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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast, where we

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Speaker 1: explore some of the big money issues in the world

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Speaker 1: of sports. On Michael Blarne, I'm Scarlett Fool and I'm

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Speaker 1: Danian Sass. How we need to touch on the story

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Speaker 1: that we've been watching for a while, especially as now

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Speaker 1: we're in the middle of the college football season. Name,

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Speaker 1: image and likeness in college sports. Yeah, the College Athlete

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Speaker 1: Economic Freedom Act, it's a mouthful, but it allows college

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Speaker 1: athletes unrestricted use of their name, image, and likeness and

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Speaker 1: penalizes schools that curb those rights. And I legislation has

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Speaker 1: not come without criticism. Here's Georgia Bulldog's coach Kirby Smart

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Speaker 1: who feels that they're not sustainable. I don't think what's

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Speaker 1: going on in college football right now at some places

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Speaker 1: is sustainable. Meaning can you do that you're in and

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Speaker 1: you're out and repeat that. Can you honor the commitment

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Speaker 1: that some people are trying to make two kids to

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Speaker 1: get them go to their school. That was Kirby Smart.

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Speaker 1: Georgia head football coach jimbo Fisher at Texas A and

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Speaker 1: M also addressed an I L legislation. There's no rules,

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Speaker 1: the state has its own rules. I mean, it's not

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Speaker 1: just an n c A thing or a national thing.

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Speaker 1: There's each state, like, for instance, in Texas, we cannot

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Speaker 1: bring up in IL to recruit. We can't say, we

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Speaker 1: can't promise. All we can say if guys on our

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Speaker 1: team have it, that's all we can say. Other states

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Speaker 1: can prevent written contracts. I mean, it's just the world

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Speaker 1: we're in, and we're frustrated because there's no unification of

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Speaker 1: what happens in the way it happens. Texas A and

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Speaker 1: M coach there Jimbo Fisher here to talk with us

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Speaker 1: about at least one of those bills. Is Senator Chris

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Speaker 1: Murphy of Connecticut. Welcome to the Bloomberg business of sports. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: thanks for having me, appreciate the time. Take us through

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Speaker 1: what Washington is trying to do within I am well,

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Speaker 1: I've long been very supportive of the effort to get

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Speaker 1: UM these athletes access to the money they deserve from

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Speaker 1: the marketing of their name and their image and their

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Speaker 1: likeness UM. More broadly, though, I think we need to

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Speaker 1: admit that UM college sports, in particular big time college

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Speaker 1: football and basketball, are professional sports. UM. They make billions

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Speaker 1: of dollars for adults UM, and these kids are kept

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Speaker 1: in poverty. UM. I would like ultimately to see a

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Speaker 1: more comprehensive system of reimbursement for these athletes, especially again

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Speaker 1: the ones that are playing in the money making sports.

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Speaker 1: For the time being, the best we can do is

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Speaker 1: just getting them compensation for endorsement deals. I don't think

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Speaker 1: Congress is gonna do anything about it in the short run. UM.

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Speaker 1: If the colleges and the n c A are interested

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Speaker 1: in having a discussion about a broader set of workplace protections,

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Speaker 1: labor rights, and compensation, then Commerce might be willing to

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Speaker 1: sit down and talk. But we're certainly not gonna hand

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Speaker 1: power to the colleges or to the n c a

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Speaker 1: A to limit students ability to get compensated for endorse months.

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Speaker 1: I think this has been a really good thing for

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Speaker 1: athletes that are professionals. They're professional athletes, they're playing a

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Speaker 1: professional sport UM, and they're making a whole ton of

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Speaker 1: money for everybody else. I'm really glad that they're finally

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Speaker 1: being able to get at least a small part of

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Speaker 1: those profits. Can you talk a little bit about the

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Speaker 1: bipartisan support there is for action on this specifically, what

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Speaker 1: part of what you're proposing has to buy in from

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Speaker 1: the other side. I don't think there's much bipartisan agreement

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Speaker 1: right now, you know what I understand, because my sense

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Speaker 1: is right now, Republicans are you know, seeking to give

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Speaker 1: power back to the n c A or back to

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Speaker 1: the schools, are seeking to limit athletes ability to be compensated.

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Speaker 1: I think there may be some Democrats in that camp

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Speaker 1: as well, But I'm of the mind that we should

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Speaker 1: be expanding player rights, that we should be expanding compensation

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Speaker 1: and models, and right now there don't seem to be

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Speaker 1: a lot of Republican partners in that endeavor. So that's

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Speaker 1: why I'm, you know, very honest about the prospects for legislation.

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Speaker 1: I I don't see Congress acting anytime soon unless there's

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Speaker 1: a consensus amongst the schools that they need. Congress is

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Speaker 1: um uh consent for some broader reform of college athletics,

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Speaker 1: which to me involves broad compensation for at least athletes

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Speaker 1: in the sports that are making billions of dollars. A Senator,

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Speaker 1: one of the more confusing things that I'm trying to

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Speaker 1: wrap my brain around is that you have legislation at

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Speaker 1: the state level at different states. Right, and if you're

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Speaker 1: you know, an advertiser or your Rebuk or Adidas or

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Speaker 1: Nike or whatever, UM, it's very very challenging. You know,

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Speaker 1: given different laws at the state level, how does your bill?

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Speaker 1: How does the Collegiate Athlete Economic Freedom Act change this?

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Speaker 1: So I have you know legislation UM, and it's b Cameral.

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Speaker 1: I introduced it with Lori trey In, a former colle

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Speaker 1: edge athlete representing Massachusetts UM. And what we would do

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Speaker 1: is just create a national standard UM similar to the

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Speaker 1: most permissive state laws. It would just broadly allow for

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Speaker 1: student athletes across the country to have access to endorsement deals.

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Speaker 1: And it would create a standard right all across the country.

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Speaker 1: And I think that's the way to go, at least

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Speaker 1: on n I L rights. That would mean that there

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Speaker 1: weren't different abilities UM to do endorsement deals based upon

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Speaker 1: which state you're going to school. And now again I

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Speaker 1: don't think that that's sufficient. I think that you should

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Speaker 1: more evenly distribute out compensation amongst athletes at these programs.

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Speaker 1: But I would hope that you know, schools would be

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Speaker 1: interested in having a uniform right. Thus far UM colleges conferences,

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Speaker 1: the n c A have not been willing to endorse

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Speaker 1: our legislation because it does grant a broad right to

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Speaker 1: stud athletes, and what they are asking Congress to do

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Speaker 1: is to limit that right. The n c A is

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Speaker 1: asking Congress to basically give them the power to decide

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Speaker 1: which students get compensated and how much money. And there's

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Speaker 1: just not bipartisan agreement to do something like that right now. So, Senator,

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Speaker 1: I mean you talk about more evenly distributing those rights

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Speaker 1: to a student athletes. You know, I just want to

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Speaker 1: throw some numbers at you. You know, nt double A

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Speaker 1: generates a billion dollars in annual revenue. I think college

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Speaker 1: sports generates twenty six billion. But it's dominated by these

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Speaker 1: Power five conferences. So when you say evenly distribute, I mean,

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Speaker 1: are we talking that, you know, those big programs to

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Speaker 1: you know, players who are playing for those big programs

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Speaker 1: should be entitled to a bigger piece of the pie.

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Speaker 1: I mean, what do you mean by by evenly distribute

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Speaker 1: the wealth? Well, listen, I think that this is a

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Speaker 1: question for the conferences for the schools to figure out.

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Speaker 1: It shouldn't be up to me to devise a compensation scheme.

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Speaker 1: But what I'm talking about is a repertu sharing arrangement

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Speaker 1: in which you come to allusion is to how much

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Speaker 1: money the industry is making and you guarantee a certain

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Speaker 1: cut of those dollars to students. Now, you could do

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Speaker 1: that on a conference by conference basis. You could do

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Speaker 1: that for Power five schools. You could do that more

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Speaker 1: broadly across all of Division one. There's a whole bunch

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Speaker 1: of different ways that you could do that. UM, But

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Speaker 1: that's the direction I think we should be heading in

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Speaker 1: looking at these sports as UM as professional sports. UM.

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Speaker 1: You know, there are more people in the stadiums for

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Speaker 1: University of Michigan football games than there are for any

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Speaker 1: NFL game, and making sure that the students get a

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Speaker 1: percentage of those revenues. Now, I want to clarify something

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Speaker 1: for people out there listening. The bill that you're talking about.

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Speaker 1: It would the key to the whole thing. It said

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Speaker 1: it would prohibit the n c double A schools and

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Speaker 1: conferences from creating guardrails that would restrict any athletes from compensation.

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Speaker 1: Right now, because of n i L, those college athletes

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Speaker 1: can be compensated. But you had mentioned that there was

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Speaker 1: not bipartisan support for this is there a chance when

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Speaker 1: it looks like Republicans are taking control of the House

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Speaker 1: that there could be uh, some sort of legislation going

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Speaker 1: the other way. Yeah, it's certainly possible. Um. I have

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Speaker 1: not tracked as closely uh legislation in the House. Um,

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Speaker 1: but it's certainly possible that a House Republican majority could

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Speaker 1: pass a bill, you know, essentially eliminating the rights that

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Speaker 1: exist today and giving the power back to the n

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Speaker 1: c a A to decide which students get money and

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Speaker 1: how much. I don't think there are the votes for

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Speaker 1: that in the House of Representative in the Senate today,

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Speaker 1: so um, it wouldn't necessarily end up becoming becoming a law.

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Speaker 1: Up next on the show, we continue our conversation with

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Speaker 1: Senator Chris Murphy. We're tell talking in I L and

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Speaker 1: College Sports, plus will get his thoughts on Brittney Griner

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Speaker 1: at a straight ahead on the Bloomberg Business of Sports

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Speaker 1: on Michael Bar. You can follow me on Twitter at

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Speaker 1: Big Bar Sports, and you can find me on Twitter

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Speaker 1: at Scarlett Food. And you can follow me at the

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Speaker 1: Sas Hour And don't forget to catch our podcast that's Monday's,

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Speaker 1: Wednesdays and Thursdays and all your podcast platforms right here

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Speaker 1: on Bloomberg Business of Sports from Bloomberg Radio. This is

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Speaker 1: the Bloomberg Business of Sports Show. We explore the big

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Speaker 1: money issues in the world of sports. Michael bar along

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Speaker 1: with Scarlett Food and Damien sass Hour. We continue our

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Speaker 1: conversation with Senator Chris Murphy. He's on the show to

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Speaker 1: talk about name, image and likeness legislation for college athletes,

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Speaker 1: but there are a few other topics we want to

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Speaker 1: get his thoughts on, including Brittney Grinder. It's a story

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Speaker 1: that we've been paying close attention to. She was recently

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Speaker 1: moved to a peno colony in Russia to serve her sentence,

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Speaker 1: and there are concerns about her safety and well being.

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Speaker 1: Here's White National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan speaking at a

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Speaker 1: press briefing about Grinder. She is being held onjustly. She

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Speaker 1: should be released immediately. We have made that clear to

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Speaker 1: our Russian counterparts, and we have put forward a series

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Speaker 1: of proposals over the last several months for how we

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Speaker 1: could resolve her case as well as the case of

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Speaker 1: Paul Wheeland, to bring them both home. White House National

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Speaker 1: Security Advisor Jake Sullivan on Britney Griner will get Senator

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Speaker 1: Murphy's thoughts on that coming up. At first, let's get

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Speaker 1: back into alburd conversation on n I L. You mentioned

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Speaker 1: earlier how the Republicans or some Replicans and some Democrats

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Speaker 1: want to give power back to the n c Double A.

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Speaker 1: There is this sense that perhaps that association has too

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Speaker 1: much power, which is too powerful the n c Double

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Speaker 1: A individual schools or the conferences. And I asked about

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Speaker 1: the conferences because we've seen the Big Time become something

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Speaker 1: akin to the Big fourteen sixteen Michael Barr and the

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Speaker 1: Southeastern Conference. Uh, of course is one of the most

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Speaker 1: powerful conferences. Well, I think the n c A is

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Speaker 1: sort of on the way to becoming pretty irrelevant, certainly

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Speaker 1: for college football purposes. Um, the Power five has its

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Speaker 1: own set of rules. The individual conferences now are heading

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Speaker 1: in the direction where they're going to exist completely independent

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Speaker 1: of the n c A A. You may end up

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Speaker 1: in a world where there's only two conferences right where

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Speaker 1: the best football is being played, the SEC and the

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Speaker 1: Big Ten. Um. So in football, the n c A

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Speaker 1: is you know, close to irrelevant. Um. In basketball, they

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Speaker 1: are still pretty relevant. The conferences are powerful. But the

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Speaker 1: n c A still has a lot of sway because

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Speaker 1: what matters most is that n c A tournament. That's

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Speaker 1: where the n c makes all of their revenue. When

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Speaker 1: when you talk about making a billion dollars, it's the

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Speaker 1: college basketball tournament. So it depends on what sport. UM.

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Speaker 1: I just don't think that the n c A nor

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Speaker 1: the conferences have shown any interest in protecting players. They

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Speaker 1: are interested in protecting the revenues that make adults rich.

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Speaker 1: That is what they are interested in. UM. They're they're

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Speaker 1: interested in preserving the status quo, and I think the

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Speaker 1: only way to save college sports is to pay these players.

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Speaker 1: Because the kids are getting wise, the kids are figuring

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Speaker 1: out the scam and so what you're seeing increasingly is

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Speaker 1: high school athletes either going straight to the professional leagues.

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Speaker 1: Now that can't be the NFL or the NBA right now,

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Speaker 1: but they will go to UM, the semi professional way

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Speaker 1: ley leagues, they'll go overseas. I think that will be

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Speaker 1: the trend if they don't see any path to getting

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Speaker 1: fair compensation in UH in college and it will destroy

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Speaker 1: college athletics. So to me is somebody who loves college sports.

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Speaker 1: I have longer argued for the camp for the broad

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Speaker 1: fair compensation of athletes, because I think that's actually the

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Speaker 1: only way to preserve this. You grew up in Weathersfield, Connecticut.

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Speaker 1: You uh graduated from Yukon School of Law. Of course,

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Speaker 1: Yukon has an incredible women's basketball team. To what extent

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Speaker 1: did you speak with players there on the team about

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Speaker 1: to formulate your ideas on n I l UM. How

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Speaker 1: active a voice were they in in sharing their views? Um? Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I mean, I'm we got a good women's basketball team.

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Speaker 1: Weve got a top five men's basketball team, were Bowl eligible,

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Speaker 1: a top ten that's a good times alright, I got you. Um.

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Speaker 1: Geno RMA has been a long time for UH. Gino

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Speaker 1: has been a long time proponent of n I l

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Speaker 1: The the athletes on that program obviously have been the

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Speaker 1: biggest beneficiaries of n I l UM. Lori Tran talks

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Speaker 1: about this in a really compelling way. She's the house

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Speaker 1: co sponsor of our n I L build. For any women, um,

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Speaker 1: their college sporting years are their most lucrative. Now. That is,

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Speaker 1: unfortunately due to the fact that professional opportunities for women

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Speaker 1: athletes don't exist in the way that they do for

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Speaker 1: male professional athletes. And so when women are playing at

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Speaker 1: a collegiate soccer program, UM, they may during those four

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Speaker 1: years have the highest earning potential UM of their time

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Speaker 1: as a high profile athlete. And so for women athletes,

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Speaker 1: it's frankly life changing to be able to have access

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Speaker 1: to n I L. And you're seeing that on campus

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Speaker 1: at stores, you're seeing Paige Becker's and as a FUD

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Speaker 1: and others, Um, you know, doing six seven figure deals. Um,

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Speaker 1: because of the focus on women's athletics. Unfortunately, UM, some

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Speaker 1: of those deals are not available to them when they

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Speaker 1: graduate college. So UM, this is really an issue of

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Speaker 1: athlete empowerment, but in particular an issue of women athlete empowerment. Senator,

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Speaker 1: you're a member of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee,

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Speaker 1: But in addition to that, you're also a member of

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Speaker 1: the Foreign Relations Committee. And you know, I wonder if

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Speaker 1: I could ask you, UM. You know Brittany Grinder, you know,

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Speaker 1: her peal was just rejected by a Moscow court. She's

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Speaker 1: going to be facing nine years in prison in Russia. UM,

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Speaker 1: any color as to what the next steps are? What

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Speaker 1: more we could be doing here in the US, what

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Speaker 1: more the U. S Government could be doing, if anything,

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Speaker 1: to try and bring her back home. Well, I'm not

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Speaker 1: sure the Russian government is willing to release Brittany Grinder

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Speaker 1: for anything other than the complete um uh surrender of

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Speaker 1: Ukraine UM and so UM you know we have offered

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Speaker 1: this is you know, open source reporting, We have put

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Speaker 1: on the table prisoner exchanges that frankly, we're pretty generous. UM.

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Speaker 1: I don't think that's UM what Russia is interested in.

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Speaker 1: I think they're interested in holding Brittany Grinder is leveraged

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Speaker 1: to try to stop the Ukraine war UM. And so

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Speaker 1: that is obviously UM a price that we cannot pay

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Speaker 1: UM and would of course be unwilling to pay. This

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Speaker 1: is awful and terrible for UM, Brittany and her family

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Speaker 1: and her loved ones. UM. But there's only one person

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Speaker 1: in one government responsible for this atrocity, of Vladimir Putin,

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Speaker 1: and the Russian government will continue to try to UM

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Speaker 1: negotiate for her release. UM, but we can't surrender a

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Speaker 1: country's sovereignty UM in exchange for the release of Brittany

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Speaker 1: Grinder and UM. Hopefully we'll be able to find some

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Speaker 1: other pathway. Now let's ask the hard hitting questions see

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Speaker 1: I live in Pennsylvania and we have online betting. So

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Speaker 1: how deep will Yukon's men's and women's team go and

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Speaker 1: when we get into the INN double A tournament, how

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Speaker 1: deep do you think they'll go? Well, you know, we

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Speaker 1: just had a big win women beat UH Texas UH

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Speaker 1: this week, which sort of shows you they're gonna undoubtedly

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Speaker 1: be a final four team this year. You know, the

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Speaker 1: men have been a very good UH the last couple

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Speaker 1: of years. Their team last year I thought was really special,

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Speaker 1: but they have not broken through under coach Hurley's tenure

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Speaker 1: to win an nc A tournament game. This may be UM,

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Speaker 1: this may be the difference maker. You know. Another really

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Speaker 1: good development for college athletes has been the ability to

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Speaker 1: freely transfer. Right. That was another scam that the adults

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Speaker 1: were perpetrating on kids, UM, you know, forcing kids to

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Speaker 1: sit out a year before they transferred, you know, just

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Speaker 1: to protect you know, just basically to punish kids for

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Speaker 1: adults potential transgressions. Now that these kids can transfer more freely,

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Speaker 1: you're seeing programs like Yukon UM being able to more

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Speaker 1: quickly compete. So we have a very good team this year.

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Speaker 1: But you know, if you watched the Yukon's game last

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Speaker 1: night against Buffalo. You would have seen, you know, I

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Speaker 1: think four of our starting five, maybe three of our

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Speaker 1: starting five being first year transfer students. So that's one

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Speaker 1: of the reasons that Icon may make a run this year.

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Speaker 1: I did, and you are right, they look great. By

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Speaker 1: the way, people in Connecticut, do you guys have online

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Speaker 1: gambling there, So we're just beginning it. So we now

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Speaker 1: have online gambling. It's done primarily in Connecticut through our

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Speaker 1: two UH casinos. We have, you know, to uh Native

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Speaker 1: American tribe run UM casinos. So yeah, well you have

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Speaker 1: just sort of stepped into uh into this world in Connecticut.

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Speaker 1: Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat from Connecticut, you are so kind

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Speaker 1: to take time out from your very busy schedule to

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Speaker 1: talk with us. We really do appreciate it. Right here

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Speaker 1: on the Bloomberg Business of Sports, Thank you, Senator. Appreciate

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Speaker 1: you guys. This has been the Bloomberg Business of Sports podcast.

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Speaker 1: We explode big money issues in the world of sports.

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Speaker 1: Michael Barr you can follow me on Twitter at bick

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Speaker 1: Bar Sports. I'm at Scarlett phil Um, Damian Sasser, and

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Speaker 1: i am at Deep Sassa. By the way, you can

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Speaker 1: catch our podcasts every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday and download

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Speaker 1: them wherever you get your podcasts.