Perhaps no interview ever conducted on ESPN’s flagship college football studio show College GameDay has resulted in more scrutiny than the one conducted with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) earlier this month before an Ohio State-Texas game in Austin.
The scrutiny has been justified. Host Rece Davis, more or less, gave Cruz 10 minutes of airtime to advocate for the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA), legislation he has spearheaded and ESPN has lobbied for. Critics of the bill, however, were not afforded a similar platform on GameDay, and viewers who tuned in for the segment walked away with a one-sided understanding of what the legislation accomplishes.
Cruz, unsurprisingly, has a different opinion of the criticism his GameDay segment received. In an interview with Front Office Sports, Cruz called the response to his ESPN interview “overwhelmingly positive” and decried the critics as merely a bunch of “partisans.”
“The response was overwhelmingly positive,” he told Front Office Sports. “And the critics were mostly partisans who were just engaged in partisan games. It’s a little ridiculous to say, ‘Gosh, College GameDay should not talk about college sports,’ which is what we were talking about, and the rules that govern college sports and bringing—saving college sports. That’s what the whole show is about.”
He continued:
“If I were going on College GameDay to talk about tax policy, then the critics would have a point. That’s not what College GameDay is about. …But to talk about sports and what the rules are going to be … all of that is right at the heart of what College GameDay is about, which is sports and the future of sports.”
To Cruz’s point, there’s certainly merit to having him on as an author to legislation that is directly pertinent to college football. The criticism, however, was that ESPN and Davis did not challenge Cruz with any of the points that opponents of the bill cite for why it shouldn’t be passed.
It also wasn’t the first time GameDay conducted a one-sided segment on the PCSA. A week before Cruz’s interview, Nick Saban advocated for the legislation during the show. Saban sits on a White House committee tasked with helping to reform college sports, and the PCSA is endorsed by President Trump.
The Senate passed the PCSA 77 to 22 last week, and the bill will now move over to the House of Representatives. The House, however, is expected to remain out of session until the November midterms, meaning that the bill might not even reach a vote until the new Congress is sworn in next year.
Cruz is pushing the House to come back into session before November to pass the bill. And ultimately, he’d like President Trump to sign the legislation into law on College GameDay.
“I would love for President Trump to sign this bill on the set of College GameDay at a big game. I think that would be fantastic.”
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.