Dan Hurley and Geno Auriemma didn’t waste much time getting to the heart of the matter Tuesday morning at the annual Connecticut College Basketball Coaches Breakfast in Avon: the U.S. Senate has passed the Protect College Sports Act, and both coaches like what that could mean for college sports.
The bill cleared the Senate on a bipartisan 77-22 vote Monday night and now heads to the House, which is on recess until after the November midterm elections. If it advances, the legislation would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption aimed at restoring its five-year eligibility rule and transfer limits.
Hurley made clear he sees the bill as a chance to put some order back into the sport.
“I’m excited about the bill from the standpoint of getting some rules in place, some level of structure, so that we can actually know the rules to our game," Hurley said, shortly after leaving the podium. "It’s hard to play a game if there are no rules or if you don’t know what the rules are."
For Hurley, the transfer piece is the biggest deal. Under the bill, student-athletes would be allowed just one transfer during their five-year college career, though grad transfers would still be permitted and players could transfer freely if their head coach leaves. Hurley said that kind of structure would calm things down.
"I think that transfer piece will settle a lot of things down," Hurley said. “Speaking for myself, you’re thrilled that the players are being compensated as athletes, finally.
That’s obviously a great thing. With the transfer piece, it’s so critical in just bringing stability to the sport.
It’s a league. You need rules in place so that you have structure and competitive balance and you can run a sports organization without total chaos.”
He also expects the new framework would lead to more multi-year deals for high school recruits and transfer-portal additions, along with more roster stability at programs like UConn and at the other Connecticut schools represented Tuesday: Yale, Quinnipiac, Sacred Heart, Fairfield, Central Connecticut State and New Haven.
Auriemma was just as direct from the podium.
“The fact that there’s going to be legislation that says, ‘This is what it is, this is what we’re allowed to do …’ I think that’s a good thing," Auriemma said. "What the final product looks like? I don’t know.”
The bill has its critics, including U.S. Sen.
Chris Murphy, who has argued it is "exploitive" because it would limit athletes’ earning potential while coaches can continue to make as much money as possible. Auriemma pushed back hard on that line of thinking.
College basketball players, he said, are now making upwards of $5 million to $6 million a year or more.
"And you're only working 20 hours a week," he noted. "If that's exploitation, I want to be exploited."
Auriemma said no coach is calling for players to be capped simply because they are athletes.
"What should be restricted is bad players getting paid," he said. "Bad coaches don’t get paid, they get fired.
Bad players get paid, and you can’t fire them. I don’t mind paying the really good players as much as we can possibly pay them.
The problem is, bad players are getting paid way more money than they deserve.”
ESPN’s Seth Greenberg, who moderated the event, pointed out that some coaches help establish the market for transfer-portal salaries and others are forced to follow.
Auriemma didn’t let that pass without a jab at the profession.
“We want to blame everybody," Auriemma said, "but where the problem really lies is with us coaches. We’re the ones perpetuating this.
So, we need the government to come and bail us out. When has that ever been a good idea?”
Even with the sarcasm, both coaches came down on the same side: the Protect College Sports Act looks like a positive step, and it makes compensation legal and transparent instead of leaving it to the old system of boosters and back-channel payments.
“We all know the coaches that have cheated in recruiting in the past," Hurley said. "Now, I think you have a lesser ability to do that, which is good for the sport.”
The morning wasn’t all legislation and labor talk, though. As usual when Hurley and Auriemma shared a stage, there was some playful back-and-forth.
Auriemma was reminded of the controversy he stirred last March after a confrontation with South Carolina coach Dawn Staley and after refusing to shake her hand following the Gamecocks’ Final Four win over the Huskies. He later apologized, and on Tuesday he said he had sought Hurley’s advice at the time.
"I did go to him," Auriemma noted. "(I said), 'Listen, you do this stuff all the time.
How should I handle this? Help me out here.’"
“I was a first offender," the coach continued. "This guy’s a recidivist.”
Hurley also weighed in on the NCAA’s reported discussions about summer exhibition games between college programs. He said he supports the idea, seeing it as a possible revenue source and a cheaper alternative to foreign tours.
"If you catch a 23-and-under national team and play them somewhere (that would be good)," Hurley told CT Insider.
Asked about college teams playing each other, Hurley didn’t hesitate.
"Maybe I’d ask Kimani (Young) to coach it," Hurley said. "But I’d be all for it.”
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