SBJ Unpacks: Cody Campbell pushes for college sports overhaul

Tonight in Unpacks: Billionaire Cody Campbell called out the revenue-generating model of college sports at SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum while pushing for an overhaul of the system, reports SBJ’s Joe Lemire.

Also tonight:

• Fox leads CFB title games with record B1G audience
• NFL owners greenlight pro flag football league
• IAF navigates an industry amid furious flux
• Op-ed: The 5 most interesting sports PR crises of 2025

Listen to SBJ’s most popular podcast, Morning Buzzcast, where Joe Lemire, Rachel Axon, Ben Portnoy and Chris Smith recap day one of SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum and look ahead to day two.

LAS VEGAS -- Cody Campbell, the billionaire oilman and Saving College Sports founder, said the business of college sports, quite simply, has a money problem.

“We have this very professionalized cost side where coaches and athletes are getting paid a bunch of money,” Campbell said, “but we have this disjointed, amateur model for generating revenue.”

His suggestions for rectifying this aren’t universally endorsed, such as reopening the Sports Broadcasting Act to potentially better pool media rights. But Cambell said on Wednesday at SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum presented by Learfield in Las Vegas that such a path was only one possible option. He noted that the average FBS school had a $20M deficit in the year before the House settlement permitted revenue sharing to athletes.

“There’s no question that college sports are under-monetizing their value, right?” Campbell said in conversation with SBJ’s Abe Madkour. “The NBA is the best example. They have half as many viewers as college football, but they make twice as much money in media rights.”

Campbell was part of coach Mike Leach’s first recruiting class at Texas Tech, where played offensive line, and then for two seasons with the NFL’s Colts. He was later appointed as a regent at Texas Tech and grew involved with the athletic program, identifying “fundamental problems that are way bigger than what’s going on at Texas Tech.”

To further attest to his credentials and perspective on college sports, Campbell shared that he’s probably negotiated more NIL deals than anyone and spent time on the board of a think tank, Texas Public Policy Foundation, which first published a white paper on college sports in the wake of NIL adoption in 2022.

“Humbly, I wouldn’t be involved unless I thought I could be helpful and my thoughts can be contributed,” he said.

Campbell explained that he has had plenty to learn along the way. He comes from the business world where action is taken quickly before an opportunity gets missed or a problem grows overwhelming. But he knows Congress, higher education and college sports don’t work that way, where decisions are often made by larger committees comprised of people without business backgrounds

“I’m not acting like I have all the solutions, but what I would like to do is create a legal framework and a platform that would allow those folks who are the experts to come together and find ways to make college sports financially sustainable,” Campbell said.

He endorses federal action, adding that the general principles of the proposed SCORE Act were well intended and that President Trump’s executive order is “an unfunded mandate.” (Campbell has advised Trump and White House officials on college sports issues for the past year.)

“There has to be one set of rules,” Campbell said. “It’s an interstate thing. How can we have a national championship without a consistent set of national rules?”

Campbell emphasized that not only does he not have a financial stake in his advocacy, but he is also spending money on the efforts. He just doesn’t like that 182 sports have been cut since the House settlement in July, because his own experience in sports set him up in business.

“It’s just as important for the kid to get a track scholarship to Fresno State as a football scholarship at Georgia,” Campbell said. “Those opportunities are equally life-changing for both of them. We need to preserve this national treasure that we have.”

Fox led all conference championship games over the weekend with Indiana-Ohio State, drawing 18.3 million viewers for the matchup of No. 1 vs. No. 2 in prime time on Saturday. Even with the matchup not having much impact on the CFP (both teams got first-round byes), that marks the best Big Ten Championship figure yet. The prior high was 13.9 million for Michigan State-Ohio State in 2013 (the event started in 2011). Indiana-OSU is up from 10.5 million viewers for Oregon-Penn State on CBS last year. NBC is set to carry the Big Ten title game next season, but reports have said that the network is in talks to potentially sublicense the game to Amazon Prime Video.

On Saturday afternoon, ABC/ESPN drew 16.9 million viewers for Georgia’s win over Alabama in the SEC Championship, marking the fourth-best figure for the event all-time and up from 16.6 million for UGA-Texas last year. This year’s SEC title game is down from 17.5 million two years ago for the same matchup on CBS. The SEC Championship record remains at just under 18 million viewers for Alabama-Florida in 2009.

The Big 12 Championship, which saw Texas Tech blow out BYU, drew 9 million viewers on ABC in the noon ET window on Saturday. That’s the best figure for the conference since 2022, when Kansas State and TCU went to overtime (9.4 million). Last year, Arizona State-Iowa State drew 6.9 million viewers in the same window.

Duke’s upset of Virginia in the ACC Championship drew 3.9 million viewers on Saturday night on ABC, marking the conference’s lowest mark since Clemson and North Carolina drew 3.5 million in 2022. Duke-UVA is down sharply from 6 million viewers for Clemson-SMU last year and down from 7 million for Florida State-Louisville two years ago. This was Duke’s first appearance in the ACC title game.

On Friday night in prime time, the American Conference title game on ABC drew 2.4 million as Tulane locked up its CFP spot with a win over North Texas. That’s the event’s best figure since 2022, when Tulane-UCF drew 2.7 million on a Saturday afternoon. Tulane has played in four straight American title games. Last year’s matchup against Army drew just under 2 million viewers.

Conference championship weekend also saw “College GameDay” draw 2.3 million viewers on ESPN/ESPNU from Atlanta for the SEC title game. That’s the second-best “GameDay” audience yet from a conference title game (very often around the SEC title game). The audience also helped cement a record audience for “GameDay” this season, with the show averaging 2.7 million viewers. That’s up 34% from the record set last season, fueled in large part by changes to Nielsen metrics (Big Data) that have helped boost studio and pregame show audience numbers. “GameDay” had nine of its best viewership figures on record this season.

NFL owners on Wednesday authorized the league to spend up to $32M and sign an operating partner to launch a professional flag football league.

During a presentation before the vote, league staff did not identify which partner it intends to choose, and negotiations continue to find the best deal, according to sources. However, Bloomberg News reported in October that the choice was down to two finalists: TMRW Sports and a consortium fronted by Pro Football HOFer Curtis Martin that includes Avenue Capital Group co-founder & CEO Marc Lasry.

The investment will come via the NFL’s “32 Equity” investment platform. In a statement, the league did not say when the pro league would launch or provide any other specific details, but in October, Commissioner Roger Goodell suggested the goal was to get the product in market before the 2028 L.A. Games, where flag football will debut as an Olympic sport.

LAS VEGAS — NCAA President Charlie Baker reiterated his caution to member schools and conferences that they tread carefully before accepting private equity or other outside institutional capital.

Speaking Tuesday at SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum presented by Learfield in Las Vegas, Baker told the industry that, before accepting outside money, institutions should define who makes the decisions, how long they plan to stay involved and what the biggest opportunity for investment is.

“Where do you want to be good? And where do you want to be great?” Baker said. “If you can find financial partners or operating partners you believe can help you be great, be great.”

Earlier Tuesday morning, the University of Utah became the first school to accept private equity from Otro Capital, which is reportedly infusing nine figures to create a for-profit entity to jointly operate athletic department business with a projection of generating $500 million in revenue.

Baker praised that move, saying it was “really well-thought-out and really well-designed” while noting that Utah retains a majority of board seats and decision-making clout and also secured a minimum duration that the firm will stay committed.

Window closed?

Asked if the NCAA missed a window of opportunity with SCORE Act — which would have created federal standards around NIL, revenue-sharing and athlete transfers — not coming up for a vote, Baker said, “I don’t know. We’ll see.” He added that he believes “external political factors” were the main reason behind the SCORE Act’s derailment.

Baker also gave a vote of confidence for the House settlement and its influence on the college sports landscape seven months after revenue-sharing with athletes went into effect. He acknowledged the difficulty of implementing such a monumental change but believes college sports will be better for it.

“I would expect it to be messy,” Baker said, “but just because it’s messy doesn’t mean it’s not directionally correct.”

One of the most important benefits, in his mind, was that it opened a line of communication between schools and their athletes around NIL.

“I couldn’t believe that the only people who weren’t allowed to talk to student-athletes about NIL were their schools,” Baker said. “That just seemed nuts to me.”

Now, those athletic departments can counsel around good decision making. Earlier in the day, Washington AD Pat Chun shared that his school offers financial education programming, which attracted nearly 600 participants, as well as support for vetting agents and preparing taxes.

Taking on gambling

Another priority area shared by Baker centered on seeking more regulation around sports betting — especially prop bets — and the emerging area of prediction markets. Though he was still governor of Massachusetts when sports betting was legalized there, Baker admitted surprise at how predominant the mobile sports betting experience has become.

The ease of access has emboldened bettors to bet more and to direct more vitriol at athletes whose performance negatively impacts their wagers. The NCAA collects data on what’s being said through social media at officials, coaches and players during the tournaments, which has helped drive more awareness about the problematic behavior.

If there was anything he would have done differently, knowing what he knows now, Baker said, “I probably would’ve gone harder at the [prop betting] that stuff earlier.” Baker also said he hopes there’s resolution on prediction markets soon, deeming them “the next ugly story in sports betting.”

Regarding other priorities for the near future, Baker cited NCAA tournament expansion, saying that decision would need to be made by April, and more guidelines around transfers, given that in some years about 30% of athletes who enter the transfer portal don’t land with a school after that experience.

On a friend’s podcast recently (“Almost Fans,” you should check it out), I was asked if my notebook of story ideas ever runs dry. Definitely, absolutely not. Often, I feel like the list of stories I want to report is ever-expanding.

As we sit here at the end of 2025 — a year in which we launched our SBJ women’s sports vertical in May — I’m looking back at what we did check off the list.

Among my favorite stories were digging into the sponsorship in women’s sports and profiling both media executive Carol Stiff and rugby star Ilona Maher. In this newsletter, we explored sustaining rising valuations (looks even more on the money with the expansion fees since); the impact of the House settlement on women’s collegiate sports and Title IX challenges to come (moderating a panel about this at SBJ’s Intercollegiate Athletics Forum on Wednesday); and the success of the Valkyries and the Spirit (I told my editor, Jenn, I thought they’d make the playoffs back when I wrote this).

I got to yap about women’s sports on SBJ Inside the Industry, and we had a series of SBJ Live discussions on everything from social media to the WNBA. There was research, research and more research about women’s sports and fan behavior.

My colleagues built on our coverage, with Irving Mejia-Hilario getting insight into the Dallas Wings’ social media team and Tom Friend closely tracking the WNBA CBA negotiations. To close the year, Alex Silverman made the trip to San Jose for the NWSL Championships.

It’s been a good year in the business of women’s sports and a heck of a good time covering it.

Editor’s note: This reflects updates from the original published version.

Few things in life stir up as much drama and emotion as professional sports. The passion felt by sports fans often puts leagues, teams and athletes themselves under a microscope and results in attention for all the wrong reasons. 2025 was certainly not immune to its share of sports crises, and as is often the case, many of them could have been handled better publicly.

We’ve examined scores of sports crises over the years and have discussed how well, or not, they were managed from a communications standpoint. What follows is a look back at what we feel are the sports crises from this past year that most piqued the interest of fans, along with some thoughts on how those involved could have better handled the public-facing fallout.

5. Shedeur Sanders’ Draft Plummet

No potential NFL Draft selection in recent memory kept fans in more suspense than Shedeur Sanders. Sanders, the son of “Prime Time” Deion Sanders, was a quarterback coming out of the University of Colorado when he was part of the NFL Draft class this past April. Many analysts thought Sanders might actually be taken in the first round, but he chose not to participate in on-field drills at the scouting combine and there were also reports that he did not interview well. Whatever the reason, Sanders was not selected until the fifth round, by the Cleveland Browns, and was the sixth quarterback and 144th player taken overall.

Our Take: Sanders said all the right things publicly at the time, talking about how it would motivate him and add “fuel to the fire.” That quickly changed, though, when Sanders oddly decided to silently pantomime his answers to questions from the media about another Browns quarterback being named the starter. The move was seen as immature and only justified the critics who felt he was not ready to be a starting quarterback in the NFL. Solid play and avoiding self-inflicted wounds remains Sanders’ best hope for moving forward.

4. Clippers/Kawhi Salary Cap

Even absent any real proof, many hardened sports fans will always believe that there are corrupt forces at play who are conspiring to skirt the rules. When seemingly credible proof actually does come to the surface, it reverberates … loudly. That’s exactly what transpired when news broke that the Los Angeles Clippers were being accused of trying to circumvent the NBA’s salary cap when they signed star player Kawhi Leonard in 2019. The Clippers are owned by former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, one of the richest men in the country. When an investigative podcast claimed that the Clippers arranged for Leonard to receive $28 million for a no-show job with one of the team’s sponsors, Ballmer claimed to be a victim of fraud at the hands of that company.

Our Take: In the wake of the allegations, Ballmer denied any wrongdoing while the league provided a statement acknowledging the report and conveyed that it was commencing an investigation. The only person involved who didn’t speak up was the man at the center of the uproar, Kawhi Leonard. And the longer he chose not to respond, the more guilty he looked in the eyes of many fans. Leonard did eventually deny the claims, but one can only wonder how public perception might be different had he more quickly, and more vociferously, defended himself.

3. Belichick +1

With six Super Bowl titles under his belt, Bill Belichick is considered by many to be the greatest NFL head coach of all time. While his accomplishments on the gridiron are undeniable, his current girlfriend has caused a bit of a stir publicly. Jordon Hudson, a 24-year-old former college cheerleader who is 49 years younger than the future Pro Football Hall of Famer, has been acting as his de facto publicist for the past year or so. The public became fully aware of the role Hudson was playing for Belichick, now the head coach for the University of North Carolina, in April when she interrupted his CBS Sunday Morning interview. The awkward moment stemmed from Hudson’s objection to a question about how she and Belichick met.

Our Take: Hudson’s presence and sway over Belichick drew the ire of friends, family and fans alike. A number of other questionable incidents, coupled with UNC’s losing season, have created some seriously bad optics for the legendary coach, who should now be working on drawing up a new defensive scheme for himself.

2. Doncic Traded to the Lakers

Feb. 2 is a day Dallas Mavericks fans will never forget, for it was on that fateful day they found out Luka Doncic had shockingly been traded to the Los Angeles Lakers. Given Doncic’s stature as one of the greats of this generation, the trade that netted mostly just an aging Anthony Davis in return was immediately panned as one of the most lopsided moves in NBA history. While the 26-year-old star’s questionable conditioning was reported to be at the root of Dallas’ discontent, general manager Nico Harrison stated that he believed acquiring a defensive-minded player like Davis would give the Mavericks a better chance to win a championship. Mavs fans weren’t buying it and protests ensued as they called for Harrison’s head.

Our Take: The storm has yet to blow over, with interested observers continuing to question the Mavericks’ decision to trade a young, generational talent like Doncic. In November, just nine months after the ill-advised move, the Mavericks fired Harrison amid the team’s poor start to the new season. There’s no magic bullet here, but making a great GM hire would go a long way on the road to redemption.

1. NBA Gambling Scandal

The involvement of a current player and coach, an illegal rigged poker operation, organized crime, the feds — this story had it all! NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been the most proactive of all the major sports commissioners when it comes to the pitfalls of sports betting, yet scandals like these continue to rock the foundation of the league. After Trail Blazers coach Chauncey Billups, Heat guard Terry Rozier and former Cavaliers player/assistant coach Damon Jones were all arrested on charges related to the scandal, Silver quickly assured the public that the league was continuing to work with its sportsbook partners to reel in the type of player prop bets that have been most problematic, going back to the Jontay Porter situation in 2024.

Our Take: We’re not sure Commissioner Silver’s public actions have gone far enough. When the integrity of the competition has been compromised in any fashion, there is no bigger issue for any professional sports league commissioner. Until Silver can point to a substantial brokered deal with the league’s sportsbook partners that limits prop bets in a meaningful way, the NBA will continue to be in a precarious position with fans.

Jim Rocco and Thom Weidlich are managing directors at PRCG | Haggerty LLC and its sports brand, PRCG | Sports. They are authors of “Sports Crisis Communications: Cases and Controversy” (Hart + Harvest Press, 2025).

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