With President Donald Trump traveling to this weekend’s premier college football matchup between Texas and Tennessee, Stephen A. Smith doesn’t like it one bit.
Clay Travis recently reported that Trump is planning to attend Saturday’s Texas-Tennessee matchup in Knoxville, with the White House later confirming the news to The Athletic. Coincidentally, ESPN’s College GameDay will be in Knoxville for the noon kickoff as well.
In recent weeks, GameDay has been pushing the Protect College Sports Act, a bipartisan bill intended to regulate student-athlete eligibility, transfers, and compensation. Support from the ESPN show was on full display when Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) joined GameDay to promote the bill earlier this month. And considering Trump has similarly supported the legislation, it’s led many to wonder whether the president could show up on GameDay this weekend in Knoxville.
“It wouldn’t surprise me at all if College Football GameDay, an absolutely fantastic show…it wouldn’t surprise me at all if the president ended up on the show,” Smith admitted during his Thursday afternoon Mad Dog Sports Radio show on SiriusXM. “Don’t know whether that’s going to be the case or not, but it wouldn’t surprise me at all. Because I definitely believe the president is going to use this moment to try to push forward the Protect College Sports Act.”
An ESPN source told Awful Announcing on Thursday that Trump is not expected to appear on GameDay, which must be good news to Smith, who is one of the people at ESPN who would have had an issue with it. GameDay has been promoting the bill, but Smith has opposed the NCAA implementing new rules on student-athlete eligibility, transfers, and compensation without player representation.
“The president being involved in this in a way where he’s trying to grease the skids on behalf of the NCAA, I believe is not right. It’s not fair,” Smith ranted. “And it’s not thinking about, nor looking out for the marvelous student athletes who bless us with the presence on the court or field of play. The president should play no role in taking sides in that regard.”
Smith claimed Trump should advocate for college sports to adopt more rules and regulations, but on behalf of the NCAA and the student-athletes, not one-sidedly.
“I have no doubt that if he attends this game on Saturday, which the White House has confirmed he absolutely intends to do, that he won’t use it as an opportunity to push forward the Protect College Sports Act,” the ESPN and SiriusXM host reiterated. “Don’t like it all.”
About Brandon Contes
Brandon Contes is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He previously helped carve the sports vertical for Mediaite and spent more than three years with Barrett Sports Media. Send tips/comments/complaints to bcontes@thecomeback.com