Trump issues executive order for college sports

• Dan MurphyJul 24, 2025, 06:59 PM ET Close Covers the Big Ten

• Joined ESPN.com in 2014
• Graduate of the University of Notre Dame

President Donald Trump has directed members of his Cabinet to develop a strategy in the next 30 days targeted at protecting college sports opportunities and avoiding college professional athletes from ending up being professionals, according to an executive order he signed Thursday.Trump’s order sets out specific guidelines for preserving athletic scholarships based upon an athletic department’s annual income. It also declares that schools should not permit athletes to accept”third-party, pay-for-play payments. “The order mentions that Secretary of Education Linda McMahon ought to utilize future federal financing choices among other tools to require schools to comply with the administration’s policy.The NCAA always has prohibited pay-for-play payment from 3rd parties.

In the past numerous years, college sports leaders have actually struggled to discover ways to stop boosters at the market’s wealthiest schools from paying professional athletes by means of contracts that are endorsement offers on paper but function in reality as de facto salaries.Editor’s Picks 2 Related”A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this circumstance from deteriorating beyond repair work and to secure

non-revenue sports, consisting of numerous

women’s sports, that consist of the backbone of intercollegiate athletics,”Trump mentioned in the order.The executive order states that recommendation deals from third parties should continue to be allowed so long as they reflect a “fair market price.” The Power 4 conferences launched a brand-new enforcement company this month– the College Sports Commission– in an effort to veterinarian all third-party deals professional athletes indication to ensure they are sensible payments for endorsements rather than a veiled pay-for-play plan. It’s not yet clear if or how the administration’s new policy might assist strengthen those efforts.The NCAA’s long-held restriction on paying athletes has crumbled in the past decade under pressure from a list of legal obstacles and state laws. The association and its power conferences formally accepted an antitrust settlement in

June that will allow schools to pay up to $20.5 million directly to their professional athletes in the coming scholastic year. Those payments are also designated as endorsement contracts on paper but likely will serve as de facto salaries.Steve Berman, among the co-lead complainant attorneys in the antitrust settlement, slammed Trump for attempting to step in.”Plain and simple, college professional athletes do not require Trump’s aid, and he shouldn’t be assisting the NCAA at the expense of athletes, “Berman said recently.

“… As an outcome of our case, college athletes are now free to make their own deals. For Trump to want to put his foot on their deal-making capabilities is baseless and flouts his own viewpoint on the supposed ‘art of the offer.’ “NCAA president Charlie Baker said the association still will need aid from federal legislators to create competitive balance in college sports. Particularly, Baker and other college sports leaders have asked Congress to offer them with an antitrust exemption so they can implement guidelines, a lot of which would restrict

athlete making power.” The Association appreciates the Trump Administration’s focus on the life-altering opportunities college sports offers millions of youths and we eagerly anticipate dealing with student-athletes, a bipartisan coalition in Congress and the Trump Administration to boost college sports for years to come, “Baker stated in a declaration relating to Trump’s executive order Thursday.A governmental executive order can not supply antitrust security for the NCAA. However, a bill that would provide the NCAA broad antitrust leeway was approved by 2 different Home committees today. It could be required a full vote in your house of Representatives as soon as September. The bill, which has actually received very little support from Democrats, still would require to go through

the Senate.Thursday’s executive order mandates that athletic departments that generated more than$125 million throughout the last scholastic year must increase the variety of scholarships they offer to professional athletes in non-revenue sports. Athletic departments that brought in at least $50 million can not lower the number of scholarships they provide in those sports.The frustrating majority of schools in the 4 power conferences reach the $50 million threshold, while roughly 30 to 40 schools have topped the $125 million mark over the last few years. A lot of those highest earning schools have already openly announced strategies to increase their scholarship totals.The order also contacts the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify college professional athletes ‘work status in a way that will”make the most of the instructional advantages and chances “for all professional athletes. It does not offer any particular timeline for those agencies to act.As schools start paying their athletes, college sports leaders stay adamantly opposed to treating them as workers. Those leaders state that numerous schools could not pay for to field the very same variety of teams if all professional athletes are stated to be staff members. They likewise state most college athletes do not wish to be employees.Two different groups of athletes have actually asked the NLRB to acknowledge them as employees in the previous 2 years. Both cases were dropped shortly after Trump was elected. If the NLRB declares college professional athletes are not employees, future professional athletes will not have the ability to form

a union and bargain for more cash or much better working conditions.Several football coaches have actually just recently said they believe it would make more sense– and supply more stability– if their players were considered workers and were able to collectively haggle. “The best way to do it is to make it where players are employees and you have an income cap,”Louisville coach Jeff Brohm informed ESPN earlier this month.”If players are getting paid, why do not we just do it the correct way? The amateurism isn’t there anymore. Let’s not pretend that it is. “There is one ongoing federal case(Johnson v. NCAA) that argues athletes should be thought about staff members under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiff’s attorney in that case, Paul McDonald, has previously argued that any action that blocks college athletes from being staff members would be unconstitutional because it would deal with the work professional athletes do as various than the work of other students who hold school jobs.