The Protect College Sports Act cleared the Senate this week, and DMoney and Mike Ryan broke down the one amendment Miami fought for and why they still want the whole thing dead.

DMoney: I want to talk about something that's going to impact the Canes very directly. The latest is the Protect College Sports Act, which passed the Senate. Not entirely surprising, although it was a pretty big bipartisan vote. Seventy-seven votes in a hundred-member chamber.

I'll note that a House staffer told Ross Dellenger, who's the main guy on this beat, that in his view the bill is dead. There are 435 members in the House. It's a lot more diverse and it looks like the House won't get to this until the lame-duck period.

Even assuming the House passes this, which is very much in question, the bill's been softened a little toward the Miami Hurricanes. Ashley Moody, Republican from Florida, introduced an amendment to raise the conference cap from 19 to 20.

There's a ton in this bill that impacts conference expansion: You have to be independent for three years if you change conferences, or wait six years for the whole thing to sunset. That six-year window was added later so teams like Miami can get out when the TV deals expire.

Mike Ryan: Miami's been very effective behind the scenes. They have plugged in people and they're doing their best to make this a little bit more palatable. But this is dead on arrival. Like you said, the House isn't back in session until after Election Day, and Election Day is widely expected to change the way the House looks.

I hate that the government is involved. There's a lot I don't like about it. Twenty teams is a bonus, and you'd like to think that after Notre Dame gets in, Miami is top of the heap. But it's still a decision to be made.

A brand like North Carolina is super appealing in terms of revenue, so Miami would have a fight on its hands. If this trajectory keeps going for Mario Cristobal's program, though, it's going to be hard to deny.

The main takeaway is that Miami is very effective behind the scenes at softening this and making sure its concerns are heard by the right people. But to me, this is much ado about nothing. I'm glad the template's there in case this thing ever does get through the House. At least we have the 20 in there. On the whole, though, I hate it all.

DMoney: I think this thing is fatally flawed.

Now it's in the House, which is more diverse. So many more people, more viewpoints, more unpredictable. The House Rules Committee has members from the Congressional Black Caucus who don't like this bill, and members of the House Freedom Caucus, on the other side of the spectrum, who don't like it either. So there are enemies on that committee, and that makes it harder to pass. A lot of people in the House supported the SCORE Act, their own bill, which failed. So it's territorial. You didn't support our bill, we're not passing yours.

I'm optimistic this fails. Ultimately, there has to be rules but this isn't it. There are some good things in there that are going to be popular: The five-for-five, the one-time transfer too.

The conference expansion piece, though? Who's screaming about conference expansion? The conferences already expanded. Now it's just a matter of trying to keep Miami out.

Mike Ryan: And we're already at a crazy number of conference games. You're going to have a lot of teams that never play each other.

Look, I'm very pro-labor, but I'm also pro-cap, and people get confused by that. Doesn't a cap limit wages? Aren't you against that? But if you have a seat at the table and things are collectively bargained, you get something in exchange for conceding a cap. The fatal flaw in all of this is that there isn't a seat at the table for the players. I hope that when it gets to the House, people grandstand and make a big issue of it.

This is a very interesting time in American politics. A lot of grandstanding happened on the front end to get it this far, so people can hold up their hands to important boosters and donors and say, look, I did my part. Then everything gets tabled until after Election Day, when a lot is going to be different, and behind the scenes you're leveraging different folks. So yeah, great to send a signal, keep people like Nick Saban a little bit happy, give them a small dub. But in reality, nothing's going to happen here until the United States has its election, and who knows what happens after that.

DMoney: We want it to fail. We have the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball, and baseball needs a cap majorly. You can see models of what a cap and a collective bargaining process look like. This is a half measure that mixes popular stuff with stuff that doesn't matter, like conference expansion, which is the part that hurts Miami the most.

The Big Ten and SEC are going to get the biggest rights deals when the next round gets signed. Miami wants to be part of that party. If there's a cap on the teams in those two conferences, really the only two that matter, Miami could get left out. That's why they wanted the Big Ten at 20. It leaves room for both Notre Dame and Miami.

Brett McMurphy, who covers this nationally and talks to a ton of people, thinks Miami is at the top of the list for the Big Ten for all the reasons we know. Ratings, brand, market, and the academic credentials. He thinks Miami is right at the front of the line, and we want to be in the Big Ten.

Mike Ryan: I agree, but I don't know what North Carolina has done behind the scenes, and when this becomes real, it's a decision to be made. The Big Ten, especially in basketball, really likes the North Carolina brand. I know that.

DMoney: Regionally, it's a better fit. There's a lot of old money there.

Mike Ryan: But breaking North Carolina away from Duke, I just don't see it. Look at what happened with Texas and Oklahoma. They went out the door together. Duke is nowhere near as big an athletic brand as North Carolina, even with how prestigious the basketball team is. North Carolina is successful top-down, lacrosse, soccer, baseball. It's a really appealing brand.

But ultimately, the bill as it stands right now, crafted by the SEC, the Big Ten and Notre Dame, leaves Miami at a competitive disadvantage if it passes as written and the door closes before Miami can walk into either of those conferences. What we're worried about is the haves crafting the rules, getting things done under the table, shutting Miami out and enforcing things against Miami to keep it at bay. That strengthens a competitive disadvantage that already exists.

We'll stay on this as it moves to the House. Subscribe to the CanesInsight YouTube channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss the next update. The full conversation is below.

 

Ross Dellenger has posted a DRAFT LETTER that is being prepared for presentation to House Leadership that has a lot of support by house members and it calls for "removal or substantial modification of the conference cap and elimination of the requirement for universities to go independent for 3 years". It states that there is no justification for government interference with university and conference relationships and business which involves much more than just athletics.

 

Passed ... but with revisions. "A Bill" might pass the house but it is highly doubtful that the exact bill that passed the Senate will get through the house without serious modification ... ie ... eliminating the 3 years as independent.

Of course... If it does pass it will almost certainly undergo changes, but we don't know what those changes may be. The Senate version underwent several changes from when it was first introduced too and while it is more favorable to Miami than it was earlier on, it still has things that are detrimental. My point is that while most (including myself) think it is unlikely to pass, it can't be written off altogether. Fortunately it does not seem like the Admin is writing it off - this is more for people not as familiar with the legislative process.

 

If Miami gets into the Big 10, Miami football is dead.

No way on earth we will recruit the players we want by scheduling games in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan etc in October/November, and we are NOT built like those teams. They are big, lumbering teams that we will beat, but at immense physical cost - fast beats slow, but big only has to catch you once to injure you.

I can sell a family in Louisiana, Georgia or Florida easily on sending their son to the U, and they can see them play several times a year in the SEC. I can’t do that for the B1G…

As much as I hate the SEC, that’s our only option. Period.

 

And Miami is not those teams. Golden tried to make us into a Big 10 team, we don’t recruit that way, and will never be able to.

OSU does and we recruit like them.

 

right in assuming the news today of the two page letter being drafted is good for us? gets ride of the expansion limits and ultimately makes what our senators were doing not as critical?

 

Ah yes, the ever lovely travel cross country to play two teams.

Ohio State recruits big boys from Ohio/PA and skill players from Florida. Do you want to give them and Michigan even more inroads to SoFla?

Your initial argument was at least worthy of some thought, but the latest contradicts some of your very points. South Florida kids have flocked to lovely Columbus, Ohio, for years. They also can be found on rosters up and down the Big Ten & ND. We’re also becoming a national brand again & recruit accordingly. Also, the image of big, plodding Big 10 play is a thing of the past. Finally, our success last year featured Mali & a bunch of skilled athletes, though at its heart was constructed around physicality & size on both sides of the ball.

 

The Protect College Sports Act cleared the Senate this week, and DMoney and Mike Ryan broke down the one amendment Miami fought for and why they still want the whole thing dead.

DMoney: I want to talk about something that's going to impact the Canes very directly. The latest is the Protect College Sports Act, which passed the Senate. Not entirely surprising, although it was a pretty big bipartisan vote. Seventy-seven votes in a hundred-member chamber.

I'll note that a House staffer told Ross Dellenger, who's the main guy on this beat, that in his view the bill is dead. There are 435 members in the House. It's a lot more diverse and it looks like the House won't get to this until the lame-duck period.

Even assuming the House passes this, which is very much in question, the bill's been softened a little toward the Miami Hurricanes. Ashley Moody, Republican from Florida, introduced an amendment to raise the conference cap from 19 to 20.

There's a ton in this bill that impacts conference expansion: You have to be independent for three years if you change conferences, or wait six years for the whole thing to sunset. That six-year window was added later so teams like Miami can get out when the TV deals expire.

Mike Ryan: Miami's been very effective behind the scenes. They have plugged in people and they're doing their best to make this a little bit more palatable. But this is dead on arrival. Like you said, the House isn't back in session until after Election Day, and Election Day is widely expected to change the way the House looks.

I hate that the government is involved. There's a lot I don't like about it. Twenty teams is a bonus, and you'd like to think that after Notre Dame gets in, Miami is top of the heap. But it's still a decision to be made.

A brand like North Carolina is super appealing in terms of revenue, so Miami would have a fight on its hands. If this trajectory keeps going for Mario Cristobal's program, though, it's going to be hard to deny.

The main takeaway is that Miami is very effective behind the scenes at softening this and making sure its concerns are heard by the right people. But to me, this is much ado about nothing. I'm glad the template's there in case this thing ever does get through the House. At least we have the 20 in there. On the whole, though, I hate it all.

DMoney: I think this thing is fatally flawed.

Now it's in the House, which is more diverse. So many more people, more viewpoints, more unpredictable. The House Rules Committee has members from the Congressional Black Caucus who don't like this bill, and members of the House Freedom Caucus, on the other side of the spectrum, who don't like it either. So there are enemies on that committee, and that makes it harder to pass. A lot of people in the House supported the SCORE Act, their own bill, which failed. So it's territorial. You didn't support our bill, we're not passing yours.

I'm optimistic this fails. Ultimately, there has to be rules but this isn't it. There are some good things in there that are going to be popular: The five-for-five, the one-time transfer too.

The conference expansion piece, though? Who's screaming about conference expansion? The conferences already expanded. Now it's just a matter of trying to keep Miami out.

Mike Ryan: And we're already at a crazy number of conference games. You're going to have a lot of teams that never play each other.

Look, I'm very pro-labor, but I'm also pro-cap, and people get confused by that. Doesn't a cap limit wages? Aren't you against that? But if you have a seat at the table and things are collectively bargained, you get something in exchange for conceding a cap. The fatal flaw in all of this is that there isn't a seat at the table for the players. I hope that when it gets to the House, people grandstand and make a big issue of it.

This is a very interesting time in American politics. A lot of grandstanding happened on the front end to get it this far, so people can hold up their hands to important boosters and donors and say, look, I did my part. Then everything gets tabled until after Election Day, when a lot is going to be different, and behind the scenes you're leveraging different folks. So yeah, great to send a signal, keep people like Nick Saban a little bit happy, give them a small dub. But in reality, nothing's going to happen here until the United States has its election, and who knows what happens after that.

DMoney: We want it to fail. We have the NFL, the NBA and Major League Baseball, and baseball needs a cap majorly. You can see models of what a cap and a collective bargaining process look like. This is a half measure that mixes popular stuff with stuff that doesn't matter, like conference expansion, which is the part that hurts Miami the most.

The Big Ten and SEC are going to get the biggest rights deals when the next round gets signed. Miami wants to be part of that party. If there's a cap on the teams in those two conferences, really the only two that matter, Miami could get left out. That's why they wanted the Big Ten at 20. It leaves room for both Notre Dame and Miami.

Brett McMurphy, who covers this nationally and talks to a ton of people, thinks Miami is at the top of the list for the Big Ten for all the reasons we know. Ratings, brand, market, and the academic credentials. He thinks Miami is right at the front of the line, and we want to be in the Big Ten.

Mike Ryan: I agree, but I don't know what North Carolina has done behind the scenes, and when this becomes real, it's a decision to be made. The Big Ten, especially in basketball, really likes the North Carolina brand. I know that.

DMoney: Regionally, it's a better fit. There's a lot of old money there.

Mike Ryan: But breaking North Carolina away from Duke, I just don't see it. Look at what happened with Texas and Oklahoma. They went out the door together. Duke is nowhere near as big an athletic brand as North Carolina, even with how prestigious the basketball team is. North Carolina is successful top-down, lacrosse, soccer, baseball. It's a really appealing brand.

But ultimately, the bill as it stands right now, crafted by the SEC, the Big Ten and Notre Dame, leaves Miami at a competitive disadvantage if it passes as written and the door closes before Miami can walk into either of those conferences. What we're worried about is the haves crafting the rules, getting things done under the table, shutting Miami out and enforcing things against Miami to keep it at bay. That strengthens a competitive disadvantage that already exists.

We'll stay on this as it moves to the House. Subscribe to the CanesInsight YouTube channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss the next update. The full conversation is below.

Not bad.

This could still pass from just pure politic optic and 100% divorced from "the issue". I'm not saying for certain it will go forward, but the chance of "dead on arrival" is not 100% either. Not even close.

Also 100% certain, changes will be made in Ammendment XChange or Conference Committee (gasp!).

Everyone needs to remember this:

Both Chambers must pass identical text of bill prior to enrollment and transmittal to POTUS for signature.













My PTSD is flaring

 

Can someone explain how this bill affects our ability to pay NiL?
Would, say, Canes Connection be impacted?

I don’t believe there is any legal way to cap NIL. Because in its correct form, NIl has nothing to do with a university. It is a contract between a business and a player. It is just marketing. And this is the position of the US Supreme Court.

Look at it from a pro sports perspective. Player A signs a contract with team B. The length and amount of that contract is impacted by a salary cap (MLB excluded). But the player can be separately compensated by private company C that wants the player to endorse a product.

School operated co-ops will survive so long as they are not shams. Canes Connection pays players but in turn the players have certain obligations to Canes Connection. The problem will be if the player is compensated by a school operated co-op but provides no service in return. Then it would be just salary cap circumvention as the Clippers were doing with Kawhi Leonard.

 

I don’t believe there is any legal way to cap NIL. Because in its correct form, NIl has nothing to do with a university. It is a contract between a business and a player. It is just marketing. And this is the position of the US Supreme Court.

Look at it from a pro sports perspective. Player A signs a contract with team B. The length and amount of that contract is impacted by a salary cap (MLB excluded). But the player can be separately compensated by private company C that wants the player to endorse a product.

School operated co-ops will survive so long as they are not shams. Canes Connection pays players but in turn the players have certain obligations to Canes Connection. The problem will be if the player is compensated by a school operated co-op but provides no service in return. Then it would be just salary cap circumvention as the Clippers were doing with Kawhi Leonard.

Surprising how many people still confuse these two, although it's understandable when you have these NIL collectives. People may wonder - what is the NIL value being paid for by a collective? Frankly, there is none. At least, not any that is quantifiable.

 

Agreed, the NFL would also benefit from more teams being like the Raiders, Rams and Packers and not being afraid to sit their 1st round quarterback for one or two seasons.

Joe Burrow didn’t become Joe Burrow until year 5 which was his second starting season.

Yeah I think teams need to get back to sitting rookie qbs. Even the ones lately that have started early and been successful are struggling. It will be hard to convince coaches and gms who have short leashes to do that.

 

I don’t believe there is any legal way to cap NIL. Because in its correct form, NIl has nothing to do with a university. It is a contract between a business and a player. It is just marketing. And this is the position of the US Supreme Court.

Look at it from a pro sports perspective. Player A signs a contract with team B. The length and amount of that contract is impacted by a salary cap (MLB excluded). But the player can be separately compensated by private company C that wants the player to endorse a product.

School operated co-ops will survive so long as they are not shams. Canes Connection pays players but in turn the players have certain obligations to Canes Connection. The problem will be if the player is compensated by a school operated co-op but provides no service in return. Then it would be just salary cap circumvention as the Clippers were doing with Kawhi Leonard.

Dumb question:

What did Leonard + Clippers get in trouble for?

Could that tangentially apply to future NIL-ish stuff??

@TheOriginalCane @Pixelated bukake

 

Dumb question:

What did Leonard + Clippers get in trouble for?

Could that tangentially apply to future NIL-ish stuff??

@TheOriginalCane

The primary difference is that Leonard's situation involved salary cap evasion under a collective bargaining agreement.

NIL has no such limitations under a CBA.

 

If Miami and ND ended up closing out the B10, it would be the dominant conference. Btw, these kids are on national 7-on-7 travel teams by 9th grade. This is a professional sport now. The national dispersion of conference foes will not negatively impact recruiting.

 

Ross Dellenger has posted a DRAFT LETTER that is being prepared for presentation to House Leadership that has a lot of support by house members and it calls for "removal or substantial modification of the conference cap and elimination of the requirement for universities to go independent for 3 years". It states that there is no justification for government interference with university and conference relationships and business which involves much more than just athletics.

 

Being pro-cap and saying you’re pro-labor is idiotic. Saying you just want labor to save a seat at the table but you want a salary cap completely misses the whole corrupt insidious purpose of what has gone on for decades. Amin and Mike Ryan are useful idiots with what they put out and the YouTube comments on that short clip on DLS rightly say as much.

Never mind the fact that the cap in the bill is a salary cap for entire athletic departments across the country who all have different successes in different sports and oftentimes do not even carry the same sports as other comparable universities. Not to mention pro sports don’t group salary caps together for multiple sports at once, yet alone different gendered sports.

Then again, 99% of the media is dumb enough to believe the NCAA’s and universities’ lies about college basketball becoming net negatives for athletic departments despite the fact that march madness alone literally funds all of d2 and d3, all of the 8, 9 and 10 figure settlements the NCAA has lost in the last dozen years, while only giving out half of the over billion dollars in media revenue to d1 conferences; as the NCAA keeps the rest to themselves.

As this has gone on for decades, the NCAA literally has created pseudo investment firms underneath its grasp because they’ve been taking this TV money for march madness, while paying their president and executives millions in addition to the their lawyers, and stacked up scores of alternate capital sources based off the players’ labor while pretending like they “diversified,” their income streams when really they just diversified their exploitation.

What most people cannot grasp is that while they think Bryce underwood was the worst investment ever, he is in fact severely underpaid. In any salaried cap operation similar to the pros, all p4 collegiate starters on basketball and football teams would be making 7 figures, and many quarterbacks would be making 8. The CFP alone is was a 6 year 7.8 billion dollar deal, and it’s currently being expanded and renegotiated.

In the NFL and NBA, players’ salaries are derived from a direct revenue cut that the similarly situated players in college sports are not close to receiving as it stands today. They get paid so handsomely after decades of earning nothing or earning in the shadows, that the fact the universities are still bringing in money hand over fist yet want to regain control is ignored. Do the math on if half of that 1.1, 1.2 billion dollars of march madness tv money — yet alone the other 9 to 10 figures march madness brings in thru tickets, merchandise, etc. — had to be split up halfway w/ the 14 players on each of the 76 teams. . .. . . Split equally w/ all teams’ players regardless of how far they advance or how much they play, the players would be in line to receive about 400-500k each; again, just for making march madness.

All of this. The CAP is egregious! The whole bill is pure fraud and corruption!

UM needs to have its litigation team on the ready!!

 

If Miami gets into the Big 10, Miami football is dead.

No way on earth we will recruit the players we want by scheduling games in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan etc in October/November, and we are NOT built like those teams. They are big, lumbering teams that we will beat, but at immense physical cost - fast beats slow, but big only has to catch you once to injure you.

I can sell a family in Louisiana, Georgia or Florida easily on sending their son to the U, and they can see them play several times a year in the SEC. I can’t do that for the B1G…

As much as I hate the SEC, that’s our only option. Period.

This makes no sense. We were by far the most physical team in the CFP just last year and that mentality isn’t likely to change. I mean we bullied Ohio State and IU just last season. And don’t even try saying IU bullied us in the trenches, that’s not what cost us vs them.

Mario is currently recruiting the **** out of the south right now to play Duke, Pitt, BC, etc. You think telling these kids hey you can play nationally televised games, vs top competition while competing for the CFP is going to stop because it’s up north and they play physical?

It’s been said by multiple outside people that Mario has the most physical practices in the country. The last thing I am worried about is playing Wisconsin or Iowa in November. Plus they gotta play here too. Those teams will be dead come the fourth quarter of games down here.

 

If Miami gets into the Big 10, Miami football is dead.

No way on earth we will recruit the players we want by scheduling games in Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan etc in October/November, and we are NOT built like those teams. They are big, lumbering teams that we will beat, but at immense physical cost - fast beats slow, but big only has to catch you once to injure you.

I can sell a family in Louisiana, Georgia or Florida easily on sending their son to the U, and they can see them play several times a year in the SEC. I can’t do that for the B1G…

As much as I hate the SEC, that’s our only option. Period.

 

https://www.canesinsight.com/threads/proposed-house-settlement-and-nil.195617/post-7700421