Earlier this year, the NAACP launched the “Out of Bounds” campaign, a national call to boycott athletic and financial support for public universities in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia. The organization says these eight states have moved to limit, weaken, or erase Black voting representation in the wake of U.S. Supreme Court’s 6–3 ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
However, according to a recent analysis from Axios, this campaign has been unsuccessful in its efforts so far. Athletic recruiting at universities in the NAACP’s targeted states has surged in recent months.
Black athletes represent a major portion of NCAA Division I players in the two top sports for collegiate athletics revenue: football and men’s basketball. Through NIL (name, image, likeness) deals, the most prominent athletes in those sports are being paid seven-figure salaries. The Out of Bounds campaign’s targeted states are home to some of the country’s most premiere athletic programs, making them popular destinations for athletes looking to secure the most lucrative NIL deals.
In June, Al Tony Gilmore, a Distinguished Historian Emeritus of the National Education Association who has served as a historian at Howard University, the University of Maryland, and George Washington University, told JBHE: “No one should argue or deny that the NAACP’s goal is not a noble one. But it is unrealistic to expect these young men and women to become potential martyrs for the cause. The soul searching question coming from all of this quagmire is: Should athletically talented young Black men and women be expected to more or less risk NIL monies, confirmed booster financed stipends, endorsements, team relationships and preferred coaches as their contribution to the NAACP’s boycott, whose strategy they had no part in planning or developing, but are expected to implement?”
Recently, the Congressional Black Caucus opposed the SCORE Act, a federal bill that seeks to regulate NIL agreements and prevent college athletes from being designated as university employees. According to the CBC, Congress should not pass legislation that benefits major athletic institutions while those same universities remain silent on their state’s efforts to dismantle Black voting rights.
