A few days after obtaining the field, President Donald Trump interrupted the formation of a presidential commission on university athletics.
The White House’s decision was made Wednesday morning after conversations with legislators, including the American senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who suggested that the work of the Commission was sidelined while they were looking for the co-sponsorship on the CBS development bill on the bill to regulate university athletics, said sources at CBS Sports. The presidential committee could return in the next 90 days, although no promise of the White House has been made, sources said.
The confidence that the commission focused on university sports regulations would gain bipartisan support was decreased, and the Big Ten and SEC, the two most powerful conferences of university athletics, opposed the notions of the head of the Cody Campbell commission behind the scenes, according to several sources familiar with the situation. A senior official told CBS Sports this week that their nightmare was to see Campbell Arm in their arm with Trump and completely reverse the years of work that have been devoted to a new era of university sports which should soon allow universities to pay their athletes directly. The White House was also convinced to put the touch of the Commission because of the complete file that Trump is confronted: trade disputes, the Russian-Ukraine war and the economy.
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The presidential committee was also faced with the opposition on the ground, sources told CBS Sports. Campbell’s public push for the rights of the media of Pool conferences to help the smaller leagues confronted with financial problems was very worrying for the Big Ten and the SEC, the two richest conferences in the country. Sources within these conferences thought that the main objective of Campbell was to support Texas Tech, its Alma Mater, the Big 12 group and the group of five schools to the detriment of what the Big Ten and Dry try to accomplish. The two richest and most powerful conferences had no desire to see that their hard-won money was redirected to new-mexic and UTEP in the world simply because it could benefit the system.
Campbell criticized the workforce of the two conferences on amateur athletics and their efforts in Washington, DC, in search of legal protections which would mainly favor them and lead to smaller conferences which would collapse under a financial burden. Power conferences and NCAA have spent millions for Lobbying efforts in Capitol Hill over the past four years.
“The NCAA is broken, but handing the keys to a few big cats is worse,” Campbell wrote in March. “America thrives on competition, not comfortable cartels blessed by DC”
The seed of the Trump’s presidential committee was planted on May 1 when Trump visited the University of Alabama to speak during a start ceremony. It was there that he met the former coach of Alabama, Nick Saban, and the two discussed university athletics and the heavy world of Nile. Campbell, chairman of the Texas Tech Board of Directors, was in charge of the Commission and actively asked for the comments of college chiefs and recently recruited members to serve, including Saban. The former legendary coach of Crimson Tide spoke several times with Campbell, and the two met in person to discuss a leadership role, sources said.
Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), who accompanied Trump during his visit to Alabama, recently expressed doubts at CBS Sports that a federal legislative solution would emerge, rather hoping in what Campbell and Saban could accomplish with a commission.
“I think Nick and Cody can do something with President Trump’s power,” Tuberville told CBS Sports last week. “You will not get six votes in the Senate, so (Trump is) who will have to say:” Listen, that’s what we are going to do. “”
Campbell, a former Texas Tech football player which has won its wealth in the energy industry, is strongly involved in the zero space since 2022, when he founded the Matador Club, the Nile de Tech collective. He also has links with Trump and Cruz, which he supported financially via donations and fundraising events.
Meanwhile, Saban wondered publicly if a commission was necessary at the request of those who did not want to see the commission winning the ground, according to sources. Several Power Four sources have told CBS Sports this week that Saban publicly behind the commission had been useful to slow down any progress.
“I know there have been a lot about a commission or something else. I don’t think we need a commission,” said Saban, According to BAMA247. “I have already said it. I think we need – we know what are the problems, we just have to have people who are ready to move them and solve them and create solutions for some of these problems. I am completely a consultant for anyone thinking that my experience would be beneficial to help create some of these solutions.”
The president of the NCAA, Charlie Baker, and the ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, expressed the support of the commission last week.
“The fact that there is an interest on this subject, I think that it testifies to the fact that everyone pays a lot of attention with regard to university sports,” said Baker. “I’m ready for anything that can help us get somewhere.”
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Variable opinions among the conferences reflect the lines of battle that have formed between the richest lectures – Big Ten and dry – and those who fight to remain financially competitive – ACC and Big 12. One side had expressed hope for the Commission, while the other was wary of motivations.
NCAA and its main conferences have been looking for the government’s legal protection for the government for four years since zero payments were legalized throughout NCAA. Officials want universal laws to govern void after more than 30 states have adopted laws with variable regulations. Administrators also wish to codify the language in the expected regulations of the Landmark House c. NCAA Antitrust, allowing schools to pay millions of dollars at their discretion for the first time in history, from July 1.
With the presidential commission on the rear burner, the efforts of the conferences are again turning to Cruz and his colleagues as they try to move forward with a Bipartite bill. The legislators have previously proposed more than a dozen bills in recent years, but none has progressed at Congress after having hidden committees. Within Big Ten and SEC, Cruz was considered the best hope of obtaining a federal solution that offers what they want most.
Cruz said in January that he hoped to adopt a law to regulate the university athletics market during the current legislative session. Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal, Cory Booker and Jerry Moran are working on a bipartite compromise with Cruz, ESPN reported in January. In March, Saban appeared alongside Cruz for a round table on Nile at the Capitol.
A request to the office of Senator Cruz to comment on his role in the committee’s break was not immediately returned.