If you’re going to take millions from a booster who is helping fund your football team, you should expect pushback when you fail to live up to expectations.
For those who haven’t noticed, we are no longer living in our fathers’ or grandfathers’ era of college athletics, when bags of money were dropped off on the back doorstep.
The $100 handshakes are still prevalent, but they’re essentially the equivalent of walking into a bar and dropping a dollar into the tip jar.
So when Texas Tech booster, and chairman of the board of regents, Cody Campbell takes to social media to comment on the Red Raiders’ loss to Cincinnati this past weekend, I can assure you he is trying to assure those who critique the program that this type of result isn’t what he’s paying for.
“There is no excuse or reason to lose a game like this. We have to be better. @TexasTechFB,” Campbell wrote in a post on X.
That statement was from a man who has poured millions into the Texas Tech football team in order to compete for a national championship this season. So, when this “owner” decides to vent his frustration for the world to see, I can promise you he means it.
Remember the term “return on investment” in relation to donors putting their money to use with the only real return is seeing their favorite team hoist a trophy at seasons end?
This is essentially where Cody Campbell is at when he takes to social media to let it be known that a performance like that is not acceptable for a man who is writing the checks every month.
That brings us to the current state of college athletics, where the once outside voices who contributed without getting a final say in roster moves outside of helping pay a player’s salary are now influential voices that in some cases speak for the programs they help fund.
You think Texas Tech football coach Joey McGuire isn’t having conversations this week with Cody Campbell on piecing together the roster for 2027, or renegotiating deals with current players for a return next season?
I can assure you those talks have, and will continue, to take place over the next three months.
And, I promise you they are happening all across the country between high-dollar boosters and football coaches looking for the money needed to secure the next transfer portal addition.
New era in college athletics means more ‘owners’ like Cody Campbell
While there is this pressure to hold onto what once was in college athletics, the ‘pureness’ of a sport that was a majority of the time still breaking the rules in some form or fashion through parking lot deals or the funneling of money to an athletes family, the world is obviously changing in short order.
So, it should not come as shock when a more-involved booster who was also at the forefront of the Brendan Sorsby saga this past summer when the former college quarterback was caught gambling on his own football team while at Indiana decides to let it be known they are not happy with the current product.
Is it right?
No, especially when that same person decides to get on social media and question whether the football program should cut off access to its coaches in relation to a local Lubbock radio station.
But, this isn’t a scene out of the movie “Blue Chips,” where the head coach takes to the postgame press conference to lambast a booster for being too involved in the program by way of providing benefits to the athletes.
We got to this point when the NCAA opened the front door and invited this in by way of NIL, which should have taken place a decade ago. Yes, players deserved to be paid for the amount of money they generated for athletic departments across the country.
No, I’m not implying the swimming star should be paid in the same manner as the starting linebacker. But it takes someone like Cody Campbell to help fund these contracts, even down to the softball team that is competing for a national championship.
And, I promise you this is taking place on the campus of your favorite team, though it’s most likely not as brazen as Cody Campbell.
Schools aren’t turning away millions from boosters who expect results
While the Texas billionaire has been spending a majority of his time trying to garner votes for the Protect College Sports Act for his own reasons that most likely have more to do with Texas Tech having a place in this new world, he’s still just a very rich alum who has earned the right to do whatever he pleases with his own money.
If Campbell wants to spend millions to ensure his favorite team has the resources needed to compete at the highest level, I can assure you the Texas Tech athletic department isn’t going to put him on a leash when he expresses his thoughts.
Why would it?
He is essentially the unofficial “owner” of multiple Red Raiders athletic programs.
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If you think Campbell’s influence is interesting now, I can promise you more boosters like him are coming down the pipeline.
The difference is that they may not hold press conferences like Jerry Jones in the aftermath of a loss.
They’ll simply take to social media—and expect their teams to listen.
