Can Congress Save College Sports Before It's Too Late? Senator Eric Schmitt Says Yes | 13th & Park

Missouri Senator Eric Schmitt joins Adam Goodman on 13th and Park for a conversation that moves from a viral SportsCenter moment to one of the most personal stories in the United States Senate. Schmitt, a former two-sport college athlete, made a full-extension diving catch at this year's Congressional Baseball Game at Nats Park, bloodied his nose on the warning track, won MVP honors, and landed on ESPN's Top 10. He jokes that more people have stopped him about that play than anything he has accomplished in politics, including a stranger watering flowers near St. Louis and a Jumbotron appearance at Busch Stadium.

On policy, Schmitt walks through the Protect College Sports Act, the bipartisan bill he has been advancing alongside Senators Cruz, Cantwell, Coons, and others. He frames the NIL era in two buckets: a governance piece covering transfer rules, eligibility limits, guaranteed scholarships, and health insurance for student athletes, and a pooled media rights structure that would allow conferences to negotiate television deals collectively under antitrust protection. His argument is straightforward: college football has historically subsidized women's and Olympic sports, and if that revenue base collapses, hundreds of thousands of student athletes lose scholarships and opportunities. He shares what he has learned from extended conversations with SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey and Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, and explains why voluntary participation is essential to making the media rights strategy work.

Schmitt also breaks down the American Citizenship Act, his statutory response to the Supreme Court's rejection of the president's birthright citizenship order. Drawing on Justice Kavanaugh's concurrence and the language of the 14th Amendment alongside the Civil Rights Act of 1866, he outlines a legislative roadmap he believes could produce a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in the other direction.

The most revealing stretch of the conversation is personal. Schmitt describes the night his son Stephen, who has tuberous sclerosis, epilepsy, and autism, suffered a four-hour grand mal seizure. Watching a red digital clock above the ICU bed and waiting for doctors to try the next medication, Schmitt began a process of discernment that led him into public service. He credits Stephen with reshaping his perspective on what matters, driving his early push for autism insurance reform in the Missouri state legislature, and anchoring the bipartisan disability legislation he continues to pursue in the Senate today.

Chapters
0:00 Intro
1:30 The Congressional Baseball Game Catch
2:35 Kids React to Dad's Viral Moment
3:57 Protect College Sports Act Explained
6:55 Conversations with Conference Commissioners
8:28 Pooled Media Rights Strategy
9:51 Birthright Citizenship and the American Citizenship Act
11:57 Son Stephen and a Father's Mission
14:14 Families Who Have Reached Out
15:25 Working-Class Roots and Public Service
17:42 Bipartisan Hope in Washington
19:25 What He Wants His Kids to Remember
20:33 The Second Catch Nobody Saw
21:34 Closing Remarks

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