(Texas Scorecard) – Last week, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz called a CBS news article “nonsense” before requesting that President Donald Trump form a college sports commission “as soon as possible.”
A May 22 article by the beleaguered CBS criticized a proposed effort to reform college sports led by Cody Campbell, chairman of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents.
Campbell has warned that college sports face “rapid destruction” from risks such as unionization, collective bargaining, and athletes leaving for bigger paydays.
For instance, the Baylor Bears men’s basketball team will start the next season with a 100 percent roster turnover. Not a single player will be returning to the team after graduation, draft picks, or portal entries.
However, this issue goes beyond the chaos that can impact a college sports program.
According to an analysis of college scholarships, athletics scholarships are second only to the GI program in putting young adults who might otherwise not attend college on a path to a diploma.
NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) and the cash flowing to high-profile athletes threatens to move top talent from smaller colleges and universities to large ones.
Reportedly, Trump has been working to create a commission to investigate this problem and plans to appoint Campbell to lead it. Campbell reached out to former Alabama coach Nick Saban to serve on the committee.
The CBS article framed a narrative that supported big universities and claimed that “sources” said Cruz undercut Campbell to the White House by pushing a legislative solution in the U.S. Senate as an alternative.
Cruz criticized CBS’ portrayal. “Cody & Nick are terrific and both good friends,” Cruz posted to X on May 23. “I welcome the commission, hope that it gets formed as soon as possible, and encourage the President to do so.”
Campbell responded hours after Cruz posted, thanking him. “We all need to work together and set aside selfish agendas, tribalism, and politics to preserve the life-changing opportunity that College Sports provide to more than 500,000 young people in this country,” he wrote.
Observers should not overlook the fact that the professionalization of athletics comes at the same time that a swarm of sports gambling services has swept across the nation like a plague.
Professional organizations that used to keep the specter of gambling at arm’s length, including the National Football League, have fully embraced the practice.
College athletics appear poised to be beset by the same fate, and it looks like there will be a concerted effort to thwart reforms of the out-of-control NIL regime.