lawmakers. There’s no problem too big or concern too small that the federal government can’t make worse.

College sports aren’t broken, despite what you may have heard. Problems exist, sure, but business is booming, even as college sports leaders repeatedly asked Congress to help save them from destroying themselves.

At last week’s SEC spring meetings, a reporter started to ask SEC commissioner Greg Sankey about the Cruz-Cantwell bill.

“When you ask the federal government for help …,” the reporter began.

Sankey interjected and finished the sentence: “… you never know where it goes.”

In this case, it resulted in a 111-page bill from Capitol Hill.

“It wasn’t that long ago I was being asked about my feelings on a ‘skinny bill’ out of the Senate. I don’t think 111 pages is a skinny bill,” Sankey said.

Does that sound like buyer’s remorse?

For years, Sankey begged for congressional action. Now, it’s here.

Neither the SEC, nor fellow superpower Big Ten, nor the NCAA has endorsed this bill.

The SEC and Big Ten oppose at least part of the bill — the proposal that, if enacted, would allow conferences to pool their TV rights revenue.  

NCAA leaders begged for government help. They got a 111-page bill

Others within and around college sports’ ecosystem have questioned whether the federal government should be involved in college football’s hiring cycle.

If this bill passes, colleges with coaching vacancies could not hire away a coach or coordinator from another school until after the season. In other words, the hiring carousel for coaches would shift to January, or later.

That might sound good in theory, especially for those who found Lane Kiffin leaving Mississippi on the playoff’s doorstep odious.

But, how would this hiring schedule coincide with a December signing period and the transfer portal opening in early January?

“If it works for the NFL, it would work just fine in college,” Cruz told On3, of his intention to move the hiring cycle to after the season.

True, the NFL’s anti-tampering rules dictate when and how coaches can be poached, but the NFL established those rules, not the federal government. Also, the NFL doesn’t have a December national signing day, or a January transfer portal, or a calendar that adheres to the academic semester schedule.

Are schools that fire their coach during the season just supposed to navigate signing day and the transfer sweepstakes without a coach?

“Since when does Congress have the power to say when someone is allowed to take a new job in the private sector that has nothing to do with the federal government?” Tom Mars, an a lawyer who’s made his name from lawsuits involving college athletics, wrote on social media.

I agree with Mars in principle, but nobody can say College Sports Inc. didn’t ask for this intrusion.

Conference commissioners, the NCAA president, university leaders and even coaches traveled to Capitol Hill for years and pleaded for the government to solve college sports’ issues.

Well, when you repeatedly beg for the federal government to come inside your playpen, you might just get the federal government inside your playpen. You might just get the Ted Cruz College Football League.

Ted Cruz: Most schools will drop college football if he doesn’t intervene

Cruz predicted if Congress does nothing, within three years, only 30 to 50 universities will maintain college football teams.

“The rest of them will shut down,” Cruz told On3, without offering evidence for his bold claim that most schools are a few years away from dumping college football.

Cruz joins a long line of alarmists shouting college sports’ sky is falling and that the end is nigh, unless politicians save the day.

In reality, more FBS programs exist today than ever before, and a team with a doormat’s history in college football just won the national championship.

Also within the Cantwell-Cruz bill’s 111 pages is language that would cap how much schools can pay athletes. The legislation also would institute a percentage-cap on earnings for players’ agents.

“The cap (for players’ agents) risks driving experienced agents out of the NIL space altogether,” Darren Heitner, a prominent sports lawyer who’s represented college athletes, wrote on social media, “leaving athletes to either go unrepresented or turn to less reputable operators who may skirt the rules.”

I know this must come as a shock, but the bill includes no language capping earnings for coaches, coaches’ agents, athletics directors, conference commissioners or the like — the bill only hamstrings compensation for athletes and their representation.

Ted Cruz believes he’s part of answer to ‘crisis’ in college sports

This bill faces a challenging path to becoming law. Timing could be tough, too, with an election in November. Cruz, though, sounds committed.

“I think college sports right now are in crisis,” Cruz said.

NCAA leaders convinced Cruz the crisis is real. They pleaded for help.

The foxes finally accepted the invitation. They brought a 111-page bill into the henhouse.

Blake Toppmeyer is the USA TODAY Network’s senior national college football columnist. Email him at BToppmeyer@gannett.com and follow him on X @btoppmeyer.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Ted Cruz’s 111-page answer to college sports chaos raises bigger risks

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