Cruz Booed at GameDay Over College Sports Bill
Cruz Booed at GameDay Over College Sports Bill
The News
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) was booed for most of a College GameDay appearance Saturday in Austin while pitching the Protect College Sports Act, the bipartisan bill he wants Congress to pass and President Donald Trump to sign.
Cruz sat with host Rece Davis for nearly 10 minutes at Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium ahead of the Week 2 game between No. 4 Texas and No. 1 Ohio State.
The crowd chanted "Ted you suck!" repeatedly and at points drowned him out entirely, according to Mediaite and PennLive.
What the Bill Does
The measure, which Cruz co-authored with Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington, sets a federal standard for eligibility, name-image-likeness compensation and transfers.
It limits players to five years of eligibility from the time they graduate high school or turn 19, with a hard cutoff at age 24, and gives athletes one transfer without penalty instead of the current open portal.
Timeline
Cruz joins the ESPN College GameDay panel in Austin before the Texas–Ohio State game and begins talking about the bill as boos build behind him.
Cruz tells Davis that "what we have right now is chaos, there are no rules," and blames federal antitrust law and the lawsuits it enabled for wiping out the old system. He also predicts a 21-10 Texas win over the Buckeyes.
A Senate vote on the Protect College Sports Act is currently scheduled for this window, PennLive reported.
Reactions
The Texas crowd gave the verdict live: a steady chorus of boos and "Ted you suck!" chants that made parts of the interview hard to hear.
Cruz kept selling the bill through it. "It brings order to chaos. It protects the students, protects the student's ability to be compensated to receive name, image, and likeness compensation, I think that's only fair. It's only right," he said.
He argued the status quo is financially unsustainable for schools. "They're losing 10s of millions of dollars, and as a result, they're canceling women's programs. They're canceling non-revenue sports. They're canceling Olympic sports," Cruz said, warning that within three to five years only "40 to 50 schools" would still field competitive football programs and "everyone else goes under."
He pointed to Lane Kiffin's push in Louisiana to get former NFL players back into college rosters and to litigation over Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's eligibility as examples of a system without rules.
What's Next
The Senate is scheduled to vote on the bill between Sept. 15 and Sept. 23. Cruz has been publicly pressing Trump to sign it into law.
More
Cruz chairs the college sports push as one of the Senate's most visible Republicans, and the Austin reception is the kind of live, unscripted moment a floor vote rarely produces. The segment went viral within hours of airing.
Poll
Should Congress set national rules for college sports eligibility and NIL?
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