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College sports have always been more than just games. For countless young athletes, they are a ticket to higher education, a better life, and, for a select few, even Olympic glory. But as Fort Worth businessman and former Texas Tech football player Cody Campbell argues in commentary published by The Federalist, that lifeline is in jeopardy.
It is time, he urges, to “fight for the underdogs.”
“That’s the conservative way. That’s the American way.”
The billion-dollar world of college athletics is at a crossroads. With NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) deals, an unregulated transfer portal, and growing legal challenges to the NCAA’s traditional model, change is inevitable. But Campbell warns that the biggest threat isn’t athletes finally getting paid. It’s the power grab by the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC — the “Autonomy Four” — that could fundamentally and negatively reshape college sports.
Campbell says the increasing dominance of the Autonomy Four and their efforts to monopolize media rights, revenue, and competition are putting college athletics in peril. (Campbell, co-founder and co-CEO of Double Eagle Holdings IV, is a distinguished fellow at the America First Policy Institute, a board member of Texas Public Policy Foundation, and a member of the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System. He is a key supporter and benefactor of Texas Tech athletics.)
Currently, football and men’s basketball generate over 93% of the revenue that keeps nonrevenue and Olympic sports alive — sports like swimming, wrestling, gymnastics, and women’s athletics. But if the biggest conferences consolidate power, they will siphon off funding from smaller schools, starving the very programs that provide thousands of young athletes with educational opportunities.
The top 40 most-viewed college football programs command nearly 90% of TV viewers and 95% of media revenue.
If the Autonomy Four push their agenda, he warns that 90 or more of the 134 FBS schools could lose funding for their athletic programs, including even for football.
Women’s sports and Olympic sports would be the first to go.
Campbell likens this to a corporate takeover that prioritizes big-money programs while gutting the system that allows more than 500,000 student-athletes to compete each year.
Campbell acknowledges the flaws of the NCAA, calling it a “cartel” that has long exploited players under an outdated model. But the solution isn’t to hand control over to a few powerful conferences that only care about maximizing profits.
Instead, Campbell calls for:
- Fair compensation for athletes—but not at the expense of other sports.
- More financial transparency to ensure revenue is distributed fairly.
- Competitive parity to prevent the richest programs from hoarding all the resources.
- Congress to reject the Autonomy Four’s attempt to gain an antitrust exemption, which would allow them to form an unchecked super conference.
College sports have always been about more than money. They provide opportunities for students from all backgrounds. They fuel small-town economies, create tight-knit alumni networks, and showcase the best of American competition.
If the current trajectory holds, we could soon see a system where only elite, money-making programs survive, leaving thousands of young athletes without a path forward.
Read his commentary here.