House Republican Suggests Congress ‘Fully Intervene’ So That ‘We Don’t Have 16 Teams in the SEC’
Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) pointed to Lane Kiffin ditching Ole Miss for LSU and the flurry of conference realignments in recent years to make the case for congressional intervention in college football.
Kiffin, who coached the Rebels to a playoff berth this year, confirmed he is departing for Baton Rouge. His new deal is worth $91 million over seven years. In the announcement, Kiffin said he wanted to finish out the season, but Ole Miss wasn’t having it.
On Monday, the House Rules Committee convened to assess the SCORE Act, which includes antitrust protections for the NCAA, a ban on athletes from being school employees, and federal regulations that supersede state laws regarding payments to athletes for use of their names, images, and likenesses.
Roy went off on the NCAA, specifically college football. He said Congress may need to get involved to rectify having so many teams in various conferences, as well as regionally misplaced schools, such as Cal and Stanford being in the Atlantic Coast Conference:
What we just saw unfold with Lane Kiffin is just an absolute abomination. People say, “Well, this is the market working, Chip. This is the market forces at play.”
This is not supposed to be a market. Not in that classic sense. Yes, college sports can compete with the NFL for revenue. Yes, college sports can compete with other entertainment dollars. I get that. But this is not supposed to be an NFL light. But yet, that’s how we’re treating it. And now we’re trying to sort of bastardize this whole thing with a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound. That’s what we’re doing.
And I don’t think it’s sufficient. I think we should have amendments. I don’t know what we’re doing, what the powers that we have here in engaging and interfering with states, but if we’re going to take a big federal step because the federal court intervened, and we’re going to intervene, well, then maybe we should fully intervene.
Maybe we should fix the damn mess so that we don’t have 16 teams in the SEC and 17 teams in the ACC and 19 teams in the Big Ten and frigging Stanford and Berkeley on the west coast in the Atlantic Coast Conference, all because of money.
Watch above via the U.S. Congress.
