When the White House convened roughly 50 sports executives to shape the future of college athletics, only two Black representatives were in the room. On his show Straight Shooter, Stephen A. Smith revisited Donald Trump’s famous pitch to Black Americans, “What do you have to lose?”, and connected it directly to the current legislative fight over college sports.
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Smith zeroed in on top Black leadership being bypassed for the event, specifically pointing to Notre Dame head football coach Marcus Freeman as a premier figure left off the invitation list.
“Fifty people are invited to the White House. He ain’t one of them,” Smith said, calling out the exclusion of Marcus Freeman and Black leadership while the administration crafted rules affecting a system heavily driven by Black student-athletes. “Black athletic directors, nowhere to be found. Black conference commissioners, nowhere to be found.”
He also questioned the broader representation at the March meeting, arguing that Black leadership from major college sports was missing while policies affecting athletes were being discussed.
“Let’s call it what it is. Trump and the people that he had up in there, it looked like a modern-day country club,” Smith said. “But that man is talking to Black people, and he’s sitting up there saying, ‘What the he** do you have to lose?’”
Smith also focused on historically Black colleges and universities and pointed to the Protect College Sports Act and argued that the legislation does not guarantee a contribution to HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities).
“According to the Protect College Sports Act, there’s nothing in the bill guaranteeing any contribution to HBCUs,” Smith said.
“This is not a collectively bargained agreement,” Smith told CUOMO. “And Trump is in the center of it now where he wants to be because in March he convened a bunch of people; about 50 people got them to the White House to discuss it. It involved commissioners and media executives.”
Smith’s criticism arrives as the Senate passed the Protect College Sports Act by a 77–22 vote, sending the legislation to the House.
The bill would establish broad federal rules covering NIL compensation, revenue sharing, scholarships, transfer limits, and antitrust protections for the NCAA. While the White House roundtable focused on these critical policies, Smith’s concern centers on who was given the power to shape them and who was left out.
“We know those are the two revenue-generating sports,” Smith said of football and basketball during an appearance on CUOMO. “And to have all of this going on and to reach this accord with no official representation at the table representing the interests of the student-athlete, I found egregious.”
However, per Smith, the issue is bigger than the bill’s individual provisions because his frustration is focused on who was represented when the future of a college sports system heavily driven by football and basketball was being discussed.