A pro-Trump oil baron is teaming up with Stephen Miller’s legal group to pressure Congress to make sweeping changes to college sports that could hinder athletes from profiting from their talents.
Last July, Donald Trump issued an executive order titled “Saving College Sports,” which called on Congress to rein in so-called name, image and likeness rules that allow college athletes to make money through endorsements. In the months that followed, Trump publicly fretted over the possibility of player pay bankrupting colleges “no matter how rich they are” (a thing that’s not at risk of happening) and called for “powerful caps” on player compensation (something that already exists).
Many Americans are likely unaware of the fact that the title of Trump’s executive order matches the name of a nonprofit organization led by Cody Campbell — a Trump ally and chairman of Texas Tech University’s board of regents. Campbell was consulted during the drafting of the order and launched a lobbying campaign in September to get Congress to pass a law that would undermine players’ ability to maximize their moneymaking potential, prevent them from being classified as employees (as many of them want to be) and give schools more control over athletes.
Three major proposals to regulate college athletics are floating around Washington now. The one broadly seen as most player-friendly is the Democratic-backed Student Athlete Fairness and Enforcement Act, which has drawn support from several notable former college athletes and all of the major professional athlete unions in North America. Another bill, the SCORE Act, introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, was pulled from consideration last December after it faced blowback in part for its inclusion of antitrust exemptions for the NCAA — exemptions that athletes and their advocates have fought tooth-and-nail for years out of concern that they could deepen existing inequities in the current system.
The third is Campbell’s favored proposal, laid out in a press release from the America First Policy Institute, the right-wing think tank co-founded by White House adviser Stephen Miller (and initially funded in part by Campbell). The proposal, which appears to reflect ideas proposed by a conservative Texas think tank, is that Congress would replace the NCAA with a new governing body to oversee college sports that is granted those controversial antitrust protections. Sports writer Mike Decourcy wrote an excellent article last year for Sporting News that presented the evidence for why Campbell’s proposals appear designed primarily to benefit his alma mater, Texas Tech, as well as why it’s reasonable to question how much these proposals would truly benefit athletes. Sports analyst Bomani Jones’ recent chat with journalist Steven Godfrey also offers interesting details on Campbell’s gambit and college sports executives’ quest for an antitrust exemption. (Check out the segments beginning at the 8-minute and 25-minute time stamps.) Considering that Trump has openly aligned himself with people like former coach Nick Saban who have promoted the idea that athletes have become too entitled, it’s the athletes who seem likely to get the short end of the stick if the “Saving College Sports” proposal is signed into law. And Campbell would bear a lot of the responsibility should that ever happen.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog. 
