On April 29, 2026, the United States Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Louisiana v. Callais that Louisiana’s 2024 congressional redistricting map, which established a second majority-Black district, was an unconstitutional racial gerrymander that violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Kristin Powell, executive director of Black Futures Lab, a nonprofit whose mission is to build and defend Black political power, said the Supreme Court’s ruling was a major setback for our multiracial democracy. Civil and voting rights organizations responded with a slew of demonstrations, training sessions, and grassroots efforts to counter “the assault” on Black political power, including the NAACP launching their “Out of Bounds” campaign.
According to the NAACP’s website, they called for Black football and basketball players to withhold their commitments from targeted public programs in states that have moved to weaken Black voting power until those states restore maps and meaningful representation.
Athletes who agree to participate will take the following pledge: I will not allow my talent, labor, name, image, likeness, family, or community pride to be used to enrich institutions in states that are working to silence Black voters. Until fair representation is restored, I commit to exploring HBCUs, institutions in states that respect Black political power, and programs that publicly stand with our communities.
The “Out of Bounds” campaign targets all public universities in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia, with a focus on the SEC (Southeastern Conference), one of the four power conferences in NCAA Division I sports.
The 2026 college football season started, but it appears that the “Out of Bounds” campaign has not garnered any traction.
The obvious explanation for its lack of success so far is money. (In 2021, college athletes were allowed to profit from their name, image, and likeness—NIL.)
Rashad Grove wrote in The Root, “With elite athletes now being offered six-and seven-figure deals to play for blue-chip schools in the SEC, it’s a hard sell to ask an 18-year-old to ignore the opportunity to accumulate generational wealth for political gain … Aligning civil rights activism with modern sports economics exposes a fundamental shift: withholding Black talent may not be the powerful political weapon it once was.”
He concluded, “Until advocacy groups can match the life-changing wealth on the table, calling for athlete boycotts will keep hitting the NIL wall.”
Paid protesters are bad enough, but paying athletes to boycott is even worse. Grove believes that matching funds will remedy athletes’ disinterest in boycotting the SEC; however, he underestimates their primary aspiration and the importance they place on competition.
Little Leaguers’ first aspiration isn’t the NFL. It’s Division I College football. They want to play for one of the best teams in one of the four power conferences, compete for a national championship or play against the current champion, and perform inside those massive stadiums they’ve seen on TV.
The SEC has the most teams rated in the top 25 week after week every year. The SEC contains nine of the top thirteen largest collegiate stadiums, as well as six of the top ten largest stadiums in the country; all six are bigger than NFL stadiums.
During the BCS (Bowl Championship Series), which was from 1998 to 2013, a computer ranking system set up a national championship game between #1 and #2. This era produced 16 national championship games, with the SEC winning nine. The CFP (College Football Playoff) replaced the BCS in 2014, and from 2014 to last year, it produced 12 national championship games, with the SEC winning six.
Years ago, at spring training, a multiple championship-winning SEC coach called several freshmen aside. These freshmen were not performing well and were gradually losing confidence. The coach said, “In high school, you were the best players on the field, but in the SEC, you aren’t, and you don’t know how to respond. Because you had superior talent in high school, you never had to improve or become better; in other words, you never learned how to compete.”
Athletes can only develop into elite players by competing for starting positions against superior athletes and against teams stacked with the best players in the country.
The SEC offers unrivaled athlete development, and the conference produces a sizable number of NFL players.
Cedric Hayes, NAACP’s Senior Vice President of Policy and Legislative Affairs, said, “We are not asking families to forgo any opportunity, but rather take all factors into account—including the coordinated assault on our vote and political representation.”
Perhaps the NAACP should have taken the competition factor into account before deciding to target the SEC for a boycott.