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At Least 10 Killed Dozens Injured In Severe Storms; Hamas Claims Responsibility For Racket Attack On Tel Aviv; Six Stabbed In Two Attacks Massachusetts Police Say Could Be Related; Trump Faces Boos At Rowdy Libertarian Party Convention; This Week: Closing Arguments, Jury Deliberates Trump's Fate; PGA Tour Golfer Grayson Murray Dead At 30 Years Old; NCAA Deal Paves For Paying College Athletes; Private Colleges Struggle To Stay Open Due To Low Enrollment. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired May 26, 2024 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[14:00:37]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield and we're following breaking news on this Memorial Day weekend.

Right now, more than 100 million people are at risk of severe weather as deadly and destructive storms sweep across the Central U.S. from Texas to Michigan and Kansas to Pennsylvania. The storms bring a risk of tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds, and flooding.

At least ten people were killed, including children after or possible tornado struck Texas and Arkansas overnight. Homes were obliterated, 18 wheelers flipping over and power lines knocked out.

Storm victims say the damage is astonishing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Coming back to this location right now for the first time, knowing that I was just here and it's all destroyed is -- it's mind-blowing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm still trying to process it. It's shock. Just everything you had and worked so hard for all these years is gone.

CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa is following all of this. I mean it seems these storms are more frequent and more damaging.

ELISA RAFFA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes. I mean, it's been a crazy busy two months for us from April and May. The storms have seemingly been nonstop.

I mean look at some of the video that we have of this tornado that just passed Wichita Falls and northern Texas. I mean, just remarkable some of the images we were getting from yesterday's storm. At least 25 tornado reports. And you can see the tracks there in

northern Texas, just north of Dallas. And then another string of tornadoes from Oklahoma that scraped through northern Arkansas as well. Lots of surveys going on today to figure out the damage, what happened and how strong were these tornadoes?

This is the threat right now. You see that red? That's the latest tornado watch, goes until 3:00 Central Time includes places like Nashville and Louisville. And then all the yellow is severe thunderstorm watches that go through the afternoon, evening until about 9:00 Eastern Time.

We have this line of storms that continues to push through, it will be capable of damaging winds and a couple of tornadoes. And we've seen that on this line from Cincinnati down south of Lexington.

You see how the line is kind of bending? When you have that bend in a line a storm that's where you're going to push of damaging winds up to 70 miles per hour. Thats why there are all those warnings there.

Plus you can get some embedded tornadoes. We do have some tornado warnings as well, because you can get some spin up along this line.

So the threat continues. This is a threat for today that big orange area, that enhanced risk level three out of five from Louisville to Nashville.

This is where the threat is today. Again, stretches from Texas, even up into parts of the northeast. There are touching (ph) Pennsylvania and then tomorrow continues to head to the East Coast. We're talking about places like D.C., Richmond, Charlotte, and then even down towards Baton Rouge and the line of storms continues.

It could also come with some flooding rain. Flood watches in effect from Missouri down into Tennessee where we could see two to four inches of rain.

So here's how this plays out. You can continue to see the line of storms dive south into parts of Kentucky then going into Tennessee. You wake up to storms in Atlanta by tomorrow morning. And then that threat continues to kind of reignite with daytime heat and humidity up and down the East Coast.

Rainfall can be again two to four inches from parts of Tennessee there and that's where we've got that moderate flood risks there in the red where we could see some flash flooding from some heavy rains.

So just continuing to track what's been an incredibly active April and May for us we've had way more than the average amount of tornado reports or more than 900 in average. Today it would be closer to 700.

WHITFIELD: Is spring not over?

RAFFA: Right.

WHITFIELD: And then you've got hurricane season, which begins by next weekend.

RAFFA: June 1st, yes.

WHITFIELD: Hard to believe. All this at once. All right. Thanks so much, Elisa Raffa. We'll check back with you.

All right. Now to Israel where Hamas is claiming responsibility for an early morning rocket attack on Tel Aviv and central Israel. These are the first rockets fired from Gaza at Tel Aviv since January.

[14:04:45]

WHITFIELD: Israel Defense Forces say eight rockets were fired from Rafah in southern Gaza and that a number of projectiles were intercepted. Rafah has been the focus of Israeli military operations in recent weeks, and Israel has threatened an all-out assault if hostages being held in Gaza are not returned.

CNN's Paula Hancocks is following the developments for us. Paula, what more do we know about these rockets?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you say at this point, it is believed there were eight rockets that were fired towards Tel Aviv and we know that a number were intercepted, but not all.

We've seen images of people running for shelters as sirens were sounding in Herzliya, for example, in central Israel and some shrapnel of some of the rockets. At this point though there's no confirmed injuries and very little damage, we understand.

But it's the very fact that Hamas is still able to carry out these rocket attacks that is significant. Hamas did admit to it. They said it was a large barrier barrage of missiles and they say that it was against massacres against civilians in Gaza, which is why they carried this out.

Now the IDF, the Israeli military, has since said that they have targeted the rocket launcher that they believe carried out this attack. And it was in Rafah, they say it was located close to two mosques pointing out that this proves once again that Hamas does hide behind the civilian population.

So we're hearing from both sides of this at this point, but more than seven months into this war, into a devastating war, much of the country is destroyed in Gaza.

We've had more than 35,000 Palestinians killed since October 7. And yet Hamas is still able to carry out these kind of attacks.

And that will worry those inside Israel. It'll certainly worry the military. It will increase as well the criticism that we've been hearing as to the military strategy that Israel is carrying out at this point.

Many in the world, including the Biden administration is saying there needs to be a political plan to go alongside this military strategy. Otherwise, it's simply won't work.

And many more are saying Israel's plan to destroy Hamas completely simply isn't practical, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And Paula, this has happened as police and protesters have clashed in Tel Aviv this weekend after a day of rallies and what is being called for there.

HANCOCKS: So we're seeing increasing rallies. This was not just in Tel Aviv, this was in a number of cities across Israel.

These are protesters who are criticizing Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister. They are accusing him of corruption, they're criticizing his government and also the plan in Gaza, saying that they disagree with the way that -- that things have been handled since October 7.

So there is a loudening call in the country for Netanyahu to step down, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Paula Hancocks, we'll check back with you. Thank you so much.

And this breaking news. Another turbulence incident, this is the second one in a week. 12 people were injured on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin after the plane was rocked by turbulence over Turkey. The flight landed safely in Dublin and eight people were taken to the hospital.

Qatar Airways tells CNN that it is conducting an internal investigation.

And this comes after a Singapore Airlines flight from London was hit with severe turbulence. One man died and 104 passengers were injured. That plane has now returned to Singapore after being delayed in Thailand, while authorities were conducting thank checks.

Were also following breaking news out of Massachusetts where the suspect in a stabbing spree is now in custody.

Four young girls were stabbed at a movie theater and just hours later, two more people were stabbed at a McDonald's. What police are saying about the connection.

Plus singer Nicki Minaj apologizing to fans after having to cancel a sold out show in England. Why she says Amsterdam police held her in jail for hours.

[14:09:19]

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WHITFIELD: All right. Back to our top story, more than 100 million Americans are in the path of severe weather for a second straight day. Ten people or confirmed dead as overnight storms ripped through the central us. And moments ago we learned the president has been briefed on the

storms.

Our Ed Lavandera is in Valley View, Texas. Ed, I mean, it looks like total destruction behind you.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes this is quite a storm and a tornado that ripped through and shredded its way through this part of Cooke County, as you mentioned, were just south of the small city of Valley View.

And I just spoke with the sheriff here in Cooke County who confirmed to us moments ago that in this area south of Valley View, there are seven people who were killed by the storm. Four of those victims, children under the age of 18.

In fact, the sheriff told us that the latest two victims that were found were two and five years old. So devastating news that emergency officials here are dealing with.

[14:14:52]

LAVANDERA: As you can see the level of destruction that this storm ripped its way through here in the darkness of night, which is just absolutely terrifying when you think about the kind of damage these tornadoes inflict.

But it is a relatively wide area of damage that we're seeing that actually goes on for several miles. In fact, we are on the west side of interstate 35, north of the Dallas Fort Worth area.

And this is kind of the rural area where this tornado inflicted some of its earliest damage and then continued moving toward the east where it shredded apart a marina at a popular lake here on this Memorial Day weekend, as well as several people trapped in a gas station with structures that collapse there as well.

So a devastating night here in north Texas as thousands of people dealing with the after effects of this storm, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: It's awful. It's unbelievable.

And then what about, you know, ongoing efforts to rescue -- potentially rescue people?

LAVANDERA: Well, the sheriff said that they believed that all of the victims at this point are very likely accounted for. some of those efforts to continue going through the debris.

Some of this area is very difficult to reach. as you can imagine, YOU KNOW, this is a relatively rural area, so IN some of these areas, in fact, the sheriff said the last two victims were found by teams that had to go out on ATVs to get off of these off of these roads.

So navigating some of this terrain and the debris field is actually very kind of treacherous and difficult work, but that's the kind of conditions they're facing in here and making sure that everyone is accounted for.

But we just spoke with the sheriff before we went on the air and he believes that the death toll is not going to go up. They believe that everyone is accounted for at this point.

But that work and that concern obviously continues, especially as many more people are back in this area now trying to assess the damage and take into account exactly what needs to be repaired and what the -- what the cleanup process is going to look like.

WHITFIELD: My goodness, it's incredible. Well, all the best to the people there in Valley View, Texas.

Ed Lavandera. Thanks so much.

And this breaking news out of Massachusetts where a suspect is in custody after a stabbing spree near Boston where four girls between the ages of nine and 17 were attacked at a movie theater in Braintree. All the girls are expected to be ok.

But about an hour later, a man and a woman in Plymouth were both stabbed at a fast food restaurant. And now police are looking at any possible connections between that and a murder in Connecticut.

I'd like to bring in now CNN's Polo Sandoval.

So Polo, I mean the suspect led police on a chase before being taken into custody, bring us up to date.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Fred, to be honest, I'm still trying to make some sense of this pretty violent chain of events yesterday, given the very limited information that police have released.

But at least they've released enough to build up at least a partial and disturbing picture of the chain of events.

It all started in Braintree, Massachusetts in a town just about 13 miles south of Boston where police say an individual who has since been detained, walked in without a ticket into that AMC movie theater, and then stabbed those four young women.

As you pointed out, they're ages between nine to 17 years old. They were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. So that's certainly a positive development there that they will actually survive their injuries.

And at this point, police describing this as an unprovoked attack. We heard from law enforcement yesterday saying that apparently this individual simply walked in, didn't even exchange any sort of words. And then he stabbed those young ladies.

Police believe that the man then got in a car and made a drive to Plymouth. That is where it is believed that he then stabbed two individuals, a man and a woman, both in their 20s. They also sustained non-life-threatening injuries. Police then eventually if you pull up the map here for our viewers

were able to track down this individual. And then in the -- just further south of there in Sandwich, that is when after a police pursuit the suspect then crashes his vehicle.

The suspect taken to the hospital where he is recovering before facing potential charges.

What's important here, police have not released any information about who this man is. Only saying that those two incidents are connected.

Now while all this played out, police in Deep River, Connecticut were investigating the death or rather a disturbance. And at that scene, they located an individual who was dead.

And they have not released much information, only saying that the suspect in that case was arrested in Massachusetts. But they stopped short of linking it to those two incidents.

So there are a lot of moving parts here, Fred and it's still very hard to really get a clear sense of what happened.

But it is absolutely disturbing. You have a movie theater, you have a fast food restaurant, and people apparently attacked randomly at both of those both of those locations. But fortunately, they are going to survive.

[14:19:46]

WHITFIELD: All right. And still early in the investigations and a whole lot could change about the --

SANDOVAL: Absolutely.

WHITFIELD: -- sequence of events and all that precipitated it. Thank you so much, Polo Sandoval.

SANDOVAL: Thanks, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Tomorrow, Donald Trump's lawyers will likely spend the holiday preparing for closing arguments in his criminal hush money trial.

How each side needs to present their case to jurors when court returns on Tuesday.

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WHITFIELD: Former president Donald Trump is in Charlotte today to attend the NASCAR Coca-Cola 600 race where he hopes to get a friendlier reception than he did last night.

[14:24:46]

WHITFIELD: Saturday evening, Trump gave one of his shortest and most combative campaign speeches of the season at the libertarian convention in Washington, D.C.

He was greeted by a mix of loud boos and a few cheers as he tried to convince members of the Libertarian Party to vote for him.

CNN's Steve Contorno has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump was booed and heckled from the moment he took the stage at the Libertarian Convention in Washington D.C. on Saturday night.

Trump arrived here hoping he could convert some libertarians to support his presidential campaign. His supporters and convention attendees clashed in the audience, sometimes physically as Trump suggested that it was time for them to unite.

He sprinted through his speech, giving a ton of reasons why he thought the two sides should come together. The biggest one -- defeating Joe Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: That is why I have come to extend a hand of friendship to ask for your partnership to defeat Communism, defeat Marxism and defeat crooked Joe Biden, who is destroying our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Trump did manage to win over the crowd at some points, like when he said you have put a libertarian in his cabinet if he was elected president. The biggest cheers of the night came when he said he would commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht. That is the founder of the underground Web site, the Silk Road, who's imprisonment has been become a cause for the Libertarian Party.

But he lost the crowd once again when he suggested that the party should nominate him to be their candidate for president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The Libertarian Party should nominate Trump for president of the United States. That's nice. That's nice.

Only if you want to win. Only if you want to win. Maybe you don't want to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Whether or not Trump converted anyone at the convention on Saturday is unclear, but his campaign is hopeful that the outreach will help him win over some hearts and minds across the country especially from some of these people who are considering third-party candidates.

They are especially concerned about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. who has also been courting libertarian votes. He spoke to the convention on Friday.

Steve Contorno, CNN -- Washington D.C.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. This could be a consequential week for Donald Trump. Closing arguments in his criminal hush money trial are expected to begin on Tuesday and the case could be in the hands of the jury this week.

After six weeks of testimony, we could soon find out if Trump becomes the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. He faces 34 felony counts in this historic trial.

Joining me right now to discuss is Jeff Swartz. He is a former Florida judge.

Judge, good to see you.

JEFF SWARTZ, FORMER FLORIDA JUDGE: Good to see you, too, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. So set the stage for what you think prosecutors will need to do in their closing statements to the jury as they try to make their case that Trump is guilty.

SWARTZ: They're going to have to present their closing argument the same as they did their case. And that is build the case to the momentum of getting to Michael Cohen. That is show all of the corroboration, all of the testimony that basically corroborates what Michael testified to. And then at that point, talk about Michael Cohen.

The key here is two things that happened on the last couple of days of testimony. One is the so-called $60,000-steal and that's what the defense calls it. But the prosecution is going to remind everybody that he testified in direct examination of the $30,000 dollars that he took when he kept some of the money that was supposed to go to a vendor.

The second thing they're going to have to address and that is basically the idea that Michael lied about the telephone call on October 26.

But the problem that -- the problem the defense has and the prosecution is going to point out is that during that testimony he specifically said he called Schiller to talk about something else and ended up asking for Donald Trump.

And the defense tried to make a big deal out of that. But the problem is they have a picture Schiller and Trump two minutes before that phone call together as always.

And ten seconds out of a 90-second phone call is not a big deal. And that's what they're going to argue.

WHITFIELD: And then what will the defense need to do? SWARTZ: They're going to have to just paint everything that Cohen said

as being tainted because of the lies he told over all the years that he worked for Donald Trump. The problem is how do you attack him as being a liar when Trump is the guy that hired him to tell lies on his behalf.

So what you're really coming down to is you're going to have to dirty up Michael Cohen as best as you can and say you can't rely on anything else because this is the lynchpin.

And then in rebuttal, the prosecution is going to say he's the finish, but he isn't the lynchpin. And that's kind of the way that it's going to go.

[14:29:47]

WHITFIELD: Ok. And you've ever seen many trials, you know, in your years on the bench? Given what you have heard from this trial, how are jurors' kind of organizing their thoughts, perhaps their notes, because many have said they've been copious note takers. Have they likely made up their minds or are closing arguments influential?

SWARTZ: They are influential, but I think that in this particular case, based upon what was reported being the body language of the jury during the defense case when they put on Mr. Costello, I think they pretty much made up their minds.

Now, they're going to go back there and it's going to be an issue to me of which way the lawyers on the jury go. And if they are together, that's where I think the jury is going to go. If they take separate ways, then that's a little bit more differential. But I think that they pretty much are going to follow the instruction that says you can believe all any part of or none of what a witness says. That means they can look at Michael Cohen and say, I didn't believe this, but the rest of it seems to be corroborated, and I believe that.

And so, that's kind of the way it will go.

WHITFIELD: Yeah. When you made reference to the lawyers just for those who may have forgotten their two attorneys that make up part of that jury pool.

SWARTZ: Correct.

WHITFIELD: All right. Judge Jeff Swartz, thank you so much. Great to see you.

SWARTZ: Have a great day, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

All right. Coming up, new details on the cause of professional golfer Grayson Murray's death.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:35:50]

WHITFIELD: All right. We have some very sad breaking news to share. The parents of two-time PGA Tour winner Grayson Murray confirmed their son died by suicide. At 30 years old, Murray passed away just one day after withdrawing from a golf tournament in Fort Worth, Texas, citing an illness.

In a statement, Murray's parents said, I'm quoting now: We have spent the last 24 hours trying to come to terms with the fact that our son is gone. It's surreal that we not only have to admit it to ourselves, but that we also have to acknowledge it to the world. It's a nightmare.

Life wasn't always easy for Grayson. And although he took his own life, we know he rests peacefully now.

Earlier this year, the 30 year-old admitted that he was struggling with his mental health. Murray was considered one of the worlds best junior players, capturing three IMG junior world titles.

And if you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please text or call the national suicide and crisis lifeline at 988.

All right. This week, the NCAA and the power five conferences are promising to pay out billions to current and former college players in a new settlement. If approved, it would put to rest three antitrust lawsuits but in reality, could do much more. It could change the entire business of college sports, as CNN's Polo Sandoval explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (voice over): It's a groundbreaking agreement promising to reshape the fan-packed world of college athletics. If approved by a judge, the settlement announced by the governing body of college sports paves the way for universities to pay student athletes in five power conferences.

PAUL FINEBAUM, SPORTS RADIO HOST: This is the most significant day in the history of the NCAA, because the sham that the NCAA has always been is over. They have always fought on every mountain, to defend the right that this is really amateur athletics when we've all known that is has not been the case for a long time.

SANDOVAL: NCAA President Charlie Baker saying in a statement Friday, the NCAA, in coordination with division one conferences, promises to pay roughly $2.7 billion in damages over ten years, the money for thousands of student athletes previously prohibited from accepting endorsements. The deal also creates a revenue sharing system, allowing schools to pay up to around $20 million a year to division one athletes and conferences, like the Big 10 and the SEC, going back to 2016. The system could start by fall 2025.

JEFFREY KESSLER, ANTITRUST, SPORTS LAW AND TRIAL ATTORNEY: This is the life-transforming opportunity for these student athletes to share in the revenues they've been generating.

SANDOVAL: Jeffrey Kessler was lead attorney in the antitrust case against the NCAA that helped reach the unprecedented agreement.

KESSLER: These athletes work 45 hours a week before they go to a single class. They are asked to dedicate themselves to make these teams great and to bring in all these money to these schools. So, it is their time.

SANDOVAL: Former college football and NFL Wide Receiver Donte Stallworth telling CNN, this is long overdue.

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE AND NFL PLAYER: You could have learned a lot of financial stability, have a lot of financial resources from that aspect. A lot of guys don't make it to the NFL, like I was fortunate enough to do.

SANDOVAL: Eligible students stand to get a piece of a very lucrative pie. NCAA sports generated roughly $1.3 billion in revenue last fiscal year alone. There is skepticism about the deal though.

JOE MOGLIA, CHAIR, COASTAL CAROLINA ATHELTICS DIVISION: Seventy-five percent of the NBA players and NFL players that have retired after five years, they go broke, okay? That's NBA and NFL players. What kind of financial literacy is part of the life of an 18, 19, 20, 21-year- old kid? To what extent might they be taken advantage of with regard to the agents? To what extent do academics really, really matter with regard to all this? And those are significant, significant questions that are not being addressed.

[14:40:01]

SANDOVAL: And there are other unanswered questions about a possible framework. Just how exactly will it work? What athletes and sports will profit over others? And how will schools adhere to strict Title IX laws, which aim to prohibit sexual discrimination?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Lots of questions still to be answered. Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

I'm joined now by Bleacher Report college football reporter Morgan Moriarty.

Great to see you, Morgan.

So, what's your reaction to the deal? What are you hearing from, you know, athletes that you know, coaches that you know about this whole deal.

MORGAN MORIARTY, BLEACHER REPORT COLLEGE FOOTBALL REPORTER: Yes. So as it was set up before I came on it, it's a historic day for the NCAA, and this guise of amateurism is officially going away. You know, it hasn't really been, they haven't been amateurs for the past 20 years when you look at the TV contracts and the millions of dollars that these athletes bring into these schools. Now, they're able to finally get a piece of that, there's a couple of big points that need to be hammered out in terms of the settlement. But off the top, the money that these schools will get as around $22

million. That's kind of a rough figure. Some have said close to 20 or 21. 22 seems to be the number and these schools can distribute that money however they want. The NCAA is letting them use it at their discretion. So that creates the opportunity to have more scholarship opportunities in place. A program like an NCAA baseball team, typically only he has a lot at about 11 right now. Now they're able to say, look, we can put all 20 to 30 players on scholarship if they wish.

There's also the opportunity apparently for players to be able to sign multi-year contracts, which might help the massive roster movement that we see in a given year into the transfer portal.

But as the previous segment mentioned, Title IX is a big, big issue here because if you divide that money unequally, which is how most athletic departments are set up now, the revenue producing sports they bring in the money and fund the lesser sports. A lot of women's sports fall under that umbrella. If you keep the revenue that way, that's a title nine lawsuit potentially. And even if you divide it equally amongst all the athletes, that's what the potential for lawsuits as well for the revenue producing sports players to say, well, wait a minute, we're the ones that bring in the bulk of this money anyways, why are we not receiving a full piece of the pie?

The other big question is NIL is not going away. The settlement does not have anything or change anything to do with NIL. The NCAA has really been in competent with trying to enforce it. They're actually barred from enforcing any type of NIL reductions or policing NIL because of a separate antitrust lawsuit filed by the states and Tennessee and Virginia. So that's the other big thing is they need to figure out a way to regulate that.

There's been conversations about having it being a separate office like the NFLPA does. The NBA does that separately, so those the two big issues the settlement is a big deal and its great for the athletes, but there's still a few things that are really unresolved still.

WHITFIELD: Yeah, its a lot to work out before some have said it would be put into play by fall of 2025.

All right. Let me ask you something else now. There's an interesting lawsuit filed this week. Jaden Rashada, you know, a quarterback who now plays with the University of Georgia, who is accusing the University of Florida's head football coach and others of fraud and for failing to pay $13 million for the whole NIL agreement. He says these promises were made during recruitment.

Where is that going?

MORIARTY: Yes, so this lawsuit is a really interesting one because we haven't really seen one like this filed yet.

And NIL as I mentioned, its really virtually and unpalatable the way that it is. There are strict NCAA rules that say you cannot use NIL inducements to try to get a recruit to sign with their respective school and essentially Jaden Rashada, he was a highly-touted quarterback recruit out of the state of California. Initially, he committed to the University of Miami, flipped to Florida, and over the course of his recruitment and leading up to his signing the deal, that was expected to be $13.86 million.

That's -- I mean, that's a significant amount of money for anyone, let alone an 18, 17 year-old kid. The collective that was funding that which is funded by NIL, essentially just basically he fell apart and he was expected to get a signing bonus at $500,000 on or before national signing day, that never happened. And they tried to work out, rework out a contract, couldn't come to an agreement.

[14:45:05]

And in the end, he feels like if he had signed with the University of Miami, like he was initially going to, that agreement was about $9.5 million. He could have avoided all of this and he's missed out on this revenue.

It's really interesting to see where it will go. Obviously, this is the first lawsuit like this that we've seen. Rashada is now he eventually signed and with Arizona state, he's now at Georgia, which is one of Florida's biggest rivals, which just adds to this kind of interesting and unique story.

So for now, in terms of Florida, I don't know if it will move quickly enough to affect Billy Napier, the head coach, right away. He's entering year three in Florida. They're staring down one of the hardest schedules in college football.

It's I don't know if he'll be able to make it out of there now, after this year, so -- but there is a chance that if some of these claims are substantiated, Florida could be able to fire him without cause and not have to pay his multimillion-dollar buyout if this does reach to that zero point.

WHITFIELD: Oh my gosh. It's really fascinating to see if other lawsuits like this we'll come about.

This is some big money involving these players.

All right. Morgan, so we do have a statement from the University of Florida as athletic association telling CNN that and I'm quoting now, we do not comment on ongoing litigation and neither the University Athletic Association nor the university are named in the complaint. CNN has also reached out to the others involved in the lawsuit for comment as well. And I'm sure when you hear it, you'll let us know, and vice versa.

Thank you so much, Morgan Moriarty.

MORIARTY: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: All right. Rapper Nicki Minaj is forced to postpone her concert in England. Why she says she was detained for hours in Amsterdam.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:51:30]

WHITFIELD: All right. A growing number of small private colleges and universities across the country are struggling to keep their doors open. A dramatic drop in enrollment, of poor fundraising, inflation, and the cost of higher education are some of the key issues as to why some college campuses today appear nearly empty.

Here's CNN's Athena Jones.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HELEN DRINAN, INTERIM PRESIDENT, CABRINI UNIVERSITY: I saw some signs that made me concerned.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When Helen Drinan arrived to serve as interim president of Cabrini University in Radnor, Pennsylvania, she quickly realized the small Catholic liberal arts school was in dire straits. After more than 60 percent drop in enrollment since 2016, the school, which relies heavily on tuition for funding, given its small endowment, had already taken steps to reduce costs, but it wasn't enough.

DRINAN: Look at this campus, it is built to accommodate twice as many students as we have. You can't stop mowing the lawn. You can't stop heating the buildings. You can't cut the expenses in half. If you can't build new revenue, you really are playing for time.

JONES: A dramatic increase in tuition wouldn't work either, especially at a time when students and parents are increasingly concerned about affordability.

Cabrini is one of a growing number of colleges and universities across the country facing serious financial pressure, often due to inflation, higher operating costs, poor fundraising, and declining enrollment. To survive, some schools are being forced to take drastic measures like merging with other institutions or cutting programs and staff like at Valparaiso University in Indiana, which is also mulling a controversial sale of a prized Georgia O'Keeffe painting to fund dormitory improvements.

Schools in regions like the Northeast with a high concentration of colleges have been hit particularly hard. The century-old college of Saint Rose in Albany will shut down this summer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People knew that we were challenged and we knew we were in trouble.

JONES: A declining national birth weight is also partly to blame.

RACHEL BURNS, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, STATE HIGHER EDUCATION EXECUTIVE OFFICERS: As demographics are changing, as there are fewer students graduating high schools, those institutions don't have a larger region to pull potential students from. The best we can predict is that this trend that we've seen in the past couple of years is likely to continue because there is no other source of students other than looking internationally

JONES: In the end time, ran out for Cabrini. The college will close this June after reaching a deal with Villanova University, also Catholic, to take over the campus while preserving part of the Mother Cabrini legacy. The school has also partnered with four Pennsylvania colleges that have agreed to match Cabrini students' financial aid packages and allow them to transfer their credits.

Some students are still figuring out their plans.

BEN OHMACHT, CABRINI STUDENT JUNIOR: I'm currently just deciding like, you know, which school would be the best for me, like what they provide, like how I feel comfortable on campus and everything else. But I feel confident that like soon enough, I will decide which one I want to go to.

JONES: Junior Colin Tomczak is going to Eastern University, a partner school just down the street.

COLIN TOMCZAK, CABRINI UNIVERSITY JUNIOR: I was really upset at first, but I guess I've gone through enough of the process that I feel pretty secure where I am. So whereas probably a year ago, I was very concerned and scared, and just not at all sure what I was going to do. I think I'm pretty set and I feel pretty confident with my road. But honestly, the process here when I came back, the amount of help I got from people definitely helped me steer away from just dropping out entirely.

JONES: Drinan hopes more schools can avoid Cabrini's fate.

DRINAN: We, as an industry have got to get our act together so that we are helping to produce the number and the kinds of members of the workforce this country needs.

[14:55:02]

And we're not anywhere near going to do that if we keep falling behind in terms of universities and colleges that are closing.

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JONES (on camera): This trend of colleges closing is likely to continue with private non-profit institutions. The most effected. One export described it as a right sizing of the market acknowledging some unfortunate closures that have been devastating to students, but saying some other closures maybe the best thing for the field of higher education in the long run, because they will allow the limited state and federal resources available to go to institutions that are most likely to provide a high-quality education to students.

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE) WHITFIELD: All right. And more than 10 -- 100 million rather people at risk of severe weather today as dangerous and deadly storms across the Midwest and Ohio Valley heat up.

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