Why Washington Is Trying to Rein In College Sports

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<p>In the five years since student athletes have been allowed to earn money, college sports have become a chaotic and murky marketplace where players can move from team to team chasing a payday.</p><p>Stewart Mandel of The Athletic explains why, this week, Washington decided to step in.</p><p>Guest: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/stewart-mandel/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><strong>Stewart Mandel</strong></a>, the editor in chief of college football for The Athletic and a host of its college football podcast “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/podcast/97-the-audible-with-bruce-and-stew/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Audible</a>.”</p><p>Background reading:&nbsp;</p><ul><li>The Protect College Sports Act wants to fix college sports. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7602850/2026/09/18/protect-college-sports-act-athlete-spending/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Here’s what it actually targets</a>.</li><li>Does your college football roster cost $8 million or $50 million? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/interactive/college-football-nil-spending-budgets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read The Athletic’s report on 68 teams</a>.</li><li>Here’s how the football programs <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7590329/2026/09/17/college-football-revenue-sharing-nil-cap-budgets/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blow past limits on what they can pay players</a>.</li></ul><p>Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</p> <p><p>For more information on today’s episode, visit <a href="http://nytimes.com/thedaily?smid=pc-thedaily"><strong>nytimes.com/thedaily</strong></a>. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. </p><p> </p><p>Subscribe today at <a href="http://nytimes.com/podcasts">nytimes.com/podcasts</a> or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher">https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher</a>. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.</p></p><br/> <p>Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See <a href="https://pcm.adswizz.com">pcm.adswizz.com</a> for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.</p>