{"id":87826,"date":"2026-05-20T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T11:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=87826"},"modified":"2026-05-20T06:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T10:56:41","slug":"naacp-asks-student-athletes-to-do-its-dirty-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2026\/05\/20\/naacp-asks-student-athletes-to-do-its-dirty-work\/","title":{"rendered":"NAACP Asks Student Athletes to Do Its Dirty Work"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just 24 hours after blowing up the SCORE Act<\/a> in the US House of Representatives, the Congressional Black Caucus joined the NAACP on Tuesday with a call for black athletes to do the dirty work and boycott major universities in many Southern states.<\/p>\n

NAACP, Student Athletes, and Striking a Blow<\/h2>\n

“Out of Bounds”<\/h3>\n

At a hastily called press event on Tuesday, the NAACP, flanked by members of the Congressional Black Caucus, launched the \u201cOut of Bounds\u201d campaign. It urges prospective Black athletes, their families, alumni, and fans to “withhold athletic and financial support” from major public universities in states that “have moved to limit, weaken or erase Black voting representation,\u201d according to a press statement issued by the NAACP. More specifically, the movement is designed to target public universities in South Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida, and Mississippi, among others.<\/p>\n

Those are all states that have significantly redrawn their congressional maps under new gerrymandering laws approved by the U.S. Supreme Court. The NAACP and voting rights advocates claim that the new maps eliminate primarily black districts.<\/p>\n

But where this crosses paths with college athletics gets murky. And of course, the details are always much more complex than the surface headlines.<\/p>\n

What is Being Asked of the Athletes<\/h3>\n

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries declared the potential<\/a> for the college athletes to have their \u201cBill Russell moment.\u201d The message could not have been missed by a bigger margin. When Russell led a boycott of some NBA exhibition games in 1961, he was already a five-year veteran of the league, an Olympic gold medalist, and an All-American at the University of San Francisco. He had cache and a platform upon which to use it.<\/p>\n

Jeffries, the CBC, and the NAACP are asking the same level of commitment from athletes who will be going to colleges this Summer and Fall. The ask is tremendous. Jeffries also invoked Muhammad Ali and Jackie Robinson. Comparing those two to a second-string wide receiver trying to go to college and make a little money is quite the reach.<\/p>\n

NAACP President Derrick Johnson said<\/a> on Tuesday, \u201cThe NAACP will not watch the same institutions that depend on Black athletic prowess to fill their stadiums and their bank accounts remain silent while their states strip Black communities of their voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NAACP has said fans and alumni of \u201ctargeted programs\u201d should redirect their financial support to historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. The organization has also encouraged recruits to visit those campuses. All of the target programs are in the Southeastern Conference.<\/p>\n

The Timing Works Against Them<\/h3>\n

But the timing of the movement is peculiar. High school seniors have already made their choices. The athletes will be on campus as soon as next month for Summer school classes and workouts. Fall camp will start the first week of August. More importantly, they have already signed their revenue-sharing agreements with the school, and quite likely some Name\/Image\/Likeness (NIL) deals.<\/p>\n

Asking them to walk out of those schools now, before they officially get on campus, would require the following:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Break their signed contract with the school<\/li>\n
  • Forgo what for many will be the first real money they have made playing their sport<\/li>\n
  • Look for another school to attend and play their sport. That would require going through the transfer portal (because they are already enrolled in school for this Summer\/Fall). The transfer portal, by rule, is closed until January 2027.<\/li>\n
  • Look for another school outside of the Southern region of the country, where the football program still has scholarships available and has some unused revenue-sharing money, even though the season is only a few months away. Many would never find that new home and have to choose between staying with their original plan or giving up on college, sports, and the revenue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Trying to Strike a Blow<\/h3>\n

    The NAACP\u2019s goal is for enough athletes to do it that it cripples the upcoming football and basketball seasons. It presumes the financial turmoil would force the state legislatures to reconsider the newly gerrymandered representation maps. And it puts all of the onus on the backs of 17 to 19-year-old incoming college freshmen.<\/p>\n

    Sure, they could be addressing high school juniors and their future decisions. But they can\u2019t sign their national letters of intent until December. And the national sports landscape is likely to revolve eight more times between now and then.<\/p>\n

    The HBCU Conundrum<\/h3>\n

    The NAACP suggested these student-athletes go to schools in other states or to HBCUs. It was an odd suggestion. More than 50% of the HBCU schools are public universities, funded by the same state governments that the protest is targeting.<\/p>\n

    Want them to leave LSU in protest? That\u2019s fine, but then Grambling and Southern are also off the list. They are funded with the same state revenues. Leave the University of Alabama? Ok. But Alabama A&M and Alabama State are not options for you either. It further puts the squeeze on the decisions they can make in an already no-win situation.<\/p>\n

    The HBCUs also do not have the wealth of other, bigger athletic programs. The revenue-sharing and NIL opportunities are a mere pittance compared to the targeted schools. If the NAACP were asking black business people of wealth, or professional athletes, or entertainers to make up that financial gap, it might be a different conversation. But it isn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

    Awkward Timing<\/h3>\n

    The timing of the call to boycott is also odd. This week, the House was scheduled to vote on and likely pass the SCORE Act. The bill was a highly flawed piece of legislation meant to rein in college sports and put some guardrails around what has been unchecked financial promiscuity.<\/p>\n

    Monday night, in a stand against the gerrymandering, the Congressional Black Caucus announced it would oppose the bill. That left the legislation without enough votes to pass, and the vote was cancelled. Then, and only then, was the \u201cOut of Bounds\u201d campaign announced, even though the maps have been getting redrawn for six months now. Jeffries said it was the SCOTUS ruling in Louisiana v. Callais that pushed the issue over the edge. But the edge has been within sight for at least five months.<\/p>\n

    What’s Next?<\/h3>\n

    The SCORE Act likely would have passed the House without the last-minute protest. It likely would have failed in the Senate. By killing it in protest over political issues, the CBC inadvertently did a service to the athletes. The fewer regulations and guardrails in college sports, the more money there is for the athletes, until the weight of the process is too much for college sports to survive. And now the same CBC is asking for the athletes to make life-changing decisions.<\/p>\n

    There is a Senate bill in the works that would likewise tackle many of the same issues as the SCORE Act. But with the decision of the caucus, that bill has some question marks. Sixty votes are needed for passage. But four senators are members of the Congressional Black Caucus and likely to vote against the bill. That would include New Jersey Democrat Corey Booker, who was one of the early authors of some of the proposed legislation.<\/p>\n

    The NAACP has drawn a line in the sand. Now it is time to see if the new college athletes move, or the line does.<\/p>\n

    Main Image:\u00a0Scott Applewhite | AP Photo\/<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Just 24 hours after blowing up the SCORE Act in the US House of Representatives, the Congressional Black Caucus joined the NAACP on Tuesday with a call for black athletes to do the dirty work and boycott major universities in many Southern states. NAACP, Student Athletes, and Striking a Blow “Out of Bounds” At a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1534,"featured_media":87831,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[36121,24586],"class_list":["post-87826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sec","tag-naacp","tag-ncaa-2"],"modified_by":"Tony Siracusa, CFB Managing Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87826"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87836,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87826\/revisions\/87836"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}