Trump's College Sports Roundtable: Big Promises, No Athletes in the Room
By faNILy Team ·
President Trump hosted college sports leaders in the White House East Room on Friday, March 6, and he didn't hold back. The headline: he says an executive order is coming within about a week, and he wants Congress to move fast on a national fix.
The biggest takeaways
An executive order is on the way. Trump said he'd issue an "all-encompassing" order within a week, according to CBS News, and said he expected it to trigger a lawsuit that could put the issue back in front of the courts.
He wants Congress to act. "If Congress does not take action fast, it could destroy college sports," Trump said, per KATV's report from the event.
The SCORE Act got a boost. House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested there may now be enough votes to pass the SCORE Act, the federal college sports bill that's been debated in Congress, according to CBS News.
TV money was a flashpoint. Texas Tech regent Cody Campbell pitched rewriting the Sports Broadcasting Act so conferences could pool their TV rights, an idea he pegged at roughly $6 billion. The SEC and Big Ten pushed back on those projections.
Transfers came up too. Coaches voiced frustration with the current transfer system, saying it contributes to roster instability, according to KATV.
Yankees president Randy Levine didn't sugarcoat his view of the current setup: "This thing is failing and it's failing bad," he said, per KATV.
Who wasn't there
No current college athletes took part. CBS News noted the room included lawmakers, conference commissioners, the NCAA president and the U.S. Olympic team's CEO, but none of the NCAA's 550,000 college athletes. Levine said athletes would be involved in future discussions. We'll believe it when we see the seating chart.
Can an executive order actually change NIL?
That's the big question, and legal analysts are skeptical. Sportico's analysis laid out why an order can't simply rewind the clock:
- The old no-pay model lost in court on antitrust grounds. Courts found that schools agreeing not to pay athletes violated antitrust law, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh described the NCAA model as "akin to a cartel."
- Colleges chose to negotiate the House settlement, which authorizes them to pay athletes directly.
- The questions involved cut across antitrust, labor, employment, intellectual property and education law. That's a lot for one document to untangle.
In our read, an order can steer federal agencies, put pressure on schools, and push Congress. It's much harder for it to rewrite the court-approved deal schools agreed to in the House settlement, which is what made direct revenue sharing possible in the first place.
What it means for athletes and fans
For now, nothing changes on the ground. Revenue sharing is still in place. NIL deals over $600 still go through the College Sports Commission's NIL Go clearinghouse. Athletes can still build their own brands and sell content and experiences to fans.
What's changed is the temperature. With the White House, Congress and the courts all circling the same issues, athletes and families should expect more rule changes over the next year, not fewer. If you're an athlete, stay close to your compliance office. If you're a fan, expect the conversation about how players get paid to stay loud.
We'll be watching for the text of that executive order and breaking down what it actually says when it lands.