Stay in the know with the Daily Skimm
Timeout
Go, Fight, Rein in College Sports
What’s going on: Congress might not agree on much, except, it seems, that college sports have gotten out of hand. The Senate voted 77-22 Monday to advance the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act. The bill aims to set national standards for how college players can profit from their name, image, and likeness. It would allow the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to cap athlete pay and would limit transfer rules, allowing players to switch schools only once without penalty. Eligibility would be capped at five years (sorry, that means no subs from the NFL, Lane Kiffin). President Donald Trump expressed his approval of yesterday’s vote in a Truth Social post: “It will not only save college sports, it will save the colleges themselves.” The bill now moves to the House, which is currently in recess until after the midterms, and it’s unclear if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will call the chamber back to vote.
Rah, rah, sis, boom, bah: A series of lawsuits over the last decade have turned the college sports arena into the “Wild West," according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who cosponsored the bill with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Cruz, who made a controversial appearance on ESPN earlier this month to push for the bill, called yesterday’s vote a “monumental day” for college sports and student-athletes. Even if it makes it to a vote in the House, the measure’s future is uncertain, as it faces opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the NAACP. An estimated 16% of NCAA athletes are Black. In June, the CBC urged the Senate to reconsider the Protect College Sports Act until “institutions that profit from Black talent” speak out against “Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps to weaken Black voting power across the South.”
Related: Is This Teenager the New Face of US Soccer? (CNN)
Core Memory
Editor Obsessions
Ali, Senior Commerce Director, here. As a member of your trusted Skimm Shopping team, it’s my job to uncover, test, and recommend products that are truly worth it. Here are my latest picks:
A vanilla bourbon perfume…trust me
The way I track my sleep without a wearable
The crossbody I relied on daily during my Paris vacation
And the ballet flats I wore around the city that never gave me blisters
Dr Pepper plans to release a new flavor next year that fans seem eager to try; one enthusiast proclaimed, “This will slap.” What is it?
Finally, a solvable crossword. Finish this puzzle quickly for bragging rights.
Timeout
Go, Fight, Rein in College Sports
What’s going on: Congress might not agree on much, except, it seems, that college sports have gotten out of hand. The Senate voted 77-22 Monday to advance the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act. The bill aims to set national standards for how college players can profit from their name, image, and likeness. It would allow the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to cap athlete pay and would limit transfer rules, allowing players to switch schools only once without penalty. Eligibility would be capped at five years (sorry, that means no subs from the NFL, Lane Kiffin). President Donald Trump expressed his approval of yesterday’s vote in a Truth Social post: “It will not only save college sports, it will save the colleges themselves.” The bill now moves to the House, which is currently in recess until after the midterms, and it’s unclear if Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) will call the chamber back to vote.
Rah, rah, sis, boom, bah: A series of lawsuits over the last decade have turned the college sports arena into the “Wild West," according to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), who cosponsored the bill with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Cruz, who made a controversial appearance on ESPN earlier this month to push for the bill, called yesterday’s vote a “monumental day” for college sports and student-athletes. Even if it makes it to a vote in the House, the measure’s future is uncertain, as it faces opposition from the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and the NAACP. An estimated 16% of NCAA athletes are Black. In June, the CBC urged the Senate to reconsider the Protect College Sports Act until “institutions that profit from Black talent” speak out against “Republican-led efforts to redraw congressional maps to weaken Black voting power across the South.”
Related: Is This Teenager the New Face of US Soccer? (CNN)
Core Memory
Editor Obsessions
Ali, Senior Commerce Director, here. As a member of your trusted Skimm Shopping team, it’s my job to uncover, test, and recommend products that are truly worth it. Here are my latest picks:
A vanilla bourbon perfume…trust me
The way I track my sleep without a wearable
The crossbody I relied on daily during my Paris vacation
And the ballet flats I wore around the city that never gave me blisters
Dr Pepper plans to release a new flavor next year that fans seem eager to try; one enthusiast proclaimed, “This will slap.” What is it?
Stay in the know with the Daily Skimm
US News
DA Reopens "The Cornell 7" Case
Note: This story discusses sexual assault.
What’s going on: Prosecutors in New York reopened an investigation into an alleged gang rape of a former Cornell student in October 2024. On Monday, Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten said he is pursuing criminal charges in the case that'll be presented to a grand jury, per The Washington Post. The announcement comes two weeks after “Jane Doe” filed a civil lawsuit against the university claiming they didn’t do enough to protect her. In the suit, Jane Doe alleges seven members of the Chi Phi fraternity drugged and sexually assaulted her at a fraternity house. One of the suspects is accused of inviting other fraternity members in a Snapchat group to join the assault. No one was ever criminally charged, and the lawsuit claims the university didn’t discipline appropriately. Cornell suspended the Chi Phi chapter and expelled two of the seven accused students, but reportedly doled out lesser punishments to the others. Cornell declined to share specifics about the disciplinary action it took but said, “Any suggestion that the university did not impose consequential punishments for those involved is false.” The university said it supports the DA’s decision to reopen the case. In a written statement published Monday, Jane Doe said, the trauma “will haunt me and be part of me the rest of my life.”
Tell me more: Van Houten said what Jane Doe alleges happened in her civil complaint is “dramatically different” from her statement to police two years ago. Jane Doe’s attorney claims university police were not trained to speak with an abuse survivor, and a trained detective never contacted his client. The DA also said he never received the alleged image of the “Chi Phi Actives” Snapchat conversation which is included in the lawsuit, though Jane Doe’s attorney says campus police received this "critical piece of evidence." In 2024, the DA’s office did not “independently investigate” the allegations and instead relied on the university police department’s reporting. The incident has sparked criticism over the handling of sexual abuse cases on college campuses. At a town hall in Ithaca (where Cornell is located), New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D) blamed the incident on a “culture of rape” on campus. Actress Florence Pugh also weighed in on Instagram, calling for men to be just “as horrified and as sickened as us” over the allegations.
Related: A Cocaine Ring at Penn State University Began With Fraternity Hazing (The Wall Street Journal gift link)
TOGETHER WITH AMAZON MGM STUDIOS
Who Do You Believe?
She was hired to finish someone else’s story. Now she can’t tell where it ends and hers begins. In Verity, Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson) moves into the remote estate of bestselling author Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway) to ghostwrite her final book — and finds pages that read less like fiction and more like an autobiography. As she gets closer to Verity’s husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett), the line between attraction and manipulation gets very, very blurry. Who’s telling the truth? You’ll have to pick a side. Based on the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, Verity hits theaters October 2.
Skimm This
How Would You Skimm This Photo?
We interrupt your “how is it already the end of September” spiral with our latest Skimm This. Sum up this photo in 20 words or fewer. We’ll pick our three faves, then you vote for the best one on Thursday. The winner gets a shoutout in Friday’s Daily Skimm.
This week: This nearly 20 foot Kung Fu horse is hanging out in front of China’s Cartoon and Animation Museum. We’ve neigh-ver seen anything like it.
Tabs I Have Open
Ali, Senior Commerce Director, here, and like any other human being, I exist with about 10 tabs open on my browser at all times. Here are a few I plan to get to by the end of the week:
Chlorine-free, cotton-lined diapers I want my nephew to test, because his rashes have been unruly recently
The alarm clock I plan to get my mom for Christmas
Another order of the throat spray I’ve been using to battle the inevitable September cold I picked up within the last few days
A new pair of house slippers now that the temperature is starting to drop
Which “original American superfood” is making its way back into cookbooks and menus?
Stay in the know with the Daily Skimm