“Too Many Restrictions”: Paul Finebaum Doesn’t Have Much Faith in Ted Cruz’s Bipartisan Bill

The last few months have seen several federal attempts to reform college athletics. The latest one saw Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell introduce a bipartisan bill titled ‘Protect College Sports Act.’ It addresses issues related to NIL, coaching changes, and transfers. However, analyst Paul Finebaum believes the likelihood of moving the 111-page bill forward is very low.

“Not really,” said Finebaum during his May 29 appearance on ESPN College Football when asked if he liked this new bill. “This is the Lane Kiffin bill, presented by Ted Cruz. And while there are a lot of good things in there, I’ll spare the nation from falling asleep going through every one of them. There’s also so many restrictions.”

“That I don’t know how you stop all these things because right now everything in college athletics is about going to your neighborhood judge and having him save your star’s eligibility. And unless there is a sweeping antitrust part of this and it’s a very narrow one, I don’t think it will matter. And quite frankly, just not to circumvent the conversation, but it is almost June. This is an election year, and I do not believe this bill is going to get very far.”

Finebaum would be shocked if this bill passes because it imposes heavy restrictions on players. This bill won’t allow players to transfer multiple times. Players will get one free transfer, while a second transfer will force them to sit out a full year. Moreover, it places a strict five-year cap on athletic eligibility. In a modern CFP era, where players like Trinidad Chambliss fought for a sixth-year eligibility and a Mississippi state judge granted a preliminary injunction overruling the NCAA, to establish this kind of restrictions seems impossible.

You take the example of Texas Tech QB Brendan Sorsby, too. Despite the NCAA rejecting his reinstatement and ruling him permanently ineligible following his gambling scandal, his legal team is fighting in court to restore his eligibility. Then, the new bill places a financial “poison pill” on powerful conferences, and that could single-handedly doom the legislation.

More importantly, Section 10 of this Act mentioned the “Lane Kiffin Rule,” which prohibits schools from poaching or hiring coaches before the conclusion of a season. “It’s not fair or right to poach a coach in the middle of the season while the team is still competing,” said Cruz. “There’s a reason the NFL has a rule that you can’t do that. Obviously, NFL teams hire coaches away from each other, but they don’t do so in the middle of the season.”

In 2025, Kiffin left Ole Miss before their playoff run and accepted a seven-year, $91M contract to become LSU head coach. That cost the Rebels big, and not only Kiffin, but OSU OC Brian Hartline accepted the USF head coaching job, and then there was Jon Sumrall. All their moves affected the respective programs that they left.

But if Kiffin stays to coach the Rebels, he loses valuable weeks to recruit in Baton Rouge and won’t be able to land a No. 1-ranked portal class in 2026. Therefore, a fix in the college athletics calendar is needed. And to pass this bill, college sports will look to Washington for help. That’s where Fineabum highlighted that to become law, the bill requires a level of political support, and its possibility is low.

However, if it passed somehow, that didn’t change Kiffin’s claim before this act was introduced.

Lane Kiffin’s huge claim regarding his former team

Lane Kiffin’s controversial LSU move may not repeat this upcoming season if the Protect College Sports Act passes. But before this Act was introduced, the new LSU head coach claimed if Ole Miss allowed him to coach the 2025 playoff, they would appear in the National Title game.

“(If) Pete Golding is in the press box calling the defense, that team is in the national championship,” said Kiffin in an interview with the USA Today Sports. “I don’t know what happens against Indiana because the quarterback (Fernando Mendoza) is so good. We might win it, but we’re definitely in it. We ain’t losing to Miami.”

Under Golding, Ole Miss won two postseason games against Tulane and Georgia but fell short in the CFP semifinal against the Hurricanes. Although Lane Kiffin wanted to coach the Rebels, taking a job with a direct SEC rival barred him from doing that. Now his logic is debatable, but LSU AD showed agreement with Ole Miss AD’s decision.

Now, we will see if Kiffin’s decision to move to LSU fulfills his dream of a national title or not. But if the bill passes, he won’t leave the Tigers in mid-season.

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