treatment. states can go beyond that as additional and new challenges are identified. >> for the democratic process to work as it should, the pda has to be given a fair reading. what we know about the pda is that it was supposed to be about removing stereotypes of pregnant women as marginal workers. it was supposed to be about ensuring that they wouldn't be unfairly excluded from the workplace. what you're saying is there's a policy that accommodates some workers, but that's all pregnant women on one side of the line. what you are further saying is that the employer doesn't have to justify that policy à la mcdonnell douglas. it seems to me a reading of the statute, the pda that ignores two-thirds of the tax. >> i'm not saying that the employer is a subject to suit under mcdonnell douglas but i think there are no valid competitors here. all that we are saying -- that's all that we are saying in that regard.

the states that -- >> so is situate it says any group that doesn't get the benefit, a group that is nonpregnant, then pregnant people are -- any group at all? >> if you have a policy, i'm not sure what one would look like that singled out pregnant employees plus one other employee, my guess is -- >> what category of employs? >> a policy that is at issue here distinguishes on the job versus off the job injuries. that's a distinction that is echoed in state and federal law. that's a far cry from the policy that singles out pregnant women. >> singling out is in the first -- >> or targeting or otherwise primarily disadvantaging. that distinction tracks what workers comp requires, which is payment for employees were injured on the job, and many employers, including the u.s. postal service have found it advantageous to provide

light-duty accommodations to their employees can be at work while they are rehabilitating and provide some productive work for the company. that distinction is as legitimate as you could get. i see my time is up, your honor. >> thank you counsel. mr. bagenstos, you have four minutes remaining. >> thank you, thank you. i'd like to begin if they could with the facts because justice alito did ask and just resorted to disagree with ups's assertion here. in this case was on summary judgment a ups does point directly to some general statements the new record by ups managers they never authorize these accommodations. that's a factual dispute that has to go to trial. >> you really think that you can provide at trial that if somebody is injured in a wreck

reflecting over the weekend that they get light-duty but a pregnant woman does not make? >> if someone is injured over the weekend in way that leads them to be beauty decertified, yes. the ups manager so testament about his sports injury. so yes we think so. the second when i estimate is about what the two clauses to come and i think this is very important. the first clause of the pda as this court has said in newport news and calfed overturns the reasoning in general electric versus google. what the for clause says is where gilbert said look, this commission is some pregnancy isn't sexist omission because of pregnant women a nonpregnant person, that's wrong instead because of pregnancy is because of sex definitionally. that's not what the second clause does. the second clause as this court said in newport news and calfed goes further no rules holding. justice kagan was correct in describing the facts of gilbert

that the gilbert holding would not be overturned under ups is reading because they gilbert policy, the one thing we know that congress meant to say was illegal, the gilbert policy itself acted it do lines in pregnancy neutral ways. it's a together off the job injury or accident defined us off the job illness or accident defined as an accidental injury then you get a disability benefits. pregnancy isn't an illness and isn't an accident in the sense of an accidental injury. we know congress was trying to do because congress said it and this court has said come is to overturn the holding to ups's rule simply revises the rule at issue in gilbert. if i might return to the point justice breyer has made a couple times at various points in the argument. >> should i think the reverse. the second sentence is what does that. the second sentence says you don't worry about whether it's between sexes did you worry about whether the same class of

people people who are injured off duty, are being treated differently when they have the same ability to work. >> well i think, justice sotomayor, the first clause says you don't worry about whether they are the same sex or not. you don't look at -- >> no, you do have to worry about it because it still has to be sex determination. >> the first clause defines pregnancy this commission as sextus commission. that is because of sex. that's overturning the gilbert reasoning coming from geduldig that pregnancy this commission isn't the sex discrimination. and i think under ups's rule it wouldn't do that. on justice breyer's question, basically how do we deal with a world where the simply the treats to different groups of people who are nonpregnant particularly? does shall be treated the same name shall be treated the same

as those who get a better deal for those who get the worst deal? tessa stansbury and justice kagan articulated this well, that their position really would give least favored nation status to pregnant workers. we know that can't be something that congress intended. we know that if our because of what general verrilli said that that's not how anti-discrimination law works. the fact that someone else was discriminate against doesn't mean i lose. justice alito's opinion for the third circuit articulate a single. we know that because the purpose of this statute is to say to employers, you have to treat pregnant workers as just as valued employees as anybody else, and if you think it's valuable to keep these employees on the job you're injured on the job because they keep valuable knowledge within the company, do that for pregnant women. thank you. >> thank you counsel. the case is submitted. >> s. 2014 trust to close would like to know what you thought that top start of the year was.

log on to her facebook page two leader thoughts and try to get to your responses on the air to update today. lawmakers return next week to start the 114th congress but they will gaveling in on tuesday at noon eastern. we will see the swearing-in of members and election for house speaker but you can watch the house live on c-span and the senate live on c-span2. with the new congress to let the best access to the most extensive coverage anywhere. track the gop as it leads on capitol hill and have your say as events unfold on tv radio and the web. the new congress will start off the air with 247 house republicans, the largest uk majority since the 1928 elections. the we 188 democrats. republican conference michael graham says he will resign effective january 5 after pleading guilty to tax evasion, and the senate with republicans now in the majority of 54 republicans, 44 democrats and to independence. bernie sanders of vermont and

angus king of maine were expected talks with the democrats. there will be over 101 and caucus for the first time, 84 in the house with 22 republicans 62 democrats and 20 in the senate, the same as in the last congress with six republicans and 14 democrats. it would be a record six republican women senators. >> new year's day on the c-span networks pick your our some of our featured programs.

>> the commission of the national hockey league and

washington capitals owner ted leonsis weasley sat down for a conversation about the future of the nhl. they talk about the intersection of technology and sports, the nhl's annual winter classic game which takes place tomorrow and other issues including efforts to bring the olympic games to the nation's capital. this is from the national press club. it's about one hour. >> good afternoon and welcome. my name is myron belkind i'm an adjunct professor at the george washington university school of media and public affairs former international. chief with the associate press and the 107th president of the national press club. the national press club is a world leading professional organization for journalists committed to our professions future to our programming with events such as this while fostering a free press worldwide. for more information about the

national press club please visit our website at press.org. on behalf of our members worldwide, i'd like to welcome our speakers and those of you attending today's event. our head table includes guest of our speakers as well as working journalists to our club members. so if you hear applause in august i note that members of the general public are attending so it is not necessarily evidence of the lack of journalistic objectivity. i would also like to welcome our c-span and public radio audiences. you can follow the action on twitter using the hashtag npc lunch. after our guest speech concludes will have a question and answer period. i will ask as many questions as time permits. now it's time to it is our head table guests. i like each of you to stand briefly as your name is introduced. from your right john, coach of the national press club division

champion softball team who also happens to be a reporter. jennifer berlin, deputy political director. jonathan, washington correspondent for the new jersey advanced media reporter, former national press club president and a former coach of the championship winning national press club softball team. [laughter] jason anthony strategic partner at clear channel and a member of the national press club's broadcast committee. pat host, defense daily and speaker committee member who helped organize today's event. i will skip over our guest of honor while the introduced the rest of the head table, gary washington bureau chief of the buffalo news, chair of the speakers committee and a former national press club president.

kevin, u.s. navy retired and the other speaker committee member who helped organize today's event. frank brown, national hockey league vice president for media relations and a guest of gary bettman. bob cartman -- bob cartman, freelance writer and head of carden communications. ann ludwig, national association of home builders come into mitigation manager and frank, a member of the national press club newsmakers committee, and a hockey referee for the past 25 years. [applause] >> national hockey league commissioner gary bettman and washing capitals owner ted leonsis are with us today to face off and speak about the state of the national hockey league, the upcoming winter

classic which will be in d.c. for the first time. mr. bettman has been the nhl commissioner for two decades. under his leadership and nhl revenue has expanded from $400 million, to more than $3 billion. he led the expansion into nhl's national and global reach with six teams added during his tenure, bringing the total in the nhl to 30. just navigate the waters of three labor lockouts and include the cancellation of the 24-five season. mr. leonsis is ceo of monumental sports and entertainment which operates a washington capitals the washington wizards in the nba, washington mystics in the wnba, and the verizon center. psl other business interests and he's a leader in the d.c. philanthropic community supporting charities with an emphasis on military families. we are interested to hear details of our guests, details

from our guests that they can cheer about the winter classic on january 1 when the chicago blackhawks take on the washington capitals at the washington nationals stadium. of course we're also interested in hearing about other issues facing the nhl and professional sports in general. we are very pleased that our guests have brought with them the stanley cup, which one day perhaps will reside in washington for longer -- [applause] -- which one day we hope will reside in washington for longer than the length of this luncheon. [laughter] please join me in welcoming gary bettman and ted leonsis to the national press club. and they will have come instead of our traditional format of one speaker talking until 1:30, they will have a conversation between them. and then at 1:30 we'll store the q&a. mr. leonsis and ted leonsis the

podium, the chairs are yours. >> thank you very much. i'm gary. that's dead. so there's no confusion to actually want to give a shout out to the canadian ambassador to the united states ambassador to work. it's great to have you here. [applause] happens be a big fan of hockey and was are interested in the jets return to winnipeg. so it's good to have you. ted, let's talk for a second about what the stanley cup means to an owner in the nhl. and without attempting to embarrass you we had a discussion about where we sat to you would be further away from the cup at this point in time. [laughter] what goes through your mind? and i think on your 100 bucket list, winning the cup is one of it. what does it mean when you're in order and you're thinking about the cup? >> i think it creates lifelong memories for every member of the community, to be able to craft

and build the winning sports team and win a championship it's a bit of immortality for people. i'm involved in lots of businesses. but there's really no higher calling than that to have that collective psyche of all of the people in your team there to in the palm of your hands, also no bigger risk and danger of when you disappoint people on that. because scratch any individual, but in especially a sports crazed town and you'll find an expert that can do it better than you. so i'm going to continue to try as far as i can with the caps with the wizards come with the mystics, to make a team that is good as a community we serve, and bring a championship here to d.c.

[applause] >> let's take a step back. you bought the capitals in 1999. juice up legally acquired the wizards and the verizon center. in 1998-99, or even before that what was going through your mind when you said i want to own a sports team. i want to own the capitals. i want to be a hockey owner? >> well, i have made i had a life reckoning when i was a young person and ended up making a life list things to do before i died. and it was amazing. looking back at how money have to do with sports. i grew up like sports the commission in the nhl and we just dedicated a rink in the southeast part of our community ward six. and it just reminded me as a

young man of leaving school at 3:00 and then going and playing roller hockey or basketball. it became so central to the person i became, competitive, wanted to be part of teams trying to accomplish things collectively. and so sports played a big role in my life. and i wrote down own a sports team, win a championship as a hockey player. and all of a sudden you have the opportunity to do that. and that initially passed when dick patrick approached me to buy the caps. i was president of america online, married. i had young children. body was a lot of money. i thought it was a lot of work. i frankly didn't want the notoriety and the spotlight at that would be a tough environment, because i knew what i would get into in running a public trust.

i went home that night and my wife said, what's new? i said i met this guy. he's trying to sell me a hockey team. she said, what do you say? i said i passed. i couldn't do it. i gave her the reasons. right before we went to bed she said, what if you get 99 of the 101 things done before you die? how would you feel? [laughter] well i love you. i've got to buy the team. and so it's been a family endeavor, family labor of love. commissioner has been great in teaching us how to do it. and is really funny. as an owner, we take stupid pills. >> no. really? >> we think because you've been moderately successful in one field that you know what you're doing instantly and sports. and now that i've been in gross

boards were longtime, i figured. we laugh together. here comes the new owner. i know what he's going to say but i know what he's going to spin. i know what is going to do. this time it's going to be different. and so the leagues are very very responsible for creating an environment where you cannot do a lot of harm, but you can do a lot of good. and i'm very grateful to gary for coming here today. but i'm really grateful not only for the guidance what he's done with the league, but he gifted the winter classic to d.c. this has been considered a traditional hockey market. we have been working night and day to craft a great team to build youth hockey, to kind of

connect with the consciousness of the community, to make them fall in love with hockey. and we've been fortunate. we have a good team. we have superstar players. we sell out every game. and when i saw the winter classic, very first one on television, and we can talk about the relationship, i literally sent an e-mail to gary, before the puck dropped. and i said, i think i'm in love. [laughter] this is the greatest visual i have ever seen on television. it looked like a snow globe. and to see so many people outdoors at a hockey game, and i pretty much spent the next several years, every day saying, now don't forget about washington. >> actually, i don't know that i would've called it a gift. it's like the kid who for

christmas, gives his parents his list everyday for four years. [laughter] and is going to throw a temper tantrum if he doesn't get -- no. that's an overstatement. ted, as you know from following the wizards and the caps, is a passionate owner. he says it's stupid pills. i think you're passionate when you first come in to buy team, there's something that drives you in ways that you wouldn't have any of the business. because no matter what of the business you buy, you're never as passionate as buying a sports team. so what's it like they what's it like day-to-day being an owner? how high do you get on the wins? how low do you get on the lowest? and does it affect you in ways you never imagined? >> it can be wearing. they can be joyful. the social responsibility of owning these teams, because they are small businesses i've run

really big businesses. and employ hundreds of thousands of people, and 25000 people at aol, and companies that go public and create a lot of valley. and you own a sports team, and there are hundreds of millions of dollars. and we employ hundreds of people. yet, because of the media, i mean i'm here for the press club, i could come to the press club like weekly, i think, you would have it because i own sports teams. when i was president of aol wouldn't give me a sniff. [laughter] i mean i think that kind of -- right? i mean we would launch a new piece of software that we do $4 billion in revenues in its first year, and you'd get like a write up like this in the "washington post." and we trade a third line

player, and there's a columnist writing about it. it's news and ap. and so sports has become such a defining element in all businesses. when you look critically at the demography of our country, 65% of our population is now co-i deleted around 32 big cities. and that phenomenon continues. it's one of the reasons that d.c. has become such a magnificent place to work. great kids come to our universities. they are introduced to upgrade the city is. they want to stay here. they get jobs. bip stacy. the innovation stays here, and it starts to feed upon itself. there's very few iconic institutions that define a major metro area. it's universities. got georgetown, george washington american, catholic

maryland, i meet on and on with unbelievable universities. it's iconic real estate. no one has iconic real estate like washington, d.c. the lincoln monument. i mean just go down the mall it's breathtaking. it's public space. manhattan was unlivable. watch gangs of new york if you want a reintroduction to a manhattan was like until they built central park. we've got the most iconic gathering space. the "i have a dream" speech was delivered here. you know, for my kids it was walking from virginia because they closed the bridge to go to the first inauguration of president obama, 5 million people on the mall. public space. fourth is a defining business community. silicon valley, hollywood, wall street, this was the federal city where we were created to be the people city.

and then last its sports teams. you close your eyes and think chicago, you will think of black or the cubs. you think boston. you think montréal, you think of the canadians. and so here we have the most important economic and social centers. and sports teams played this pivotal, defining role. that responsibility can be daunting, because they can only be one team that wins, right. and that means there's 29 losers every year. i mean it's true. and business is like that. i mean you can take a company public and create billions of dollars of value and wealth and have the number two or number three market share and your success, right? you can launch a product that's

as good have some features that are better and your success. in sports, you lose the seventh game of the stanley cup, in overtime, and you're the loser right? [laughter] >> talking about cities and economics, one of my pet peeves is you get these academic economists who will tell you that sports teams don't have an economic impact. and arenas that publicly financed have no economic impact. i happen to think that's absurd. talk about the verizon center formally the mci center and whether or not it had an impact on washington, d.c. >> well, it's had a defining impact on washington, d.c. and mr. poland was a visionary, very brave. he also you know structured a

deal that was not a great deal with the city but it led the way for the city to see how great the economic impact would be. and that's why we have nationals park and the baseball team. but basically, when i went to georgetown university as a student i was told, enjoy the campus, enjoy georgetown, go to the mall. whatever you do, do not go anywhere near 10th street. 10th street was at the bookstores, drug dealing, prostitution. now it's the shakespeare theatre and the national portrait gallery and rosa mexicana. ..

into the community and guess what, they come into washington and it's become a living infomercial about dc. no one was coming because they were afraid of the neighborhood and someone finally came to the game and said this is nice. there is lazy thinking and reporting everywhere not that the media would ever do anything

so it's unsafe. downtown can be unsafe. washington is the safest city in the world. [applause] we held a concert for half a million people and game for 20,000 people and not an incident was reported mostly because we have nice people but as everyone kind of knows there's probably more cameras than any other place on earth. they show up and we have the

most phd of any community in the world. we have the most fiber and bandwidth of any community in the world and speak the most languages. 170 languages are spoken in dc. 20% of the population is foreign-born and almost 80,000 people have moved back into the city. they are all moving back. so just go around the nationals park. there are more cranes than any city on earth. that is happening here.

this is the greatest place and i think the first pebble that was thrown into this pond was the belief that downtown can be thriving and be a place for the creative class and that is a central role that we play in the economy. >> you touched on where you really made your money is in technology. talk about this point in time of technology, sports what people are hearing about and why you started the monumental network. >> technology like oxygen. we are living in this world where these phenomenon are faster better, cheaper and the

network effect it's the more productive that we become and those are the two self evident. theory is that our generation are privy to so because of that there is more technology being introduced on an annual basis van in the 50 years previous. i worked my first computer at georgetown university in 1876 euros one computer on campus, a mainframe computer in the registrar's office. my iphone six has more computing power. that's unbeatable progress. we have 6 million mobile subscribers around the world in

a 3 million people connected to the web. we have less than 300 million. less than 10% of the world's internet traffic. so we cannot claim that any more as the resource and because the internet is so ubiquitous and available it will activate creative classes all around the world. that is what we imagine. it is being transformed quickly by technology. obviously we have a lot of work that's going on in being able to algorithmically studied the performance of the players and

how we market the teams and deliver information and the algorithms rule teaching math and mandarin is probably the two important subjects. the icu right now that everything is an internet device. you've got your fit that on. i counted almost 1500 steps today. >> i ate as that many calories. [laughter] so i do see that we will be big data generating machines or the vision of what we see someone interviewed me outside in the

hallway. so the watch the wallet, it's all going to be connected and wired. the way they did letter information is changing dramatically. in the 6 billion homes to pay for some kind of mobile subscription. it's a huge business to be connected to television. and sports is proving to be the only programming on pay television that can convenient

real-time large audiences of people and that is counter to if you ask somebody what was more valuable produced television or sports i saw this fight years ago my daughter was a freshman in college and she came home with some girlfriends and they would've been much -- binge watch gossip girls. all four seasons. i said what network was this on and she said apple tv. [laughter] didn't know. was paying $1.99 to watch what was on free television on the cw

so the sports in real-time had an unbelievable power and it's become the economic driver. think eight of the top ten shows where nba and nfl shows helped launch a cable network with nhl and nbc sports. let's go on to how important the programming is. so we want to bring that content around the world. we hear that in the over-the-top networks being able to deliver content programming there probably won't be live games. you should be able to see highlights and interviews

communicate. if you are in india or china or russia there's a whole generation right now of young people who may not get cable. i have two children through both just graduated college. neither one of them for the last ten years has had a home phone number. they don't have a home number. can you imagine our generation? when my son went to college she didn't get local cable. he said i have my computer, you have cable. i'm not sure that i need to pay

those dollars. and they talk about cord cutters the next generation will be never on. they will never have subscribed to a newspaper. they are following me here today and i agreed to let them do it. i would read every word of it. my son is in subscribed to any magazine. he's never filled out one of those cards. most of it is free. so there's going to be a whole generation.

i get as much as i can for free and very selectively only pay for things that i see value in. >> i think our guests of honor for the format of conversation. you have a future career as an interviewer. [applause] first set of questions to conclude by 2:00. how did the national hockey league choose and where do you see the future games being held? >> a smart answer would be we throw darts. the latter is closer to the truth. we look to the opportunistic. we started this in buffalo with

a notion that maybe it would work and then once it did we started looking for what would be the next place that would build upon it that would continue to grow as an institution and then as we got more and more comfortable building it as an event we decided we could try things that some people thought would be crazy. last year we did an outdoor game in los angeles and it was great for us to come to the nation's capital. there is a fan base built through the organization and the use of social media and the commitment to the community that made us comfortable that selling out the venue would be no problem and a second it would have an impact on the community that we thought would be not just positive for what should law shouldn't nbc that would

reflect well on the leave and we felt the critical mass was there every city and every club wants one. even in florida or arizona. why can't we have one? >> we try to move it around and that is does the same with the all-star draft. he also promised me we would never have weather like we did this morning when we were dedicating the legacy. but we thought what better place at this time in the genesis of the outdoor games than to be here and bring in the blackhawks which is a great team. we think there is no better way for us to start in 2015

>> we have a question from the representative of new jersey. i need to know whether or not i'm going to be canceling my subscription. we've already seen the classic at the stadium. we played to outdoor games last winter in new jersey metropolitan area. we are going to be moving things around before we go back to a place that we've been. we've been getting many expressions of interest by metlife stadium at least for the time being hasn't played in the fact the islanders the rangers and the devils. playing in new york and jersey is a unique situation because of the three clubs. if we had only played one game,

the team that was excluded said he would have driven us out of business, so we had to play two games to make sure that everybody was included but i have a lot of other teams that won the game and other stadiums before we could come back. >> clearly your success as commissioner is in the fact that there seems to be interested in other cities that want the nhl team. i have a general question and then a few specific questions on the specific cities. and expect you to announce that the national it at the national press club. >> okay. >> what is your forecast on the prospect of future expansion having the equal number of teams in the eastern and western conference's? >> let me take that into pieces. i try not to be in the prognostication business. i don't like guessing about things. yes i'm charged with leadership

and vision, but we know how often they are right. we are probably stronger as the league. the franchises are stronger as a group than ever before. the ownership group is the strongest it's ever been. and as a result, we are getting expressions of interest in the number of places that don't have franchises. it's gratifying. it's also why i think they help the franchises they are on a dalia basis. we are listening that but we are not doing anything about it. we are letting people walk and we are listening to the expressions of interest. yes we have 16 teams in the east and 14 of another but that was by virtue of a realignment we did a couple of years ago to try to fix columbus and detroit

columbus and their inception, detroit for more than 20 years were in the west and. they made it very difficult for their travel and also made it difficult for their fans when they went on the road and have to play games on television back because if they were on the west coast was late at night. we had minnesota in the northwest. they wanted to be in the central time zone. dallas was in the pacific. they wanted to be in the central. we realized the only way we could do that was to have 16 in east and 14 in the west. we are scheduling around that. we don't think it is a problem however we do understand that there are some people who do but we are not going to expand just for symmetry. it's not whether or not you

bring a new partner or city. obviously if we are going to expand and if somebody wanted to team in the east it would make it more complicated to say the least because 17 of 18 of the east and 14 in the west exacerbates what some people perceived to be a problem. since we are not in the formal expansion right now. >> i don't expect you to give the pros and cons about the specific cities to let you know that request came from persons who want to know about the possibilities of a threat in portland or oklahoma or in the hometown of cleveland ohio where i grew up. if you want to announce that. >> seattle has expressed an

interest before the nba went to oklahoma they tried to get in and a chill -- nhl franchise. they've given solicitations of interest. we are just listening. >> i was waiting for the city question. he actually was helpful getting the team back after they left in the '90s. >> one or two more and then we will move over. what are the challenges working with the players union and will it be subjected? >> we don't like walkouts.

it's not a matter of pride that we have had some fundamental problems that have to be addressed and if you don't get the cooperation you need, the collective bargaining for the union and you are prepared to do what needs to be done in order to get to a place you can make the business of the game healthy and you sometimes have to go through those. we've had issues relating to the union. we think that it went through four or five executive directors but there were things that have to be changed and i get asked the question of what was it worth it and i never like to say that it was worth it because that makes it sound on some level like i was happy to go through it.

every successive year has never been healthier or bigger or more popular than the game on the ice has never been better. from the standpoint how do you view the work stoppages and we couldn't have gotten through it and achieve the objectives that we set out to achieve. >> while the commissioner was speaking i noticed there was a light coat. [laughter] you will probably get e-mails from about 30 people saying you have a light out. [laughter] they deserve an opportunity to hope and dream their team can be competitive. the system that has been implemented now.

they are thinking they can make the playoffs and we have seen and believe in 15 spots and they end up winning the cup that year so they think about the system for the fans that if you are a really big market you can't outspend someone in the small-market. so you come to the sprint for the playoffs. we missed the playoffs by three

points. we should have made the playoffs they want to be on winning teams and i've looked at others that don't have a system like that. we are going to spend $40 in the payroll and they will spend $200 million in payroll. and they develop and get good and it will go to another market. so what happens the scar tissue built up in the fan base because they feel disadvantaged. they don't want to fall in love with the young player. the day that the washington capitals took off is when he

became this great player and he announced i want to stay in washington, in washington, d.c. and we signed a 13 year contract. i honestly bb that the fan base says we can believe, become trust that he's not going to a big market or canadian team. it was a verification that this was a great place and we could have a great team. i like the system for the benefit of the fan. it starts to put an emphasis on how good the leader and manager is because it can't outspend everybody. you have a good system, you have to draft and develop well and manage the cap which makes it

even more fun to manage. i paid everybody during all of the work stoppages. it's very painful. we don't have to pay the mortgage on the building now. but eventually where it hurts the most is that advance low and that is the great thing about the sports teams the other day we were a little late and she said what time does the game start. we set it starts at the same time. it's not like i'm going to call over and say running late.

but there is a trust that is embedded in that. it ends that weekend at the playoffs begin this week. you feel terrible for the fans, for the workers offered the players. so when you make that decision it's a really difficult decision and you have to make sure that you come out of it as much as stronger. they've never been stronger. the competitiveness has never been better. the quality of play has never

been better and i think a lot of that comes from the core deliverable that all teams can be competitive. >> i will ask you a few questions now. >> we are going to switch the topic. you are involved in the efforts to bring the olympics to washington d.c. in 2024. and how did they change the region. with the mission it would be mission based projects that we can rally around.

we just came back from a week overseas and many organizations people represent partially responsible for how the world sees us. we watch sky tv and the tv shows you would think everyone has ebola and every city is closed down because of riots and there is a war going on in america. that is the imagery that is basically being discovered to the world and every media outlet has outlines the talk about the dysfunction of washington d.c. how broken america is and how dysfunctional dc is and we live

here in washington this is the greatest city in the world and doing something like the own pics our chair man is here and we have an opportunity to accomplish a lot. on the small level we can reimagine the city. when i was in london last week i got goosebumps seeing the area around the verizon center were totally transformed by the open back -- the olympic games.

if you made a profit on the games they created a community where public transportation united a disconnected part of the city. they turned the village into a link on how housing. the data centers and the fiber that was played created supplicant roundabouts that is now a thriving number one job creator for the adventure capital technical center. we can deal with scar tissue and a birth defect that we have been washington, d.c. that we haven't been able to embrace and go across and make the community a part of us for the world we are in desperate need to show a

united front that we stand for something good. and honestly nothing is more transformative. do you believe in miracles? yes. that is representative of the follow-up question. it is a sport and the cost of what was the cost and how could it be nhl and others help get involved in the further diversified makeup of the players in the nhl? >> they've done an unbelievably good job and a lot of times it's

not front-page news to talk about the commissioner's work with black colleges and scholarship funds. why would you want to write about that? you would move to the rain and the cold and i will be honest with you i'm disappointed but i am disappointed but not a senior city official was there. they give them kids that will have that for decades and we train kids and there is a hall of fame player and a sports teams we really are in pursuit. we've kept the capitals ice packs and we give 1200 hours a

year. i won't be disingenuous. it's the right thing to do but it's also good business. introducing people across all economic strata. it's the smart business. they are the next great defenseman. number one or number three pick in the draft of couple of years ago there was a basketball player that was popeye jones and they got treated while he was in dallas and there were blinks

that were being built and they started to play ice hockey and he could end up being one of the best defense men in the league. we were very active. >> fact is we spend millions of dollars in support which is in the grassroots organization that manages hockey across the united states and we have programs and a number of disadvantaged inner-city programs and whether it is on harlem in new york and

he's the owner that has taken over from the city all that had been dilapidated and either shut down or was about to be shut down and for me this may not make anyone happy in terms of the bottom line, but in the case of the broad objectives it's a vehicle for children to learn life lessons pa good student hard work, team work diligent fitness, getting the education that you need so you can do anything else. if we can get young people involved by using hockey is will be great if they can become fans and there will be the amazing if they can become nhl players but it's not as important as getting back to the community by making the kids to be in a position to

go to college and do things with their life they never would have had an opportunity to do. [applause] you are having a conversation and i think that you deserve a special round of applause. [applause] before asking the last question since you would like to received the last question which is a two-parter but i would like to present you with a press club mug. you both deserve it. [applause]

>> before i ask the asked the last question i would like to ask you one that you just referred to. the last time you spoke here the capitals were having success in the regular season and you predicted the stanley cup championship we have on the record in our archives. so why hasn't it happened? a >> there are 291 to make sure that doesn't happen. it's very humbling to realize that ultimately the failures and one success, but the great thing about sports is that you get to try it again and keep making

investments. it's hard-working enough energetic enough, investment oriented enough. eventually we will get through it. >> as a successful owner of the two professional sports teams, what advice can you offer. the second part should the washington redskins change their names why or why not? >> i've been very consistent with my answer. i have great empathy for the team and they've done things well in light of miserable failures and i've done things

i'm not proud of and haven't executed well on and my plate is full and i would never appreciate another talking about what you're doing and i don't think it's appropriate for me to address anything. [applause] >> we are out of time which often happens at sports events i want to thank the guests for being here today and sharing the podium together to read we are adjourned. thank you very much.

a look at college athletics from a the recent addition of

washington journal. this runs just over 50 minutes. today we are taking a look looking a at college athletic programs and joining us in the discussion usa athlet today sports projicects reporter steve berkowitz. college athletics. college how much of the program itselfmuch of i makes up the larger part of thethe college university and what is the role that they r play clicks. termsf the co?es of >> it is a larger piece but in terms of the publicity is viewed in college of what extent in high air at a generally generally a sort of being a front porch for the university in terms of the ways that the universities get their name out there and get the message out there and just sort of the way people interact with colleges generally through the athletic in large part in the march wave through the programs. >> host: how many students are

involved in the college athletics? >> guest: in the >> guest: into broad-based it is broad-based citizen but, the across all three divisions. it's somewhere between 450 to 470,000 who are playing sports within the division number one in the group of the schools involved in basketball tournament. >> host: we are told eight out of ten earned a bachelor's degrees and 35 presented will go on to post graduate degrees. are there issues for those participating in the college programs are the programs itself? >> the greatest challenge for any is the time demand of their sports and putting that all together and managing their time being able to get through and go on to the college. obviously most of the attention is on men's basketball and football was which is a generating sport and the time

demands are the greatest and where the academic backgrounds of some of the athletes are sometimes not quite as good as the rest of the student population but you have to keep in mind as well that the utility of the college sports runs across a much better spectrum and there are lots of people who are playing college sports who are into sports outside of those things. whether it is swimming or track and field or soccer or whatever where there is a whole lot going on and lots of students who are heavily engaged in their academics and have a lot of demand but there's not a lot of virtual prospects so they tend to be heavily involved in moving on to other things. >> host: they did a story looking at the college athletics into the kind of programs to students are involved in most of them being enrolled in the business communications and fails as a fitness studies and interdisciplinary studies.

are these pushing the programs that are not rigorous? >> guest: it doesn't mean that they are not rigorous depending on the institution but some of this has to do in the interest of people playing sports. it might be sports management or recreation or the sports oriented programs in certain programs also are more. it's something a little simpler to manage depending on the academic model of the university or the academic demands were the disciplinary demands give students more freedom to pick and choose what they are involved in but there is no question that there's been signs of the athletes being funneled towards the academic programs within the universities for a variety of reasons some of which are more mysterious than others that have raised some questions

about this and whether or not athletes are being able to major in programs that they actually wanted to be in or whether or not they are involved in programs that help them maintain their eligibility to continue playing. it is a serious commitment for every student ever landed somebody involved in the sport. >> ecologist standards on student athletes who have to make such and such grade in order to play the sport sex >> they have requirements about progress at a certain grade point average and in those requirements they vary from year to year as you go a long and complete for each year. but the idea behind those standards is to help push every player athletes towards the point where they would be able to finish their degree once they

get get on done with their eligibility. that is the goal. >> is it being achieved? >> as they've been instituted there has been an increase in the rate of graduation by athletes whether or not those are good enough, that is open for debate. it depends on what is your comparison. are you comparing them against the totality or against the male population of the schools were what is your baseline comparison point and in some places the graduation rates again and you look across the broad spectrum the athletes graduate at a higher rate than students who are not athletes in the revenue sports and football and basketball and many instances those rates are lower. >> you said revenue sports. his football and basketball

primarily? >> they generate the most revenue. there are a few sports depending on particular places actually generate surpluses although those are few and far between but for example women's basketball generates revenue. are you talking about the surplus generating sport basically the sport that generates the surpluses >> host: if you want to ask some questions about not only the student-athletes and revenues that are made or anything associated with that here are the numbers to call and we divided the line differently. perhaps you participate in sports and want to give your input. for parents 202-7481 and for educators 202748 and for everybody else 202 7488,003.

back before we go further into the revenue, when it comes to the student how much power does the student health and saying i need help or assistance. how much help can a student gets when it comes to making decisions about itself involved in the sport? >> guest: the ability to get academic assistance there is a lot of advising and the decisions athletes and up not being happy with when they are done with school because they end up getting funneled towards programs easier for them to manage and are not where they wanted to end up where they first started in the schools or maybe they are not happy with where the end of that of that when they got done with school but there's an incredible support network as most at most of the major college athletics programs and it's a completely different environment than it is for the normal student in terms of being able to access and help

with finding a preacher programs and so on. the demand for the athletes are considerable and that is the reason these are set up. there is a huge scaffolding around the athletes. >> host: sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. >> guest: again it is a question of whether or not the students are athletes wanting to end up in programs they want to be in or are they putting the programs to keep eligible or how does all that work and in some places it works really well and other places it hasn't worked well and there have been for example the university of north carolina where there is a lot of publicity recently about the academic scandal where people were being funneled into academic programs that's been proven to not be particularly rigorous or well monitored

monitor and verify a lot of problems like that. >> host: we had a chance to discuss with several presidents in the series we did previously won the state of michigan state. she talked about the university's perspective on student athletes. let's get her perspective and then you can comment. >> we have student athletes who are both men and women whose graduation rates are as a whole about the same as our student body. obviously there are a few individuals who come to the university who leave a bit early to pursue their athletic interests. but we see all of our students no matter their athletic skills as students first and athletes second for them to be successful. we also have programs to ensure that student athletes returned to graduate and stay connected with us. two examples are currently might

be an advocate or playing hockey for the detroit red wings who keeps e-mailing me that he is within six credits of getting his degree to cause he made that possible. you can look at a person like steve smith who is a commentator for basketball making a traffic income after his professional playing career and who has finished his degree and stay connected as the role model for almost every student athletes that we have. so the media tends to focus on the 1% of students who are the student-athletes who are not indicative of hours of students who receive scholarships as a part of our athletic program. >> there is validity to the process of the media on the 1% as it were. but it's the football players and men's basketball players and

those are those that were involved in sports that people are most interested in and of the the ones on television the most and so on. you will notice and you are going to hear this over and over again with the administration and the student-athletes that is a term that has evolved out of itself to try to make it sound like there is -- like it is an equal deal and in the mind of a lot of athletes, but is not the case. in many instances for a lot of these guys the athletics come equivalent if not first because of the time demanded that are involved. there is no point kidding around about it. the demands are made are significant in terms of what is going on outside of the things in the practices the so-called optional.

whether or not they are mandatory or optional, it is all the same and so the time demands on them are really significant. athletes who testified in the trial talked about some of that and for sure there are decisions that they make do with showing him to cross-examination but there's plenty of down time that they spend playing video games and watching tv marathons. so, there's a lot of time to do things with the decisions are made and the time demands that are made are considerable. this was a case that revolved around the use of athletes names images and likenesses and whether or not the athletes were being appropriately compensated for the use in live television through the free broadcasting games and all kinds of different

uses. ultimately what has happened in the district court level is the athletes were awarded partially on their behalf that would open up the possibility of athletes getting on a different basis of the compensation for their participation in sports. monetary and the actual dollars to the college scholarship which currently is for the room tuition and fees in the schools into major conferences are going through in january in all likelihood to change the definitions of the college athletic scholarship would cover those things plus the actual cost of attendance which could involve transportation back and forth to and from school and other incidentals so that becomes a very complicated discussion how you determine the cost. >> host: let's hear from people that ask about college athletic programs. steve berkowitz.

an educator you are up first, go ahead. >> caller: i appreciate the time to ask you this question. i am a character coach in the high high school in newcastle pennsylvania, and i've just been introduced in the last two years to this program. our program reaches into the likes of the student athlete when we try to support them. and the support produces the quality players and quality students coming and we have volunteers. do you find this in the colleges as well as in the high schools? have you heard this? >> what type of support are you providing? >> we are providing emotional support and in other words my job they started dropping the f.

bomb and basically get all excited and we try to bring him into the control and then we find out that there is a problem at home. we find out that there is a problem in the studies. we used support to be able to help them and how im making the transition is that in the colleges there's a lot of downtime. >> you're wondering if they have a similar type of incentive. >> i wondered if you've checked into any of this and what is your opinion of that? >> there are considerable support programs put out there for the athletes in terms of their academics as well as the other areas of their lives. i think they do make an effort to try to support them in terms of their mental and psychological health and in terms of their medical help i think there's been a greater awareness of example in concussions and the impact of

that. it's offered on the e-mail shuttle and spiritual element of this in some programs. so i think the schools are making an effort to do this. we have seen problems of the university of michigan football football program start with concussions and injuries and i think the schools are getting more and more aware of that. it's just the way the special sports are but there is the that kind of support available. go ahead. caller: good morning. ..estern and i played at ucla about 40 years ago and i think there's a lot of ignorance out there as to how an athletic scholarship was paid for. i went to school at a time when

all the ills were blamed on the football players in the world and i'd like you to explain how a scholarship -- it's really not a scholarship it's a grant and aid, and it's outside the general scholarship of the school, correct guest: yes, the athletic department tends to run their own scholarship programs. that's true. if you're askingow they by and large the money that backs all the athletic programs as gender by the athletics programs. there's also subsidies that are put into the athletic program by universitiesthe universities and the amount of money into those programs through subsidy either through institutional funding or student athletic fees varies from school to school. there were only seven programs the most recent year that were available that received no type of subsidy. so i mean there's involvement general university funds or

student, dedicated student athletic fund ease into those programs. is that what you're getting at? >> host: he's gone but to the concept of these students were not involved athletic programs, do they have an option to set would have might these put to something else other than sports programs transferred no. there are these specifically to support student programs. in exchange students are given in a discounted tickets to events for free admission to events, but those athletic these in the vast majority of cases those are not optional to their mandatory fees just like the fee you get charged to help support the computer infrastructure, the phone system, the bus system whatever else. that's part and parcel of the free structure. >> host: for football and basketball much of the revenue that's comprised especially in the ncaa comes from television? >> guest: a lot of it comes from television either through

the arrangements the comment does make for football, which is where a lot of that money comes from or it also comes from the ncaa from my comes out of the television contract for the ncaa men's basketball tournament. football television is much bigger driver in those conferences that have the bigger television contracts, the five major conferences, atlantic coast, the big ten big 12, sec and the pac-12. >> host: a student mark you're on with steve berkowitz -- steve berkowitz. good morning. >> caller: good morning. thanks for disclosing all the information that you do. it's very helpful. >> guest: appreciated, thanks. >> caller: no problem. i wanted to make a comment and then just wanted to hang up after that. i hear all of this stuff going on about the ncaa and athletes should be thankful for scholarships. being at home athlete myself

it's the biggest hypocrisy that i've ever witnessed. you cannot sit here and tell me that athletes cannot be paid money when i see coach like nick saban they can $7 million having a $3 million home paid for. i see coach jim harbaugh being offered $8 million. and then a cta suspended because he made a few bucks off of his autographs. you can never sit here and make a legitimate argument to me about a kid receiving a scholarship when the universities are making hundreds of millions of dollars off of their backs. it will never add up. it will never equalized. these kids for most of them have not asked to come to school. for the most part a lot of them are forced to come to school because they have to meet a requirement to become a professional athlete when we're talking about the 1% that that michigan state president had the nerve to get up there and talk about, okay, it's a free

marketing scheme. so the professional sports would ever get involved because they want free marketing. it helps the athlete be able to land on the feet and run as soon as they attracted. >> host: mark can i ask you where he you want to school and what sport you played? >> caller: i went to school a few years ago. i went to corey p. x. >> host: did you go on a scholarship yourself? >> caller: i did. >> host: what did you play? >> caller: i played a sport. i'm not going to disclose that. >> host: okay. thank you. >> guest: what he's racing a really significant issues. there's a lot of conflict within the ncaa about what athletes are getting in relation to the salaries that coaches are being paid and the amount of revenue that's been generated by the schools. that's a big piece of what's going on in the old an intro committed these of what's going on in other litigations that are

pending against the ncaa. and the conference. >> host: with a listing of some of those average pay for head coach. >> guest: major college coaches are making in the neighborhood of 2.7-$3 million a year in football. that's really serious money. that's the reason why people are finding this sort of inequity and college in terms of a college athletes are able to receive it something the schools in those major conferences are really, really eager to try to address in terms of expanding what a scholarship covers, the cost of attendance. i think schools have begun to recognize in part because they have been forced by these legal actions to recognize that the amounts of revenue that's being generated through these programs is so gigantic, and the salaries

being paid are so gigantic that there is this imbalance that has developed over time. they are trying to address the. whether or not that's going to be sufficient remains to be seen. >> host: there's a movement to unionize athletes. >> guest: that's true. there's a case pending before the national labor relations board about the effort that northwestern university football team was presented with, with the option to unionize and whether or not, how that will turn out a regional director of the nlrb found that they were employees of the university. the university appealed to the national labor relations board as a whole. it was thought that the nlrb would issue a ruling because one of the five members of the board, nancy schiffer's term was expiring on december 16. there was a thought that a decision would be made by them. there's still decisions

trickling out. it's still possible that we'll see something but it's also possible that with a new composition of the board that they will do with the because the perception of this case will continue to be appealed and litigated through the various procedures within the nlrb and potentially into the court. >> host: as part of our big ten series we had a chance to talk with university of iowa president sally mason, asked her about the concept of unionizing student athletes something she supposed to. here's why. >> well, i would hate to see that. i really do our student athletes and students first. our student athletes are performed well above not only the school average when it comes to graduation and gpa but also well above the national average. they take their studies and their academic pc or very, very seriously. amateur athletics i think needs to stay amateur. we need to be able to provide a great environment for student

athletes and make sure that all the support they need whether its support for academics whether its support to keep them healthy. i'm all for making certain that we continue to add some benefits for them that we provide them with the highest quality opportunities. i really would hate to see them think of themselves as employees rather than a student athletes. i think that really is not what i look to college sports for. >> host: mr. berkowitz? >> guest: that's great and that's the position it's held by college presidents. the nlrb, however, took a different view of it and in the regional directors decision he wrote under the common law definition, and employed as a person who performs services for another under a contract of hire. subject to the others control the right of control and in return for payment. in a lot of people's minds that's exactly what's going on in college athletics that

there's a contract of hire and that's a national letter of intent or the scholarship agreement that the students sign from year-to-year, that they are compensated, not an athletic scholarship is worth tens of thousands of dollars. in "usa today" several years ago we did a look at what the potential value of what a men's scholarship basketball scholarship is to get a look at the valley of everything that's part of that the coaching, if you were to go out and try to get that on your own and other benefits that athletes get along the way, that was without trying to put a dollar valley on the exposure that the athletes get from point a television solar, we found it to be around $125,000 a year. there is compensation. that could be used as argument back in the other direction. look at what all the benefits they athletes are getting. this is a pretty equitable system. i can't this goes back and forth about this but, you know,

there's no question that this is something that continues to be highly debated. i know the schools are trying, as president mason said, they are trying to figure out a way to try to bring some more equitably to it. i think even the most academically minded people are thinking in terms of sports and most traditional off-line since recognized that things have changed. the business of college sports has changed, and it's a business, and there's no getting around that. and yes you know student athletes are going to school. they're having to go to school having to attend classes to stay eligible and that's a big piece of it. but there's a lot more going on there and there's a lot more of what's going on there and used to be the case. not that long ago. >> host: georgia charlie, a parrot for guest steve berkowitz, "usa today." go ahead. >> caller: yes, i get for taking my call.

i'm of the age i retired when timeline came into play, i don't think our general public is quite knowledgeable about title ix. could mr. berkowitz explained does title ix mean that the college just have to have the same amount of students on scholarship, or does that mean that the college spends a million dollars on men's sports? doesn't have to spend a million dollars on women's sports? and also does title ix go down to k-12? thank you. >> guest: the answer to the latter question is yes, you see title ix complaints filed at the high school level. so that does apply. in terms of what constitutes compliance with title ix at the most basic level it's about opportunity. how do you measure that becomes a different and more subjective problem, and some of that has to do with the dollars spent to

some of that has to do with the proportion of athletes that school and whether not that matches the proportion of men and women in the general student population. the are a variety of ways this is looked at. it's not strictly about dollars and cents. it's the same amount of spending and it's not strickland about one thing or another. there are sort of safe harbors that schools can use as targets for calm -- for compliance but a lot of this is subjective. sometimes it comes down to what happens when the department of education, office of civil rights deals with making examinations of the athletics program when a complaint is filed. they can be a very squishy area. >> host: another parrot. fort collins colorado. bob, go ahead. >> caller: good morning children. i wanted to the arms race in the facilities. colorado state university in fort collins is abandoning their football stadium about 45 years

old to build and cram on campus for $363 million facility in the whole program loses $25 million the year last year. >> guest: yes, there's no question that facilities have become a huge area of competition among schools, that the luxurious miss of training facilities of stadiums are being viewed as sort of recruiting tools to bring in athletes. whether not and also their revenue generating sources for schools. they will make investments in luxury suites and other kinds of higher priced seating your whether its club seats are other ways to do that to generate revenue because schools are able to charge premiums on top of ticket prices in order to generate better for the athletes program as well as to pay for the the sulleys themselves.

so there's no question this is a huge area competition for athletics programs and there is some question as to whether or not this is the best whether athletic programs ought to be spend the money. and when is enough enough? you have to have leather chairs and plasma television screens in front of every locker stall in order for it to be state of the art and all of those kinds of things. and yet it's a real series issue for schools because they're putting themselves into enormous debt situations that are long-term. some of the money that schools are getting from enhanced television contracts, some of that money a lot of that money is already been spent because of long-term commitments have been made in building facilities. in some places it works out great because they are able to sell luxury suites to help finance the cost of those stadiums. in some places it doesn't work out so well. it's been problematic for the

schools, but there is no question there is the so-called arms race going on out there. >> host: you were asked from twitter is the there proof donors would go to two schools without sports programs? >> guest: i do know they wouldn't country to school for the university of california look at this really carefully and thoroughly and involve faculty, and they found there was a connection between some giving to the university from people who also gave heavily to the athletics program, and their affinity for the university generally in part was driven by the athletics program and there was real fear on the campus within and again, this was a group of people that involve faculty people at cal. to a significant concern about okay, if we drop sports what kind of impact will this have on our overall funding structure. at the same time athletics programs are competing for donor dollars in terms of endowments

and other social projects, and there is competition within schools for dollars that will be donated directly to athletics as opposed to dollars donated to the general fund of the university. >> host: student athletes, are their names and likenesses used for merchandising purposes, and into the see anything for that? >> guest: under the ncaa's rules, they're not supposed to be using the athletes and names or likenesses. so, for example, you can buy a jersey that has the athletes name on. on the other hand, it's not coincidentally that when johnny manziel was playing at texas a&m, that the football jerseys the replicate football jersey that were sold in the school bookstore through the university had the number two macs on them. and also jay bell is from espn has done a really good job of pointing out certain issues of the ncaa. he found that these juries in some cases will be marketed with the athletes name. they didn't have the athletes name on the shirt but okay, this

is the johnny manziel jersey. again it's not coincidental which shirt numbers, which numbers are being put on the jerseys that are being put out there for sale. people make those connections between the numbers and those players. >> host: nothing goes through the student everything goes through the program tried to correct. the athletes are not getting money in terms of road or anything like that. to the athletes benefit from the money that's generated from the sales that goes back to the university's? sure, because the underlying funding for their scholarships and the facilities and everything else comes out of the athletics program, but is a particular athlete, such as the cornerback in arizona getting really payments off of jerseys that have assured have a certain number on a? no. >> host: al from pennsylvania, you are up next. >> caller: apparently under a rationale that somehow mr. sandusky who is a low-level assistant coach at penn state

have helped the penn state football team to an unfair advantage on the field when mr. sandusky was jailed for child abuse. the ncaa find penn state $60 million. it told them that they could go longer play in bowl games for a number of years. a reduced the number of football scholarships they were about to give them and they wiped out all of coach paterno's victories over the years. wasn't this a very harsh and unfair treatment by the ncaa? thank you. >> guest: harsh yes. unfair? that's a debatable point. it something that will be litigated in a case in the pennsylvania state courts that have expanded over, because initially the issue is a question of whether or not the money, i find it was lived against the university would have to be spent within the state of pennsylvania.

that case expanded in a way that it sort of becomes a question about whether them about the ncaa's ability to go out some of these things. that's going to be coming up i believe in february. so it's a topic of ongoing litigation house of representatives we're talking about college athletics programs topic that came to a recentrecent big 10 series where we edited the presidents of big ten college. if you want to see the series -- series, still available on a website. let's hear from leo and lock the louisiana. good morning. >> caller: yes, but i do couple of questions -- off yet louisiana. >> host: go ahead. >> caller: my first question is, there is a particular university like kentucky, ma and basketball every year, every year they have like 17-19

mcdonald's all americans. this particular university gets 13 or 14 and no one determines what amount of money is involved. in football, i have a kid that played football over numerous amount of years, go and defeated. but because of money, we can go to a major bowl, but alabama does and and u.s. he does, and all the rest does. my third and final question, if i need an education in biology or law, why is it that an athlete, after one or two years can leave and go pursue the career, but as a biology major or education major i can't believe? >> guest: i'm not quite sure what he is is driving at the third

caution is driving at the third caution of the third question is asked about what it shows what's going on with university of kentucky basco program, and the bigger issue with what's going on in kentucky has been the way that john calipari the co-chair has used the sort of one and done system that's been set up under the collective party agreement with the nba. that's required basketball players to go to school for at least one year. what he has done because he's been successful at it so it is on more and more players is that he's taken his guys and they went into prepares them for pro careers. they go to school for one year and emulate and i going going to the pros, and he's managed to continue to keep recruiting and try more athletes from more players in. now he's got a team that is playing legal today, and many people are thinking this may be one of the last best shots and then the they committed basically 10 guys who are largely interchangeable and put together a powerhouse team of guys, many

of whom are viewed as nba prospects, many of whom will only be in school for one year. and whether or not that sort of makes a mockery of the entire educational system where they're having to be eligible essentially to maintain their eligibility through the fall semester. there are reasons for them to maintain eligibility through the spring as if they're coming back that would create problems for kentucky if they work. that's an issue with whether not that's what college should be about, and college sports should be about come is athletes coming in for one year playing ball and then being out that's basically what they're doing. >> host: a few asked if a student athlete, if he or she is on scholarship of the required to repay any money if they don't graduate because they turn pro transferred to repay? no. you are not required to repay money if they turn pro. the issue is athletes drink or is there to go back to school and complete their degrees.

that's something schools, when the presidents talk about benefits they're trying to put in place for school, for athletes to come back to school, schools are getting more and more aggressive about trying to create opportunities for athletes to come back to school if they leave early to turn pro. >> host: is the ncaa making any effort to self regulate if the program its organization if i understand can 40 or so coaches and the like are formed a special counsel to oversee these kind of issues or take a look at the? >> guest: the ncaa itself as an association the number of schools is great for the purpose of self revelation. that's the whole idea. the question is whether not that self-regulation is working. and whether not that's resulting in something that's official is beneficial for the athletes or not. the ncaa isn't some third party group. yes, there are staff people who work in the employ of the

association who are based in indianapolis and who are charged with interpreting rules and enforcing rules and overall running the association. in terms of the rules making peace of this, the ncaa is the schools. and i think folks will lose sight of that that the rules making is done by the schools themselves. whether or not the schools are doing a sufficiently good job of that remains to be seen. i mean a judge a federal judge in california said not so much, and composed, is prepared to impose the system on the schools. so there are definitely people who are dispassionate observers of the system who think schools are doing a good job house of representatives the republican of pennsylvania reduce the athletics a candidate act, takes a look at a wide right of things. is congress interest in college

sports and how it's regulate and worked out? >> guest: there's an element of congress interest in this. the question is how big a portion of congress it is interested. there is clearly a significant vocal group of congressmen and senators who have taken an issue in these issues as of yet. whether or not there's a sufficiently large number of them to effect change remains to be seen. there've been a number of bills introduced that were introduced last year and some introduced late in the session as well. they have produced bills. a bill was sponsored by representative beatty. there've been a lot of cosigners to these bills. there've been letters written to the ncaa demanding response to questions of things like this. there's been hearings on this. the question is whether not a sufficient level of willpower in

congress to get involved anyway that potentially will legislate some things, or whether or not just the force of congress pulling people onto capitol hill, to have her respond to questions, to appear at hearings and whether not that sufficient to get people's attention in college athletics to produce movement aspect steve berkowitz from "usa today" joins us to give i cannot sports and the project went to sports. sam from georgia, go ahead. >> caller: good morning. >> host: hi. >> caller: i have a common. i really feel like starting at the nfl level, that big money and/or organized crime moves the nfl. i hate to see it filled trading into college athletics, but a few of the watch a lot of football games you kind of wonder why certain games when.

and i'm not an ohio state fan nor a wisconsin thing, but they are no better than wisconsin. there's some problems with this so-called playoff a group and how they organize it. thank you. >> guest: he's getting at some pretty serious allegations. there has been point shaving scandals in college athletics, but what he's talking about with regard to the score of the big ten conference championship game, that's a very serious allegation that you're making there with regards to ohio state beating wisconsin as bad as they did and was not added anything to do with anything. who knows? >> host: margaret, good morning. >> caller: hi, there, mr. berkowitz. my daughter was highly recruited gymnast in high school, and ultimately went to several different colleges to look at

programs. she ultimately decided on ohio state and they made a lot of promises to her about we love that you know what you want to do we love that you know what your major is but the minute pretty much he got an campus she was told she had to change your major or she would lose her scholarship. wasn't based on performance although -- anyway, it's a revolving door in gymnastics at ohio state and we as parents try to get involved and went all the way up pashtun gene smith oversees gymnastics because there have been problems with the program but prima our conclusion was if it's not football they really don't care. it's not a money making sport, and we got no help no support from any of the academic side and we kept asking why was she

told she could do this? ultimately there was no support from anyone in academics at ohio state. >> guest: gene smith is the person she referred to a recent gymnastics, is athletes director at ohio state. these are the kind of things were talking earlier in the show with regard to clustering in majors and athletes being funneled into certain major programs. athletes are told look, you can be pre-med if you want but there's a lot of really hard courses in pre-med and if you don't get a certain grade point average you will risk or eligibility because if you don't do well in the classes that are really hard to deal with, even without playing sports that if you do well enough in those classes in your not be able to play. athletes then, a lot of times athletes will say, okay maybe that's not such a great idea. some athletes persevere and get it done. there are