Senator Ted Cruz, R-Texas, got a less-than-warm reception during his ESPN’s College GameDay appearance Saturday.
The lawmaker visited the Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas to watch the Ohio State Buckeyes play the Texas Longhorns. He took the time to discuss the Protect College Sports Act, but he was difficult to hear over the raucous boos from the gathered crowd.
Watch:
ESPN had Ted Cruz on ‘College GameDay’ in a conversation with Rece Davis for nearly 10 minutes.
Cruz was heavily booed by the crowd — and heard “Ted, you suck!” chants — in Austin. pic.twitter.com/npQesiYMsG
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) September 12, 2026
“Well, look, as you know well college sports is an amazing institution,” Cruz said, as college sports fans behind him jeered. “It has been an avenue of opportunity for literally millions of young men and young women to be able to get an education and be able to get a future, and right now college sports is in chaos. The current situation is nuts.”
But whether they agreed with the act or not, those in attendance couldn’t help but try to make themselves the main character. One man even shouted, “Ted, you suck!” which was clearly picked up by the cameras.
But that didn’t stop Cruz from making his case and talking about the act that would even benefit the people loudly booing behind him.
“You look at- between Lane Kiffin down in Louisiana trying to get NFL players back into college sports or between, up in Lubbock, Brendan Sorsby and litigation over whether someone who is gambling on his own game should be allowed to play,” he explained. “What we have right now is chaos; there are no rules, and the situation with the transfer portal, where kids go transfer two, three, four, five times it’s terrible for the game, it’s terrible for the players, it’s terrible for the schools, it’s terrible for the families.”
“So the reason Congress is acting is because Congress created this problem,” he said.
“If we don’t act within three to five years, we’re going to see 4o to 50 schools that have competitive football programs and everyone else is going to go under. That would be a tragedy,” the senator added.
Some X users were outraged by ESPN inviting Cruz to speak:
Jimmy Kimmel can’t talk to Talarico on air, but ESPN can bring on Ted Cruz to ruin like the only good fucking thing we have left https://t.co/MsdwwHZXT4
— Mike Nellis (@MikeNellis) September 12, 2026
Who the fuck thought this was a good idea. https://t.co/7hzeAl6Wzi
— Barry (@BarryOnHere) September 12, 2026
So GameDay gave a politician 10 minutes to shill for PCSA right before there might be a vote.
Was there any thought that maybe someone on the other side of it should get a chance to rebut or no? https://t.co/aQUdtO05I7
— Stewart Mandel (@slmandel) September 12, 2026
No one at ESPN has gotten the memo that that bill is dead. Nick Saban should be embarrassed to be in those commercials. GameDay should be embarrassed to do this interview. Every one of them is coming off like out of touch losers. https://t.co/3Xlo7dpwZ1
— Demetri Ravanos (@DemetriRavanos) September 12, 2026
