Kirk Herbstreit defends having Ted Cruz on ‘College GameDay’

Football analyst and ESPN personality Kirk Herbstreit defended the network’s decision to have Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) on the network’s flagship college football pregame show last week.

“We had him on because they were going to be voting this week,” Herbstreit told reporters Friday, referring to the Protect College Sports Act, a Senate bill looking to regulate the big business of college sports around issues such as the transfer portal, revenue sharing, and name image and likeness money paid to student athletes.

“Maybe he could give us some insight into what’s going on,” Herbstreit said of Cruz, who has championed the bipartisan legislation with Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.). “That was really it. We’re not picking any sides in any way at all. We just want to see the chaos that’s kind of surrounding this sport kind of be reeled in and if this helps us get to that then great.”

ESPN has faced criticism from the bill’s detractors over Cruz’s appearance on the highly rated sports talk show.

Several days later, the network had NAACP President Derrick Johnson on an evening episode of “SportsCenter” to speak about his group’s opposition to the bill.

During his nearly 10-minute-long visit with anchor Rece Davis, Cruz argued the act must be passed to “fix” the issues facing college sports, saying, “The current situation is nuts. …. The reason Congress is acting is because Congress created this problem.”

The Republican was met with boos by the live audience in Austin, Texas, during his appearance.

“The guy that sits right next to me, Nick Saban, was part of putting this together. This guy loves college football more than anybody I’ve met,” Herbstreit said. “And so if he’s happy about what this would do, then I’ll follow his lead.”

Despite opposition from a number of Democrats and GOP holdouts, the bill cleared its first major congressional tests last week, winning the backing of more than 70 senators on two procedural votes. It is expected to face a final vote next week.

With the House out of session until after the midterm elections, the soonest the college sports act could get to President Trump for his signature is November.