Sports enthusiasts in MAGA world are having a conniption over the NAACP’s call for athletes to boycott a list of major universities in states where Republicans have launched assaults on Black voting rights. The list includes major athletic powerhouses in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas — all southern states that have gerrymandered districts in ways that dilute Black voter power, particularly in the wake of the Supreme Court’s Louisiana v. Callais decision.

The NAACP announced the call to boycott Tuesday, urging students to consider attending historically Black colleges and universities instead. College sports, and especially college football, are a key source of income and pride for several states. A boycott could pose an obvious threat to this cash cow. One can almost hear the desperation in the responses from some conservatives, like South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson.

Among some MAGA influencers’ response to the boycott request, there’s an arrogance in their assumption that there’s no chance any athlete would participate — an assumption being made because players can now make money due to current name, image and likeness rules.

Examples below:

These influencers may be counting on athletes to overlook the fact that Donald Trump is currently opposed to, and actively working to dismantle, the very NIL system that allows players to make the money.

While some conservatives may prefer to laugh off this boycott, there’s ample evidence that many major college athletic programs are heavily reliant on Black athletes.

And some southern schools are extremely tender about being viewed as breeding grounds for racism. When he was the head football coach at the University of Mississippi, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., the Republican nominee for Alabama governor, admitted that the state’s reverence for the Confederate flag hurt the school’s recruiting, and had a hand in the decision to ban the flag at Ole Miss games. 

More recently, Louisiana State University football coach Lane Kiffin spurred a bit of a tantrum among Ole Miss fans when he said potential recruits and their families raised concerns about racism at Ole Miss when he was head coach there, and he said LSU was better by comparison.

Public backlash prompted an apology from Kiffin, underscoring my impression that many white fans of college sports and officials overseeing programs are aware of how racism on campus can potentially undercut the success of the teams they root for.

Some people have questioned whether the NAACP is unfairly pressuring Black athletes to participate in this protest. This argument seems odd to me. Even if the group’s position is that attending one of these schools constitutes acquiescence to a racist movement, the NAACP has no means to force any athlete to boycott the school of their choosing. 

And even if players don’t participate in this boycott, as is their right, that won’t end conversations about whether there are moral reasons that they should participate. Civil rights are not determined solely by popular opinion, or what some would have you believe is popular opinion in this case: opposition to players boycotting. 

What’s clear is that the schools being targeted by the NAACP still have deep financial and cultural investments in attracting Black athletes (at least, for now), even as conservatives in those states attack Black civil rights.

I spoke last year with Dr. Karida Brown, author of “The Battle for the Black Mind,” which focuses on white conservatives’ historic interest in doling out money for the education of Black people in fields involving menial labor and service, rather than in liberal arts that could enable Black people to gain a stronger sense of self. A similar dynamic exists in conservative-led states that invest in college sports programs so athletes — that is, Black athletes — can entertain them and bring in money, while those same leaders are gutting diversity programs that serve Black students.

It’s a point NFL Hall of Famer Emmitt Smith brought up back in 2024, when he urged college athletes to speak out about conservatives’ attacks on diversity programs that serve various groups, including Black students. 

The NAACP’s call for a boycott need not be wholly successful in itself to be useful. Already, it is fueling necessary conversations about what it means to support Black people and Black communities, as opposed to capitalizing on Black labor while ignoring tactics that support white supremacy.

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