Out of Bounds: College Sports Cannot Escape the Fight for Voting Rights
Sports have always been political.
That statement makes some people uncomfortable because many fans want sports to function as a temporary escape hatch from life’s pressures. We want touchdowns, tailgates, rivalries, rankings, and championships. We want the cookout, the fellowship, the chants, the marching bands, and the joy.
We do not want to think about racial inequities while watching a quarterback throw a deep ball or a point guard push the fast break.
And yet, sports in America have never existed outside of politics, race, economics, or power.
Not ever.
Just a week ago, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) announced a new campaign called Out of Bounds. As a Diamond Life member of the NAACP, a former college athlete, a former college coach, and a retired professor who still critically thinks about and studies the sport industry, I immediately paid attention. So did many others across the country.
The campaign’s central message is direct:
No representation. No recruitment. No revenue.
The NAACP argues that universities cannot continue profiting from Black athletic talent while states simultaneously weaken Black voting representation through unconstitutional districting and voter suppression efforts.
Across the South, Black athletes help generate hundreds of millions of dollars for college athletic programs each year. Stadiums are filled. Television contracts explode. Coaches receive multimillion-dollar salaries. Merchandise flies off the shelves.
At the same time, many Black communities continue to fight for fair political representation.
You cannot recruit Black bodies while dismissing Black voices.
That is the charge.
And whether one agrees with the strategy or not, the campaign has already accomplished something important: it has forced America to have a conversation. In fact, the Southeastern Conference, which is the governing body of the 13 named universities, recently hired a Black man to be their crisis management director. Should we say a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion hire? Clutch your pearls!
Sports Does Not Get a Pass
Too often, sports escapes the scrutiny that we apply to other systems.
We openly discuss racial disparities in housing, healthcare, education, banking, and employment. We acknowledge inequities in policing, wealth accumulation, and political representation. Yet, because we see Black athletes running, jumping, tackling, dunking, and entertaining, many people assume sports is somehow exempt from systemic inequity.
It is not.
The disparities that exist in society also exist in sports.
Ownership disparities. Leadership disparities. Compensation disparities. Media disparities. Hiring disparities. Decision-making disparities.
Sports may look integrated on the field, but the halls of power often tell a very different story.
The NAACP’s campaign challenges athletes, coaches, administrators, fans, donors, and consumers to think more critically about that reality.
As often the most influential and recognized persons in the state, head coaches of football and men’s basketball programs need to be transparent about their political positions if they are going to serve as the “parent away from home” for Black athletes.
Administrators and coaches should ask why their Black athletes are being denied African and Black Studies curriculum and programs that support their cultural understanding and history.
Black recruits are being encouraged to ask universities a simple but powerful question:
Where does your institution stand on voting rights?
Current athletes are being encouraged to use their platforms to elevate these issues publicly. In addition, elite college athletes who have multiple big dollar offers are being asked to consider playing for one of many other powerhouse sports programs.
Fans and donors are being asked to reconsider where they spend their money and to redirect support toward Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs).
This is not just about sports.
This is about citizenship.
Young People Have Always Led
One aspect of this campaign that I appreciate deeply is its call for young people to engage.
Too often, we underestimate athletes intellectually. We reduce them to entertainment. We dismiss them as “dumb jocks.”
History says otherwise.
Young people have consistently stood at the forefront of transformative change in America.
At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic podium protest, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos were only 24 and 23 years old respectively. Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul Jabbar) was only 21 when he declined to try out for the Olympic team to protest the treatment of Black Americans. The Freedom Riders. Civil Rights Organizing. How about the student protesters who led on their college campuses? The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) activist founders were leaders at Shaw University (Raleigh) and the four students, now famously known as the Greensboro Four, were freshmen at North Carolina A&T University.
Conscious young people have always been willing to risk comfort for justice.
Why should this generation get a pass?
Athletes today possess enormous influence. Through social media, Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) opportunities, media visibility, and cultural relevance, they command attention in ways previous generations could not imagine.
The question becomes: how will that influence be used during these challenging times?
The NAACP’s Out of Bounds campaign reminds us that college sports is not separate from America—it is America. And until justice, representation, and opportunity are available to all, some fights will always matter more than the final score.
UNC basketball, Senior Night, Elijah Davis, Seth Trimble (photo via Todd Melet)
Why This Campaign Will Be Difficult
Now, let me be very clear.
I understand why some people are skeptical.
This campaign faces enormous challenges.
First, movements require long-term strategy, organization, and discipline. America did not arrive at this moment overnight. From Reconstruction to Jim Crow to the Voting Rights Act to present-day voter suppression battles, this struggle spans centuries.
Real change will not happen in six months.
Second, college sports is now heavily driven by economics.
NIL money. Television contracts. Conference realignment. Corporate partnerships. Recruiting wars. Transfer portal maneuvering.
Money talks loudly.
In many cases, silence can be purchased.
An athlete may decide not to speak. A coach may avoid controversy. An administrator may prioritize institutional optics over moral clarity.
Complicity often arrives wearing expensive clothing.
Third, many people genuinely do not want politics attached to sports.
They want sports to remain a refuge from societal stress.
I understand that feeling.
But at some point, we must ask ourselves a difficult question:
Who gets the luxury of separating sports from politics?
Certainly not Jackie Robinson. Certainly not Muhammad Ali. Certainly not Curt Flood. Certainly not Bill Russell. Certainly not Colin Kaepernick.
Sports and politics have always intersected because athletes do not stop being citizens once the game begins.
The HBCU Conversation Requires Honesty
The campaign also encourages athletes to seriously consider HBCUs.
As someone who attended Historically White Colleges and Universities (HWCUs) throughout my academic journey and proudly represented both University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina, I support HBCUs wholeheartedly.
I lecture and volunteer at HBCUs. I mentor HBCU students. I celebrate the cultural significance and educational mission of HBCUs.
But honesty matters.
Most HBCU athletic departments simply do not possess the same level of resources as major NCAA Division I Power Four athletic programs.
This is not an insult. It is a financial reality.
The facilities. The training infrastructure. Nutrition programs. Travel budgets. Marketing operations. NIL resources. Staffing depth.
The funding gap is enormous.
Many elite athletic departments at major universities operate with budgets exceeding $150 million annually. Most HBCU athletic programs function with only a fraction of those resources.
That matters.
Could elite athletes help transform HBCU sports by choosing those institutions? Absolutely.
Would sacrifice be required? Absolutely.
These are complicated decisions, and they deserve nuanced discussion rather than simplistic slogans.
We Belong Here Too
As a Black woman who graduated from UVA and UNC, let me also say this plainly:
Those Historically White Colleges and Universities belong to me too.
Black alumni, Black students, Black faculty, Black staff, and Black communities have invested time, labor, scholarship, culture, and excellence into HWCUs for generations.
We are not guests there.
We helped build those institutions.
We expanded them. We elevated them. We defended them. We enriched them.
Therefore, I reject any notion that Black people should simply abandon every HWCU space where inequities exist.
The answer is not retreat.
The answer is accountability.
Beyond the Game
The NAACP’s Out of Bounds campaign is bigger than football Saturdays and basketball arenas.
It asks America to confront a difficult contradiction:
Can institutions celebrate Black athletic excellence while remaining silent about threats to Black political power?
That tension is now sitting at midfield for everyone to see.
And perhaps that is the real victory already.
Not that everyone agrees. Not that every athlete will act. Not that every university will respond.
But that the conversation can no longer be avoided.
Sports shape culture. Culture shapes politics. Politics shape opportunity.
The game was never just a game.
It never has been.
Sports have always reflected the soul of America—its beauty, its contradictions, its inequities, and its possibilities. The NAACP’s Out of Bounds call to action is not asking us to abandon sports. Stadiums will still fill. The bands will still play. The crowds will still roar. But now the questions are louder too. Who has power? Who has voice? Who belongs?
The campaign asks us to think more deeply about what we cheer for, what we tolerate, and what we are willing to challenge. Perhaps the greatest victory will not come from the scoreboard, but from athletes, institutions, and communities courageous enough to demand that democracy itself remain in bounds.
“Never Too Far” contains perspectives and insights from an inquisitive and engaged Orange County transplant from Philly. Deborah Stroman is an entrepreneur and UNC leadership professor who has seen too much and not enough, and thus continues to question and explore the thoughts and actions of humankind.
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