So when President Trump reached out to you and asked you to be on a panel, for lack of a better term, of people that care about sports and care about the status of college sports in our country to try to fix the chaos that's happening right now, what was your initial reaction to the request to join that group of men and women?

Well, actually, what happened is this has been deteriorating for, you know, seven years.

It got worse and worse and worse.

You know, all the conferences, the universities, members in Congress, this has been kicking around.

They went to the president and said, hey, can you can you put something together to solve this problem? So he asked me to put together a group.

We had some of the great sports executives, uh, on it.

And we've had college presidents on it.

you know,

So when President Trump reached out to you and asked you to be on a panel, for lack of a better term, of people that care about sports and care about the status of college sports in our country to try to fix the chaos that's happening right now, what was your initial reaction to the request to join that group of men and women?

Well, actually, what happened is this has been deteriorating for, you know, seven years.

It got worse and worse and worse.

You know, all the conferences, the universities, members in Congress, this has been kicking around.

They went to the president and said, hey, can you can you put something together to solve this problem? So he asked me to put together a group.

We had some of the great sports executives, uh, on it.

And we've had college presidents on it.

Do you think that people that are against what you're trying to do will accept that, or are they really fighting for every year, if I want to change schools five times in five years, I'm going to have the ability to do that?

So when President Trump reached out to you and asked you to be on a panel, for lack of a better term, of people that care about sports and care about the status of college sports in our country to try to fix the chaos that's happening right now, what was your initial reaction to the request to join that group of men and women?

Well, actually, what happened is this has been deteriorating for, you know, seven years.

It got worse and worse and worse.

You know, all the conferences, the universities, members in Congress, this has been kicking around.

They went to the president and said, hey, can you can you put something together to solve this problem? So he asked me to put together a group.

We had Some of the great sports executives on it.

And we've had college presidents on it.

How do we fix that? Well, this...

Can you explain some of the recommendations AFC is pushing for? There is

a lot of work for the city to do to address challenges with school bus service, both in the short term and in the long term.

And some of our recommendations are not particularly complicated, like posting the name and contact information for each school's transportation coordinator, better communicating bus route information to families instead of requiring them to find it through an online account that many families find difficult to access, and better training schools to help address challenges.

The city can also take steps to improve the alternative transportation options it provides while students are waiting for school bus service to begin, both making sure that parents have better access to the rideshare that currently exists and to develop options that don't rely on the student to have a parent available to ride with them.

And most importantly, we want the city to overhaul our current bus system in favor of one that can provide the safe, on-time, and reliable service our children need and deserve.

I mean, why hasn't the city overhauled this pretty dysfunctional bus system? What's preventing us from doing so?

One major issue is that the city contracts with dozens of bus companies to provide bus service.

And many of those contracts have been extended and extended since 1979, when Ed Koch was mayor and the subway cost only 50 cents.

First off, before we get specific, do you

think the Senate's going to take it up? I'm optimistic.

I know they're going to take it up.

And I'm optimistic.

I'm not overconfident.

But I feel good about it because I think over the last several months it's become clear that if there is no action, if this bill does not pass, the entire college sports system is going to collapse.

Just in the last couple of weeks, we've seen schools lose hundreds of millions of dollars, schools diverting money from their schools, Endowments, raising student fees.

Does this feel like a

I'm just curious how you're thinking about it 25 years later.

I think about it all the time, not just on 9-11.

A lot of friends of mine didn't make it.

I was deputy mayor for Mayor Giuliani.

I had left to become president of the Yankees before 9-11.

And so I think about it all the time.

And I remember, you know, the Yankee contribution right after 9-11.

We spoke about it with Ira a few minutes ago, but lay out the case for us and why you see this as being so important.

Can you tell our listeners about that and if they can still get tickets?

Yes, we're playing the Mets on 9-11.

It should be a very poignant, emotional night.

We're finalizing all of the activities to honor all of the great first responders and heroes, and to pray and honor the memory of all of the victims of 9-11.

As you know, there's a monument mining the park honoring them.

So it'll be a solemn night, but as you know, Chris, a message from 9-11 was never forget, but move forward.

After that, we'll play baseball and life will go on.

Am I off in that sense? Either one of you feel that way?

And I feel like it creates a really interesting feedback loop with engagement with high profile people or companies, corporations who want to give back and in some ways market to their communities.

Yeah.

Well, as Troy said, you know, we both grew up in upstate New York and he's western New York.

I was actually central New York near Syracuse, which is a different thing because he grew up in a town that had two professional sports teams, you know, one of which the Buffalo Bills.

I still follow very closely.

But but we had college and I was a big Syracuse basketball fan.

Um, but you know, I, Troy started talking to me a couple of years ago about this and he had the idea of doing some kind of experiences.

in here, I could fit in.

Can you take us through how you ended up, uh, being involved in this? And you're not just involved, you're involved to, to a very high degree.

Be glad to.

So I was talking to the President, and, um, it actually, uh, had gone on for, you know, several months.

Um, people were coming to the President saying that people had been in the Congress for years and years and years, and the situation in college sports was growing worse and worse and worse.

Uh, universities were losing significant amount of money.

Uh, student athletes, uh, were getting bad deals.

Uh, uh, they were signing NIL deals, couldn't get paid.

Can you update us on wh- where things are as of this Wednesday afternoon?

What was your approach to doing it? First listen to all angles, and then come up with a piece of legislation that both Democrats and Republicans can get behind?

Well, I give all the credit in the world to Senators Cruz, Cantwell, Schmidt, Co- Coons, and a bunch of others who, who have been part of this.

As you know, Brian, everyone went to the president.

They said this problem was killing college sports.

Schools were hemorrhaging money.

Schools, you know, were cutting Olympic and women's sports.

And so, uh, we put the president's, uh, roundtable together.

So what's gonna happen to those sports? Can you, in layman's terms, give us an idea of why should people feel better in this system that those sports have a future, like wrestling, for example?

What was your approach to doing it? First listen to all angles and then come up with a piece of legislation that both Democrats and Republicans can get behind?

Well, I give all the credit in the world to Senators Cruz, Cantwell, Schmidt, Co- Coons, and a bunch of others who, who have been part of this.

As you know, Brian, everyone went to the president.

They said this problem was killing college sports.

Schools were hemorrhaging money.

Schools, you know, were cutting Olympic and women's sports.

And so, uh, we put the president's, uh, roundtable together.

So what's gonna happen to those sports? Can you, in layman's terms, give us an idea of why should people feel better in this system that those sports have a future, like wrestling, for example?

What has to be fixed in sports? How did you narrow it down to maybe four key components?

Well, this has been going on now for several years, and everybody came to the president and said, "This has been in the Congress.

It's been in the courts.

We need somebody to bring everybody together with your force of personality in the office to finally solve that." And that's what happened because these universities, all of them, big and small, are hemorrhaging money.

Do you feel as though next year you're gonna have a big clash between labor and management? Because next year you're gonna be re- reconfiguring and maybe getting a salary cap in there or...

Um, I, I really can't speak about it, but I hope not.

Uh, I know there's good faith on both sides.

Um, so we're gonna r- all work really hard.

Now, the other problem is that I was told is how do small colleges compete with large colleges?

They can't.

Right now, they can't.

In fact, the end result of all of this is money is going to basically football and men's football and basketball.

And as a result, small colleges or medium colleges can't compete.

But the worst part is women's sports, Olympic sports, non-revenue sports are being cut because what's happening is there's just not enough money to go around.

So, you know, one of the Yankee players, a very good player, who went to a great university, actually told me this story, that he's been asked as an alumni, and he has given a bunch of money to name, image, and likeness, you know, a quarterback, who transferred after four months, and a friend of his daughter, who is a potential Olympic rower on the rowing team, lost her scholarship and actually had to go take out a college loan.

And, I mean, I don't remember, what year did it start? Did college kids start getting paid? How long

Now, the other problem is that I was told is how do small colleges compete with large colleges?

Right now, they can't.

In fact, the end result of all of this is money is going to basically football and men's football and basketball.

And as a result, small colleges or medium colleges can't compete.

But the worst part is women's sports, Olympic sports, non-revenue sports are being cut because what's happening is there's just not enough money to go around.

So, you know, one of the Yankee players, a very good player, who went to a great university, actually told me this story, that he's been asked as an alumni, and he has given a bunch of money to name, image, and likeness, you know, a quarterback who transferred after four months, and a friend of his daughter, who is a potential Olympic rower on the rowing team, lost her scholarship and actually had to go take out a college loan.

That's a bad situation.

What year did college kids start getting paid? How long