The Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics hosted an athletics panel in co-sponsorship with Mississippi Today titled “College Athletics: It’s a Whole New Ballgame” on Thursday, Sept. 17. Mississippi sportswriting legend Rick Cleveland moderated the panel, which featured Ole Miss Vice Chancellor for Intercollegiate Athletics Keith Carter and Yahoo Sports senior writer Ross Dellenger.
Cleveland opened the event by raising questions about the sustainability of the current chaotic world of college athletics, which led into a larger discussion regarding payment of players, revenue and national legislation.
“If we get to another football portal window and the marker increases another 50%, 60%, 70%, like we’ve been seeing every year, you’re going to be looking at (rosters costing between $80 million and $90 million) for football,” Carter said. “Only one team can win the National Championship. How much do you want to pay to have a shot of doing that every year?”
Carter stated that he is in full support of players making their share in revenue. However, he also reiterated that the college sports world could use some order.
“I am a big advocate for paying the players. I think they deserve part of the revenue we earn,” Carter said. “At the same time, you know, if we can get some of the toothpaste back in the tube and try to get stability in the marketplace, that would be huge.”
The Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan bill, was introduced to address excessive spending within college football. It also aims to regulate name, image and likeness compensation and to structure the transfer portal.
Dellenger, who has reported on the bill’s progress, discussed how close the bill is to becoming a law.
“The simple term of where we are is … if there are ten steps, today was like taking four steps,” Dellenger said. “Next week, the bill is supposed to pass the Senate, and it will probably be that fifth or sixth step. Then it’s got to go to the House of Representatives for a couple more steps. … So we’re almost halfway through the approval process, … which is the farthest along any college sports bill has advanced.”
As of Tuesday, Sept. 15, the Protect College Sports Act passed the debate period in the Senate with a vote of 74 to 24. The bill is expected to fully pass from the Senate as early as this week. The bill contains many specific rules in 170 pages; Dellenger delved into one particular rule, which was named after former Ole Miss Football head coach Lane Kiffin.
“There’s a ‘Lane Kiffin’ rule in the bill, and it prevents a coach from leaving a team before that team’s season is over,” Dellenger said. “It would be against the law for a coach to leave a (team) before the season is over.”
Dellenger mentioned that the concept that could be the most trouble in the House of Representatives is conference realignment.
“There’s a section in the bill, it’s kind of the anti-expansion provision, and it does two main things,” Dellenger said. “It caps power conference membership to 19 schools. … The second thing it does is a school that wants to move to another power conference, sort of like Clemson wanting to move to the SEC, would have to operate as an independent for three years. It’s a probationary period before they can move.”
Dellenger pointed out that elected officials from Florida have voted against the bill due to this probationary period.
“The Florida senators voted against the bill today, and the procedural motion … is because Florida State and Miami want to move to the SEC or Big 10, and this bill would make it harder,” Dellenger said.
Ramon Oyarzun, a sophomore accountancy major from Miami, said that he enjoyed attending this panel about college sports in the new NIL era.
“I thought it was really cool to hear how (the landscape of college sports has) kind of changed, (especially) being from Miami and hearing about how schools outside the SEC like Miami and FSU want to come to the SEC or other conferences,” Oyarzun said.
Billy Kuhl, a junior journalism major from Morris County, N.J., said he decided to attend the event because of personal and professional interest.
“I am a sports journalism major, and I find this stuff very interesting,” Kuhl said. “I think the state of college sports and where it’s at was the main draw of coming tonight, and also having the ability to hear your athletic director talk about it with such powerful names like Rick Cleveland and Ross Dellenger. It just made it a can’t-miss event.”
