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Billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell is at the forefront of President Donald Trump’s executive order focused on “Saving College Sports.”
The sweeping new executive order, signed in late July, is meant to “preserve” the future of college athletics, particularly non-revenue sports, while still allowing athletes to benefit from “legitimate” name, image, and likeness deals.
But according to Campbell, major networks have refused to play ads for the initiative despite the fact that they’d already accepted money to do so.
Cody Campbell Calls Out Networks For Refusing To Air ‘Saving College Sports’ Ads
Campbell took to social media on Saturday morning to air his grievances with the networks, specifically FOX and ABC, over their refusal to run his advertisements.
The TV Networks (specifically Fox and ABC) are refusing to run this ad for @SavingCollSprts today during the games.
No good reason given as to why – just ignoring us or telling us to contact their attorneys. The General Council for one major network told me it was a “business… pic.twitter.com/P4MDI7GfiQ
— Cody Campbell (@CodyC64) October 4, 2025
“The TV Networks (specifically Fox and ABC) are refusing to run this ad for @SavingCollSprts today during the games.,” Campbell wrote.
“No good reason given as to why – just ignoring us or telling us to contact their attorneys. The General Council for one major network told me it was a ‘business decision.’ This was AFTER we’d sent them a large wire to pay for the ads!
“Why would the networks want to silence a legitimate debate around an issue that affects hundreds of thousands of kids and is existentially threatening to women’s sports and Olympic sports? What is the “business reason” that overrides the benefit and enjoyment that college sports provide to tens of millions of Americans? What are they hiding??”
Campbell states that he claims the networks were bullied into pulling the ads by conference commissioners.
Notably, Saving College Sports doesn’t offer specifics on how they intend to do so. But if networks were paid for ads they didn’t air, that’s a rough look either way.