SEN. KOLKHORST, OTHER LAWMAKERS SEEK TO INVOLVE LEGISLATURE IN UT’S POSSIBLE DEPARTURE OF BIG 12
(courtesy Office of Lois Kolkhorst)
State Senator Lois Kolkhorst is part of a group of lawmakers who are concerned about a potential shakeup of college athletics.
After several outlets reported that the University of Texas and University of Oklahoma are considering leaving the Big 12 to join the Southeastern Conference (SEC), lawmakers on Friday announced the filing of Senate Bill 76, co-authored by Kolkhorst. The bill is a companion bill to House Bill 298, also filed on Friday, which would require legislative approval for public universities in Texas to change collegiate conferences.
However, legislators can only pass bills placed on the agenda by Governor Greg Abbott, and the House currently does not have a quorum after Democrats left the state to protest the consideration of new voting laws.
The Texas Tribune reported this week that Kolkhorst and three other representatives with ties to Texas universities have met with Abbott’s staff to discuss the potential impact of the move on other colleges in the state, particularly other schools in the Big 12.
Kolkhorst, who graduated from Texas Christian University in 1988 and played on the women’s golf team, joined Rep. Greg Bonnen (R-Friendswood), who graduated from Texas A&M University; Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock), a graduate of Texas Tech University; and Rep. Jeff Leach (R-Plano), who graduated and served as student body president at Baylor.
A move by UT and OU from the Big 12 to the SEC would greatly affect the remaining Big 12 schools in Texas, which include TCU, Texas Tech and Baylor. It would also affect Texas A&M, who joined the SEC in 2011. Texas A&M officials have already expressed opposition to the move.
Kolkhorst declined comment to The Texas Tribune, and has not responded to KWHI’s request for comment.
At the end of the day, it’s all about the money!
This has nothing to do with government. Let the schools do what they want as it has nothing to go the Texas Government. You didn’t complain when A&M left for the SEC. Give me a break.
They collect our tax dollars which go through the state government. Remove all the state tax dollars and grants they receive then let them do as they wish.
Just like Ancient Rome- bread and circuses! One would think that Republicans would have learned a lesson that professional and collegiate sports are NOT your friends! How many tax breaks did you support for professional teams to build their sports palaces only to have the teams and their owners become all “woke” and spit in your faces? How many college teams who are all on scholarships refuse to stand and demand changes to school songs? Get over the “Muh Football” mindset just like you are getting over the Chamber of Commerce way of thinking.
There is no reason for legislators to get involved with this. They need to be more worried about ergot, border control. Covid just to name a few. It’s about tine they all move to SEC. 12 is lame and those teams need competition that we’ll bring out there true talent. Let the colleges make there own decisions.
Is there nothing the government being local or state or federal cant keep there hands off of.
State universities are political subdivisions of the state government and college football coaches are the highest-paid state employees, so…yeah. Oversight and accountability is useful and necessary. If you want to watch the privatized for-profit largely-unregulated business of football, that also exists (and our politicians heavily subsidize that, too). If it were up to me, Texas would treat it’s high school and student athletes the same, keep essentially all competition, rivalries, travel, expenses, and fan bases in-state, and cap football-related salaries. We don’t need the best money can pay for. Like the song says, all you need is love…for the game.
Seems rather strange that a senator from such a district as ours that seems to value ‘freedoms’ and ‘less government’ and ‘no infringement upon our rights’ thinks that the state legislature should get involved with university decisions. I’m sure the rationale will be that because they receive state funds, the university is to be at the mercy of the legislature. However, if that is the rationale, then every US citizen should be also controlled by the federal government, because the government provides us with protection through our military, retirement through social security (for most), employment for many, and various loans and grants that affect everyone to some degree. The state of Texas would also have a stake in this, as many people fall under state retirement programs, and employment there as well. I don’t exactly follow such a rationale, but I’m sure that it could be made. It seems to me that with the ever-increasing crime rate which involves felons with firearms and such, that some wise legislator might pen a bill that would increase penalties for those individuals and make everyone safer. As well, there seems to be an astronomically large number of people who are still driving and who are still free to keep drinking and driving after their 3rd or 4th or 5th DWI. Would a bill be that hard to write up that would either place those people in jail, or relegate them to walking or riding a bicycle to work? Both of these universities have massive numbers of alumni and I know that the UT alumni have deep pockets based on the yearly donations to the university. Let the universities do what they want and if the alumni and current students don’t like it, they can vote either with their gifts or their enrollment.
Goes to show you that A&M carried the Big 12 for years. Best decision ever to move to the SEC.
Really? That’s what you think? From what I read from ESPN the university in Bryan is the only school in the SEC that doesn’t want Texas or OU to join. Sounds to me like a certain university is worried about what will happen when Texas and OU join.
Funny how NOTHING was said when a&m left, I guess the lawmakers are only worried about the good schools leaving!!!
No one has missed a&m!
Lol. You should go back and reread the media coverage of when A&M announced it was moving to the SEC. Ken Starr, who happened to be at Baylor University at the time, threatened to file a lawsuit to keep A&M in the Big 12. Bills were introduced in the Texas Legislature to block the move, same as now. Don’t let your hatred of A&M – and the fact that it’s in a much better place (It must be, cause TU desperately wants in) – cloud what really happened, BEVO.