President Donald Trump is renewing his push for Congress to pass the Protect College Sports Act, attending Saturday’s No. 1 Texas-No. 14 Tennessee game in Knoxville days before the Senate is expected to pass the bill Monday — the furthest a collegiate sports bill has ever gotten in Congress.
Page S3From§Eachthe matinee edition — 27 September 2026
Athletes now in the Senate decide if the bill protects sports from the man who crashed the signing.
Hot Mic Moment
a senator who makes the man in the stands the story, not the bill, already knows what a party does with that independence. Somebody get me the political desk before Monday.
Gushis side
GUS: This reporter has tracked the Protect College Sports Act since September 12, when Senator Ted Cruz carried it onto ESPN's College GameDay before what the Washington Examiner called a raucous gathering — the young men and women in the student section, this reporter presumes, cheering for cloture.
GUS: Two days later, on September 14, Cruz told reporters he wanted President Trump to sign the finished bill live on GameDay, and that the goal was not to squeak by — his words — with sixty votes.
GUS: The ledger added a flyover on September 26: Air Force One over Neyland Stadium before Texas and Tennessee kicked off, the president in the stands, and, by this reporter's notes, Tennessee's freshman quarterback outdueling the Texas defense.
GUS: Which brings the ledger to Sunday, one day out from Monday's floor vote: NPR reporting that a handful of former college athletes, now senators on both sides of the aisle, hold an extra say over the bill's fate.
GUS: Those former players, not the man who flew over the stadium, now field the question of whether a bill meant to protect college sports needs protecting from him — a bill, this reporter notes, that needs only a simple Senate majority, fifty-one votes, to reach the president's desk.
Trudyher side
Presume less, Gus. The Examiner's account has Cruz working that crowd for the bill; the students came for Rece Davis and the pregame show, not a floor debate.
Hold that number, Gus. Sixty is the floor Cruz set for himself, not the floor the Constitution requires to pass a bill — The Hill, September 14.
Read your own wire, sugar. Outkick's headline: "Texas defense rocks Tennessee freshman QB" in a Texas win. Go lie down before you file the score backward twice.
That's the sentence, Gus — "an extra say," not "the final say." Ninety-nine other senators still vote Monday, whatever the president did in the stands Saturday.
Fifty-one passes a resolution naming a post office, Gus. Cruz put the real number on the record himself, September 14: sixty votes was the floor he wanted cleared, not squeaked by.
Mic's hot again, Gus, and that's no talking point — that's a threat. It also happens to be exactly right: Kentucky already ran it, October 2025 to May 19, 2026, thirty-seven million dollars by July 17, the most expensive House primary on record, and Thomas Massie lost fifty-five to forty-five anyway.
“They wrote a bill to keep grown men in suits from running college sports, then let the loudest grown man in the country deliver the closing argument from the fifty-yard line. Cruz wanted sixty votes and a signing on live television; the fans in that stadium weren't asked what happens to the kid whose eligibility this bill rewrites. Follow the cameras, not the cloture math, and you'll see whose fingerprints stay on it Monday.”
“This is bipartisan legislation, and the president simply believes in showing up for student athletes — that's leadership, not stagecraft. He wanted it signed live on GameDay, which, fine, is definitely about the bill and not the cameras. Did I say that? That doesn't sound like me.”
Earlier in this story
The receipts
Elie Mystal In this week’s Elie v. U.S ., our justice correspondent looks at the many ways Cruz’s bill threatens athletes’ labor rights. Plus: why our mail-in voting nightmare isn’t over.
These players and coaches are feeling the heat, roughly one quarter into the regular season
The Protect College Sports Act is on the brink of passing in the Senate, where a handful of former college athletes who are now senators on both sides of the aisle have an extra say in the debate.
EXCLUSIVE — Former Tennessee Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher has changed his campaign slogan to remove a reference to President Donald Trump. Hatcher, who ousted incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) in Tennessee’s August primary, ran as a “Pro-Trump”
With ESPN's "College GameDay" also on campus, Trump's presence typically is expected to cause heightened security in Knoxville.
President Trump left Knoxville for the White House Saturday afternoon after attending the University of Texas vs. University of Tennessee football game — an appearance coming ahead of senators' last chance to pass the Protect College Sports Act before recessing into a lame-duck period. Trump flew to Knoxville Saturday morning to watch…
ABC's audio turned into a static-filled mess Saturday.
President Donald Trump vouched for the Protect College Sports Act while attending the University of Texas versus University of Tennessee college football game on Saturday, saying he thinks House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) can ensure its success in the lower chamber. “Mike Johnson’s fantastic. And we actually had 78 votes, if you can…
Texas silenced Neyland Stadium, as Colin Simmons recorded five sacks and Raleek Brown scored twice to beat Tennessee with President Donald Trump watching.
The Southeastern Conference matchup between the No. 1 Longhorns and No. 14 Volunteers in Knoxville is already one of the biggest games in the country this weekend.
A huge Texas-Tennessee matchup had a little extra pageantry.
Trump arrived in Knoxville to a roaring Neyland Stadium crowd as the new-look Air Force One flew over ahead of the No. 14 Vols vs. No.
President Donald Trump fired back at a reporter Saturday before boarding Air Force One for the University of Tennessee vs. the University of Texas college football game. “I want real news, not fake news, like you,”
Neyland Stadium opened its gates early with 50% off beer as Tennessee Vols fans gear up for the No. 1 Texas SEC showdown and Trump's arrival.
With the House out of session for the final two weeks of September, the legislative spotlight is squarely on the Senate, where lawmakers face a packed stretch of work on several of the GOP’s remaining priorities. On top of their agenda is legislation that would create national rules for compensating college athletes, limiting transfers…
President Trump received an enthusiastic welcome while attending a college football game in Tennessee on Saturday.
President Donald Trump is planning to attend the Texas vs. Tennessee college football game this Saturday, the White House confirmed to the Washington Examiner. The president’s appearance at the sports event comes as he continues pushing Congress to pass the Protect College Sports Act.
Football analyst and ESPN personality Kirk Herbstreit defended the network's decision to have Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on the network's flagship college football pregame show last week. "We had him on because they were going to be voting this week," Herbstreit told reporters Friday, referring to the Protect College Sports Act, a Senate…
President Trump will attend the University of Texas vs. University of Tennessee college football game in Knoxville on Saturday, the White House confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday. The game will mark the first college football game Trump has attended since January's College Football Playoff National Championship when Indiana University…
· Cruz: Trump should sign college sports bill live on ESPN's 'College GameDay' once passed from the morgue, 14 Sep 2026
· Cruz faces rowdy crowd at College GameDay while promoting the Protect College Sports Act from the morgue, 12 Sep 2026
· Senate votes to move forward with Protect College Sports Act from the morgue, 15 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front. The byline is a pen name for a column drafted by a machine and checked by the editor: how this is made.