multimillionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell is behind a push to reform the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and modernize the way college athletics, specifically college football, monetizes its on-field product through more lucrative media rights deals, especially in the era of NIL and revenue sharing. And, during an appearance Thursday at The Pat McAfee ShowThe 44-year-old Texas oilman and Red Raiders legacy wants to make it clear that his work with “Saving College Sports” is purely to improve college athletics, and not just his alma mater.
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“As far as Texas Tech is concerned, we’re doing well. We’ve been able to take advantage of all the chaos. I mean, we’re on top of the largest oil field in the world. If everything falls apart and there are no rules, we’ll benefit,” Campbell told McAfee on Thursday. “So I’m really working against the interests of Texas Tech in what I’m doing, trying to make sure everyone can survive and everyone can be competitive. Yes, people like to paint me as (just) a Texas Tech guy, but that’s not the case.
“And well, I’m going to continue to do everything I can to help Texas Tech regardless of what the rules are, but there have to be rules,” continued Campbell, who co-founded the Red Raiders’ NIL collective. The Matador Club and is also president of the school’s Board of Regents. “People just don’t understand how important this is and how existential the problem is. And what we’re talking about is a solution that’s not going to happen overnight. What worries me is… we’ve seen 182 programs cut this year, that’s a fact: all women’s sports and Olympic sports. And that’s all because of these budget issues.”
Those budget problems arise from the reality that most college sports do not generate revenue: Only football and men’s basketball generate revenue, while all other sports, especially most women’s and Olympic sports, lose money each year. In fact, Campbell said most college athletic departments had an average deficit of $20 million in 2024. Of course, one way to potentially reverse that trend would be for Congress to water down the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and put college athletics on the same level as its professional peers, providing a significant financial windfall across the board.
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“But the problem will continue to get worse and worse. What we’re seeing is a solution that, we’re talking about over 10 or 12 years, reforming the way we market our media rights, the way we generate revenue. The NFL is a great example, but the NBA is even better,” Campbell continued. “College football gets twice as many viewers as the NBA, but college football makes half as much money as the NBA. And that’s all because of what’s called the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 and the rights that professional sports have that college sports don’t have. That’s part of it.
“It’s also because we don’t have a central governing body that coordinates programming and makes sure we maximize viewership and have games at the right times that people want to watch them, and we don’t cannibalize our viewership,” Campbell concluded. “…So if we can fix those problems and run (college football) as a business like the NFL has done very effectively, we can increase revenue tremendously, and that’s just common business sense.”