Texas Tech Leader Launches ‘Save College Sports’ Campaign

(Texas Scorecard) – Cody Campbell, chairman of the Texas Tech University System Board of Regents, has launched an effort to “save college sports” at a time when Name, Image, and Likeness compensation has placed unparalleled pressure on university athletic departments.

This pressure has grown since the settlement in House v. NCAA, which allowed universities to directly compensate student-athletes.

Name, Image, and Likeness is a legal term that describes a system that allows college athletes in the United States to earn money by using their personal brand for commercial purposes.

Originally intended to allow student athletes to leverage their athletic ability through outside commercial activity, the system has grown into a de facto form of athlete compensation.

Campbell outlined his vision in interviews with 365 Sports and USA Today. In those interviews, he identified several challenges posed by the current economic model.

Under that model, football and men’s basketball often subsidize other sports. While some popular programs with large fan bases, such as Texas Longhorns baseball or Oklahoma Sooners softball, can generate revenue, those cases are unusual. This is especially true for Olympic sports and women’s sports.

Campbell worries that the rise of athlete compensation will crowd out universities’ ability to fund those other programs.

“There’s not enough money in the system to pay the players and keep all the sports,” Campbell said. According to him, about 50 programs have been cut since the House settlement.

As a proposed remedy, Campbell has launched a nonprofit organization, SavingCollegeSports.com.

Campbell’s organization will advocate for a limited antitrust exemption, similar to those enjoyed by professional leagues such as the NFL, NBA, and NHL, that would allow universities to pool their broadcast rights into a national package. He believes pooling broadcast rights will increase revenue for all college sports programs.

Campbell also supports federal preemption of state laws related to student-athlete compensation to provide regulatory consistency for all programs. Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution permits Congress “to regulate commerce…among the several states.”

Finally, Campbell wants to ensure that student-athletes remain students of their respective institutions, rather than become university employees.