Business
Texas Tech’s Cody Campbell’s group launches seven-figure ad campaign for Protect College Sports Act - Sports Business Journal
Saving College Sports, a group founded by Texas Tech Board of Regents Chair Cody Campbell, is spending seven figures on an ad campaign backing the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan Senate bill now facing pushback from the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups. The campaign's opening ad will air during HBCU games the weekend of August 29 and the following weekend, then move to national cable in the second week of September.
The campaign's opening ad will air during HBCU games the weekend of August 29 and the following weekend, then move to national cable in the second week of September. The spot features SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland touting support for the legislation from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. Timing the first ad around HBCU games appears to be a direct response to opposition from Black lawmakers and advocacy groups.
For people in Lubbock, this is a story about one of Texas Tech's most powerful figures stepping into a national fight over the future of college athletics. Campbell chairs the Tech Board of Regents, and the organization he founded is now dropping serious money to shape federal policy that would affect every college athlete in the country, including every Red Raider.
The Protect College Sports Act is still working through the Senate, and the resistance it faces was apparently stiff enough to warrant a seven-figure ad buy just to keep it moving.
Common questions
Who is Cody Campbell and why is he involved in this college sports fight?
- Cody Campbell is the Chair of the Texas Tech Board of Regents. He founded a group called Saving College Sports, which is now spending seven figures on ads supporting the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan Senate bill aimed at changing how college athletics operates.
Why are the ads running during HBCU games?
- The Protect College Sports Act faces pushback from the Congressional Black Caucus and other groups. Running the opening ad during HBCU games the weekend of August 29 appears to be a direct effort to counter that opposition by featuring SWAC Commissioner Charles McClelland and support from the Thurgood Marshall College Fund.
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