Since 2003, he had become a fixture on ESPN/ABC's coverage of college football, both in the Bristol, CT studios & in the stadium as a color analyst. Now, he's saying goodbye to his college football duties in hopes of becoming a...U.S. Senator?

According to USA Today, Craig James is leaving ESPN/ABC to run for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in his home state of Texas. As a result of Craig's decision to run for the open Senate seat, James will no longer analyze games with Mike Patrick & sideline reporter Heather Cox as he had done the last 3 seasons on the ESPN family of networks. That's the word from ESPN spokesman Josh Krulewitz.

James & his Senate aspirations do face an uphill climb. He faces competition from other GOP challengers who have a lot more experience in public office and hold quite a fund raising advantage over the former SMU Mustang who also played for the long since defunct Washington Federals in the USFL and the New England Patriots in the '80s.

James made news recently for his involvement in the controversial firing of ex-Texas Tech head football coach Mike Leach prior to the 2010 Alamo Bowl. The incident in question involved Craig's son Mike James, and claims that Leach had Craig's son in a shed for 2 hours during practice. Leach was fired by Texas Tech and claimed in a lawsuit that Adam "voluntarily placed himself into a electrical closet and apparently took pictures with his phone camera." Leach, now the head football coach at Washington State, has a defamation suit pending vs. James' family and ESPN stemming from the alleged incident.

As for James, he's running for the U.S. Senate seat that's being vacated by Kay Bailey Hutchison. He's not the first ESPN personality to run for political office. In 2006, another longtime ESPN/ABC analyst, former Pittsburgh Steelers' Super Bowl winning wide receiver Lynn Swann, ran for Governor of Pennsylvania. Swann didn't return to the "Worldwide Leader in Sports" following Swann's loss in that state's race for Governor that year.