The team's absence prompted Governor Jeff Landry to take action to ensure players would be present in the future, suggesting that perhaps student athletes' scholarships should be taken away if they fail to do so.
"My mother coached women's high school basketball during the height of desegregation, no one has a greater respect for the sport and for Coach Mulkey," Landry wrote in a post on X. "However, above respect for that game is a deeper respect for those that serve to protect us and unite us under one flag! It is time that all college boards, including Regent, put a policy in place that student athletes be present for the national anthem or risk their athletic scholarship! This is a matter of respect that all collegiate coaches should instill."
