D.C. Decision Makers Could Kill College Sports By Giving NCAA Big Dogs A Legal Monopoly
College sports aren’t just games. They’re a lifeline for countless young people who otherwise would never have had a pathway out of the hardships of their upbringing.
Over a century ago, Teddy Roosevelt faced a slaughterhouse: college football fields littered with broken noses, crushed skulls, and 18 kids dead in a single season. He slammed his fist down, dragged university bosses to the White House, and paved the way for the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), a system that has turned scrappy survivors into Olympians and graduates.
I lived it as a college football player myself, lungs burning, ankles twisted, and bones broken. But I was provided a scholarship and a ticket to a bigger and better life. For millions, it’s been the same: a degree, a way out, and potentially even a shot at Olympic gold. American Olympians, and American women especially, dominate athletics globally because of our great and unparalleled American intercollegiate athletics system. That’s not hype, it’s fact.
But today, the lifeline of college sports is on life support. What started as an amateur dream is now a multibillion-dollar beast, and the big dogs — the SEC, Big Ten, and to a lesser extent the Big 12 and the ACC, the “Autonomy Four” — are ready to rip it apart. They’ll tell you it’s about fairness for athletes and “stabilization” of the system. Don’t buy it. It’s a heist, and the victims are the kids you don’t see on ESPN: the gymnast flipping on a worn mat, the wrestler grinding for a D-II shot, the swimmer making laps in the pool at 5 a.m. every day.
While public focus has been locked on eye-popping NIL (name, image, and likeness) deals and the uncontained transfer portal, the true threat to the system is much less obvious. Here’s the economic reality: Football and men’s basketball haul in over 93 percent of the cash — billions that keep swimming, softball, and wrestling alive. Women’s sports and Olympic sports don’t turn a profit. They never will. But they are the heart and soul of the college sports system, pumping opportunity to kids who’d otherwise be sidelined.
I’ve seen it — teammates who’d never have the chance to set foot on a college campus without the promise of sports. Over-allocate the cash to pay football and basketball stars and/or exclude many institutions from profit streams and media exposure, and universities will swing the axe on the sports that can’t pay their own bills. Non-revenue sports, Olympic sports, women’s sports? Gone. Dreams? Buried.
The players deserve a fair piece of the pie — I get it. I’m a strong free-markets advocate who also sweated and bled without the benefit of NIL payments. I feel the sting. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh nailed it from a legal standpoint: “Nowhere else in America can businesses get away with agreeing not to pay their workers a fair market rate on the theory that their product is defined by not paying their workers a fair market rate.”
The NCAA is a cartel and operates under an outdated model that is being methodically dismantled in court. A bevy of litigation cracked the dam, and House v. NCAA and Johnson v. NCAA are the beginning of a flood that will soon drown the economic model that has sustained the system.
Of course, these court decisions are all well legally justified under the accepted interpretation of antitrust law, but the fallout is a gut punch to a great American institution. If the money gets siphoned off, it’s not just the NCAA that bleeds — it’s Mia, the 14-year-old gymnast with Olympic fire in her eyes, and Jake, the wrestler pinning his future on a scholarship.
Now the Autonomy Four conferences smell blood. They’re begging Congress for an antitrust exemption, protection from the lawsuits they’ve earned. Their proposals sound reasonable, right? Stabilize the chaos, they say. Wrong! It’s a Trojan horse.
The top 40 most-viewed college football programs already hog 89.3 percent of TV eyeballs and 95 percent of media cash. Give the Autonomy Four (especially the Big 10 and SEC) a free antitrust hall pass, and they’ll build a super conference, a gilded monopoly that starves everyone else of the revenue needed to provide opportunity to more than 500,000 student athletes per year. Of 134 FBS schools, 90 or more could lose funding for Olympic sports, women’s teams, and even football itself (not to mention the FCS and Division II). Local towns could crumble. Smaller colleges would fade. College sports would shrink from a national treasure to an elite clique, and countless dreams would be crushed.
This isn’t about left or right; it’s about right and wrong. The NCAA is broken, but handing the keys to a few fat cats is worse. America thrives on competition, not cozy cartels blessed by D.C.
The fix isn’t rocket science: Pay athletes what’s fair, but don’t let the rich programs get richer by creating a monopoly on the revenue sports. Force transparency and promote competitive parity and greater media exposure for all. Keep the necessary funding flowing to the swimmers, the wrestlers, the dreamers at the smaller and less-recognized colleges, the kids who make this messy, beautiful system worth saving.
The Trump crew and Congress are on it, and I’m glad. But they’ve got to see through the smoke. Reject the Autonomy Four’s power grab and recognize that those making the biggest legislative push are simply advocating for their own selfish interests; they don’t care about the long-term health of the institution, the country, or the incredible opportunity college sports provide to those much less fortunate.
Build a framework that permanently sustains college sports as a nationwide proving ground and talent development tool, not a playground for the greedy. Don’t let a handful of suits trade Mia and Jake’s futures so already-fat hogs can get even fatter.
Fight for the underdogs. That’s the conservative way. That’s the American way.
Cody Campbell is a former football player for Texas Tech and the Indianapolis Colts. He is a distinguished fellow at the America First Policy Institute, a board member of Texas Public Policy Foundation, and is a member of the Board of Regents of the Texas Tech University System.
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