Trump says soaring college football costs are hitting sports
U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday (March 6) said the soaring cost of paying for football at colleges was harming school sports in general and the problem would need to be addressed by legislation, adding he might sign an executive order about it.
- Baylor’s athletic director argues that college sports have neglected fans amid recent industry changes.
- Fans are being asked to invest more financially and emotionally while receiving less attention.
- There is a concern that the industry may be reaching a breaking point for what fans are willing to tolerate.
Doug McNamee is the Baylor University Vice President and Director of Intercollegiate Athletics. Prior to his hiring on Dec. 8, 2025, he worked for Magnolia, the nationally recognized lifestyle and media company founded by Baylor alums Chip and Joanna Gaines, and as President of Field & Stream. He previously worked in the Baylor athletic department.
At the end of 2025, I returned to college athletics after a seven-year absence from the industry when my alma mater, Baylor University, provided the greatest honor by hiring me as Vice President and Director of Athletics.
I knew I was stepping into a much different industry than the one I left. Gone are the days focusing on the facilities arms race and cost of attendance conversations. Instead, our industry emerged from the global pandemic only to be hit with numerous once-in-a-generation type changes in a short period. These included – the rise of name-image-likeness compensation for student-athletes (both market and donor-funded); the unlimited ability to transfer schools; the House settlement, direct revenue payments, and creation of the College Sports Commission; College Football Playoff expansion; and a couple of monumental rounds of conference realignment.
I have no interest in being another in a long line of industry voices opining about many of our current challenges being unsustainable and needing to be solved, though they are and they do. Instead, what I find particularly striking as I reorient myself to the college sports world is how it seems every constituency is considered a priority right now except one – the fans.
For most, fandom in college athletics truly means something. It is not just a consumer choosing a brand but rather a deeper and more hallowed relationship – a bond consecrated by childhood memories, friendships and shared experience, family tradition, affinity for a transformative college experience, community or state pride, or a host of other reasons. That profound connection fans have is directly tied to their commercial activity, without which the music in our industry would stop.
It is those fans who are being asked right now to invest more financially and emotionally at every turn. Learn a new roster every year. Pay higher prices to attend games. Travel multiple time zones to a conference road game. Subscribe to another streaming service. Directly or indirectly find a way to fund NIL or be shamed for fielding a non-competitive team
Many fans feel we are asking more of them, delivering less to them, and our attention is anywhere but on them. At some point, even strong foundations can crack. I worry we may soon reach the point as an industry of failing the stress test of what our fans are willing to incur.
Whatever the potential remedies to this may be, we must first correct a fundamental misunderstanding of who the true protagonist of college athletics is.
In my previous role leading Magnolia, the national brand empire fueled by Chip and Joanna Gaines, I learned a valuable lesson about this. Though Chip and Joanna may have celebrity status, they fundamentally understand they are not the heroes of the story. It is their consumers, – those who watch them, buy the product lines, or are one of the millions who visit the Magnolia Silos in Waco – who are, in fact, the stars.
College athletics would be wise to take note.
This industry is not short on figures with genuine star power. It is easy to be awed by the talent of a student-athlete or the success of a coach and orient all attention on them. One could examine the size of media contracts or the prospect of private equity involvement and assume star power resides in executive boardrooms. But in truth, it is the fans who are the real stars of college athletics. The potential lifelong consumers who show up year after year, irrespective of who is on their team’s roster, who is their team’s coach, what channel their team’s game is on, or how their team’s stadium renovation is financed.
Like most who do what we do, I distinctly remember my first college football game I attended as a kid and the transformational memories it created for me. One of the great joys in our work is the frequent opportunity we get to help produce those moments and memories for the next generation in our venues. These days, many student-athletes are only with us a year, and at most will be with us for five years. The average head coach tenure is in that same ballpark. However, at any given home game, there is a kid there for the first time with a spark waiting to be lit that can result in them becoming part of our family for the next 70 years. Then, their fandom can pass down to their kids like a precious family heirloom.
I am not naïve to the scale of change this industry has faced in recent years, and how difficult that change has been on everyone involved. There is a natural human tendency during times of disruption to get a bit lost just keeping up with the details and, in turn, neglect the bigger picture. And however we continue to collectively navigate change in the coming years, I have strong confidence in who must remain a key center of our efforts.
We must do a better job of ensuring our fans are seen, heard, and prioritized on this journey with us. I strongly believe we can trust that our fans’ capacity to adapt to change will always be much higher than their tolerance of being taken for granted.
