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Emails obtained from public records show a coordinated summer push by the advocacy group Saving College Sports to marshal political and industry heavyweights behind the Protect College Sports Act — a bill that would set national rules for college athlete pay, eligibility and transfers. The messages reveal unexpected alliances linking conservative funders, university trustees and sports-industry executives as lawmakers prepared to vote.
Who was on the list
Records reviewed by Front Office Sports show that Dary Stone, a Dallas real estate executive and former chair of Baylor’s board, circulated frequent campaign-style messages for Saving College Sports, the group founded last year by natural gas billionaire and Texas Tech donor Cody Campbell. Stone’s emails sought to build momentum for the Protect College Sports Act (PCSA) by contacting a wide network of influencers.
Recipients included high-profile conservative operatives and donors, university trustees, conference commissioners and at least one senior sports-industry executive. Among those invited to an Aug. 4 strategy call were Sen. Eric Schmitt (R., Mo.), David McIntosh — president of the Club for Growth — and Malcolm Turner, DraftKings’s head of corporate development and strategy. The presence of McIntosh and Turner on the group’s outreach had not been previously reported.
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Political money and longstanding ties
The email trail highlights close links between the lobbying push and well-funded Republican networks. Front Office Sports’s review of Federal Election Commission records cited in the documents shows multiple individuals on Stone’s core distribution list have each given more than $500,000 to Republican candidates or committees since 2017.
Campbell and Stone also made direct political contributions tied to the effort: Campbell donated $25,000 to a joint fundraising committee supporting Sen. Schmitt on June 22, and Stone gave $5,000 on June 30. Five weeks after those donations, Schmitt led a strategy call tied to advancing the bill.
Other connections run deeper. Club for Growth leader McIntosh — who took the helm of the group in 2015 — appears repeatedly in the correspondence. SCS’s executive director, David Polyansky, previously served as chief of staff to Sen. Ted Cruz, whose on-air advocacy for the bill included an appearance on ESPN’s College GameDay. FEC records cited in the files also show substantial past support from SCS-linked donors for Cruz’s political efforts.
DraftKings, UNC and a dual role
Malcolm Turner’s inclusion on the SCS distribution list and his use of a DraftKings email address drew attention because he also serves as chair of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill board. Turner was appointed to the UNC board after debate in 2021 about whether a DraftKings executive should sit on a university governing body; he was approved by a 17–6 vote and reportedly pledged to recuse himself from athletics matters.
According to the documents, SCS’s June 1 letter to the bill’s sponsors listed Turner in his UNC role, while private SCS messages reached him at his DraftKings address. Turner told Front Office Sports he participates in SCS on behalf of UNC-Chapel Hill and not on behalf of DraftKings, and that he has appeared on weekly SCS calls in that capacity.
Shaping the message and mobilizing campus leaders
Stone’s communications included lobbying templates for recipients to send to senators, regular campaign updates and appeals asking trustees and presidents to press their congressional delegations. A June 1 letter drafted by SCS and signed by 85 university leaders praised the bill’s bipartisan framework and was circulated to the measure’s four Senate sponsors.
Weekly strategy calls arranged by SCS functioned as a coordination forum. Trustees compared institutional concerns and discussed how the bill might affect sports outside the major conferences — for example, eligibility questions for college hockey raised by Big Ten schools. In one call, a trustee noted he may have been the only Democrat present.
As the Senate debate approached, Stone urged recipients to press conference commissioners and university presidents to back the bill. Invitations to the Aug. 4 call went to roughly 150 people, including commissioners from the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12, and dozens of university leaders. No attendance records were produced in response to the public records requests.
Industry and media engagement
The lobbying effort extended into sports media and broadcasting. Previous reporting cited in the files shows discussions involving executives at ESPN and Fox Sports, and instances where programming included advocacy for the legislation. One notable on-air push involved Sen. Ted Cruz’s College GameDay interview.
Supporters of the PCSA argue the measure would bring order to a turbulent college sports environment by creating uniform rules and shielding schools and conferences from certain antitrust suits. Opponents counter that it would limit athletes’ ability to earn and to pursue legal claims, and that it gives the NCAA and institutions broad protections without meaningful player representation in rule-making.
Closing the gap: a vote and what followed
Stone’s final updates in the produced materials show frantic late-night negotiations in early August as advocates sought the consensus needed to bring the PCSA to the Senate floor. The Senate ultimately passed the bill 77–22 on Sept. 28; the measure is awaiting a House vote.
Requests for comment from spokespeople for McIntosh, Sen. Schmitt’s office and Saving College Sports went unanswered, according to the reporting. The documents obtained from the University of North Carolina, Florida State University and the University of Louisville provide a detailed look at how funders, political operatives, university officials and industry figures were organized behind the campaign.
