The GOP senator said he and Trump are leaning on the House to return and pass the measure before the midterms.

I wasn’t going to post this into I ran into

Cruz argued that many regular Americans would appreciate a new law that codifies restrictions to the student athletes’ transfer portal, governs the amount colleges can spend paying athletes, and caps conference expansion.

“Many don’t really care a lot about politics, but care deeply about college sports, and a whole lot of voters may go: ‘I’ll be damned, these guys can actually get something done.’ And I think that that is a very strong message going into election day,” Cruz said. “The way you win elections is by winning meaningful victories that make a difference in the lives of your constituents, and this bill does exactly that.”

No, it doesn’t. I can’t think of anyone I know whose top issue – the thing that keeps them up at night – is the amount colleges can pay athletes.

I do, on the other hand, know some people for whom coaching and administrative pay in college sports is a huge irritant. Even limits on that wouldn’t change their vote, though.

This isn’t “Where’s the beef?” so much as “OK, beef’s gone. Where’s the bun?”

  • megopie ( megopie@beehaw.org ) English
    5·
    4 days ago

    I don’t think he’s completely off the mark from a strategy perspective. But it is laughable that this seems like the strongest issue for them.

    Like, trying to bring the issues “back home” to something their base will care about, something that isn’t covered in the rot of their policy failures.

    To an extent a distraction, but also an issue that is close to home and important for a lot of people, and something they could potentially actually do something positive with. And most importantly, completely distanced from the mire that the rest of their policy agenda is sinking in. Wouldn’t change the outcome, might rally enough support to prevent a complete blow out.

    • Powderhorn ( Powderhorn@beehaw.org ) OPEnglish
      3·
      4 days ago

      They seem to think “the cost of college athletes is too damn high” somehow makes sense as “let’s restore [UNINTELLIGIBLE] to college sports” to undecided voters. How anyone remains undecided is beyond me, but gas prices seem to be solving that problem.

  • TehPers ( TehPers@beehaw.org ) English
    3·
    3 days ago

    Everything is dramatically more expensive, people are losing their jobs, gigantic planet-sized economic bubble that’s on the verge of bursting, but you know what matters more than any of that? College football.

    In all seriousness, it’d be better for them to campaign on this in addition to more pressing issues, but their campaign would mostly be “here’s how we’re going to fix our own fuck-ups” if they did.