Heckwood
The Daily

Why Washington Is Trying to Rein In College Sports

Oct 1, 2026 · 29m 34s
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About this episode

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. Stewart Mandel of The Athletic explains why, this week, Washington decided to step in. Guest: Stewart Mandel , the editor in chief of college football for The Athletic and a host of its college football podcast “ The Audible .” Background reading: The Protect College Sports Act wants to fix college sports. Here’s what it actually targets . Does your college football roster cost $8 million or $50 million? Read The Athletic’s report on 68 teams . Here’s how the football programs blow past limits on what they can pay players . Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily . Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher . For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Why Washington Is Trying to Rein In College Sports — Heckwood