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Ted Cruz: “I would have simply empowered conferences in the NCAA to…”

Featuring: Ted Cruz, Republican | U.S. Senate, Texas

End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports

Published May 28, 2026 | Video Starts at 14:24

So I filed a bill about a year and a half ago so you could see the bill that I would have filed. It's what I filed previously. I would have simply empowered conferences in the NCAA to make rules concerning eligibility in the transfer portal. and left it to them to figure out the specifics. That would be my preference. Senator Cantwell did not want to do that. (14:24–14:33)

CLAIM

Asserts that Ted Cruz's preference was to empower NCAA conferences to make rules on transfer portal eligibility.

This is an excerpt from a raw transcript. The assertions have not been audited or verified. Tap the video to view the source footage and understand the context.

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Ted Cruz

“If Congress doesn't act, we are three to five years away from seeing a 30 to 50 college football programs and every other program going…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 09:01-09:14
“Most of the programs are losing millions and even tens of millions of dollars.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 09:14-09:18
“Seeing college sports blown up, seeing hundreds of thousands of scholarships going away... that's not helping the minority community.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 26:38-26:59
“We've got, I think, chaos in college sports which results in athletes going through the transfer portal over and over and over again.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 01:46-01:56
“We're seeing week after week different schools that are canceling programs. They're canceling women's sports, they're canceling track and…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 02:00-02:10
“Schools are caught in an out of control spending spiral where they're losing tens of millions of dollars.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 02:10-02:17
“I've spent three years working trying to get a bipartisan coalition for Congress to act to bring stability to the programs.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 02:32-02:43
“This week, finally, we announced bipartisan legislation, legislation that I drafted along with Democrat Maria Cantwell.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 02:47-02:56
“I believe we're going to get this done in the Senate.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 04:03-04:07
“The Senate rules require 60 votes. There are only 50 Republicans. That means you need a minimum of seven Democrats.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 04:09-04:18
“I've been spending a lot of time talking to university presidents, athletic directors, coaches, talking to stakeholders who care desperately…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 04:33-04:46
“Eligibility rules, that every athlete has five years of eligibility, that 24 is the age cap and at the end of 24, that's it.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 05:18-05:28
“On the transfer portal, what we've written in is every athlete gets one free transfer.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 05:37-05:43
“If your coach leaves, you can have a second transfer. If your program is canceled, you can transfer.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 05:51-05:58
“Congress needs to act to save college sports.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 07:10-07:14
“One of the important things this bill does is protects the rights of athletes to receive nil genuine name, image and likeness compensation.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 08:26-08:37
“Part of this chaos was caused by Congress because Congress under the antitrust laws, passed the antitrust laws and the NCAA right now I…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 09:35-09:46
“This bill allows for college teams to pool their revenue and negotiate collectively for media rights.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 10:53-11:01
“We require that if a program comes together and negotiates for pooled media rights, that they have to preserve all of their scholarship…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 11:07-11:23
“The challenge getting here has been negotiating a bipartisan agreement that both sides could, could get to Maria Cantwell, who is my lead…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 13:04-13:15
“I filed a bill about a year and a half ago so you could see the bill that I would have filed.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 14:18-14:22
“A big area of dispute between Democrats and Republicans is whether student athletes are employees.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 15:11-15:18
“My old version of the bill said unequivocally, they [student athletes] are not employees.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 15:25-15:30
“We have a provision that says the bill is neutral on the question of employment status.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 15:50-15:56
“There are a lot of these rights that we give student athletes all sorts of rights. Health and safety, more health care coverage, safety…”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 16:15-16:24
“By creating [private rights of action], there'll be a lot more litigation.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 16:38-16:42
“The President did ultimately create a commission on college sports.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 17:17-17:22
“The President can do some things through executive order, but to fix this problem, we need legislation.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 17:49-17:56
“Right now, two Senate Democrats [support the bill]. I think we will get more.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 18:04-18:08
“The bill is deliberately silent on the question of collective bargaining.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 21:08-21:13
“We mandate significantly increased athlete representation within the NCAA.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 21:17-21:23
“We allow schools to join together and negotiate for pooled media rights.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 21:23-21:29
“Student athletes will have their rights to receive compensation protected.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 21:51-21:56
“We create a $60 million health insurance trust fund to provide funding for health insurance.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 21:59-22:07
“We actually have a new rule we put in this bill that we're calling the Lane Kiffin rule.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 23:05-23:11
“Brett wants to say unequivocally, student athletes are not employees. I do, too.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 24:23-24:30
“There is going to be litigation from this.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 25:11-25:14
“The SCORE act in the House... ultimately did not have broad enough bipartisan support to pass.”
End NCAA Wild West: Ted Cruz wants to save College sports | Uploaded May 28, 2026 | 25:58-26:08