Posted on 04/18/2026 6:50:32 PM PDT by sopo
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday designed to limit how long athletes can play college sports and how often they can transfer between schools.
The order directs the NCAA to create rules that mandate college athletes can play for "no more than a five-year period" and allows them to transfer schools only once before they graduate without having to sit out a season. The rule changes are scheduled to go into effect Aug. 1. A school that plays an athlete who doesn't meet these new limits could risk losing its federal funding.
The order also states that the NCAA should update its rules to create a national registry for player agents and create policies that prevent schools from cutting scholarships or other opportunities for women's and Olympic sports in order to pay their athletes.
"College sports cannot function without clear, agreed-upon rules concerning pay-for-play and player eligibility that can't be endlessly challenged in court, as is the case now," the White House said in a news release about the order.
Multiple lawyers who work with colleges and their athletes told ESPN they believe that judges would rule the president's order to be unconstitutional and unenforceable if challenged in court.
(Excerpt) Read more at espn.com ...
Dear FRiends,
We need your continuing support to keep FR funded. Your donations are our sole source of funding. No sugar daddies, no advertisers, no paid memberships, no commercial sales, no gimmicks, no tax subsidies. No spam, no pop-ups, no ad trackers.
If you enjoy using FR and agree it's a worthwhile endeavor, please consider making a contribution today:
Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you,
Jim
A five-year period is reasonable. And no, you can’t sit out a season.
red shirting goes back to the good old days. injury red shirt seems fair.
I am all for this. Watching 26 year olds play 18 and 19 year olds at the college level makes me physically sick.
The solution is to break away the big schools from the NCAA. Those who want to be big time football\basketball powers and put themselves in a professional sports league supported minor league consortium. The universities and colleges can lease their name and facilities to this consortium for the revenue stream.
End the silly hypocrisy that bigtime college\university sports had anything to do with education.
A lot of dumb things are going on in this country. The President need not - and should not - be involved in all of them.
This seems like a consumer’s choice issue to me. If the current NCAA rules result in unbalanced games, don’t watch those games.
Now, if the NCAA were doing something that was clearly illegal or unconstitutional - that would be a different story.
Officials from the SEC and the Big Ten won’t like this.
I’d prefer the original way college sports were run and played...
No money... No failing grades...
Let those kids play ball and earn the market value they deliver to their athletic programs.
Lane Kiffin, Kirby Smart ac Ryan Day saddened
Most of these “student athletes” never set for in a classroom. Everything is online.
Playing 4 years over a 5 year period goes back to the end of the Freshman team concept. Seems historically reasonable.
Maybe they can call this the Stetson Bennett rule (6 years, 2 transfers, although he didn’t play his first year on the team).
You and me both. I miss those days.
way back when, Congress gave major league baseball exemption from anti trust , probably other major sports have it too. Sports is one of the things that has strengthened unity of ountry. That’s why Kaepernik was such a narcissistic outrage.
all the tv overage will follow that and they’ll still receuit fro the lesser schools, like colleges used to from jucos.
I have lost all tolerance for Sports Socialism whether it's tax exempt colleges running professional teams or professional teams' billionaire owners crying poverty and extorting new stadiums from cities and states. When the top paid state employee in most states is either a state college football or basketball coach, you know you have a problem.
Agree!
And he has jurisdiction over the NCAA how?
This stuff is ridiculous.
Exactly. I agree.
Trump needs to focus on other things.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.