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Posted on 03/06/2026 8:37:34 PM PST by sopo
WASHINGTON -- After a plea for help from the highest levels of college athletics, President Donald Trump on Friday said he will write an executive order within a week that will "solve all of the problems" brought forth in an unprecedented meeting at the White House to address the future of college sports.
Trump, who was joined in the East Room by about 50 people from varied backgrounds, hosted the first "Saving College Sports" roundtable with vice chairs Secretary of State Marco Rubio, New York Yankees president Randy Levine and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The group included other politicians, sports celebrities, media executives, conference commissioners, and university presidents, chancellors and athletic directors. Those who spoke delivered a similar message: College sports needs federal legislation to restore order in the NIL space and its overall economics.
"I will have an executive order within one week, and it will be very all-encompassing," Trump said. "And we're going to put it forward, and we're going to get sued, and we're going to see how it plays, OK, but I'll have an executive order, which will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we'll put it forward. We will get sued. That's the only thing I know for sure."
The Trump administration’s "Saving College Sports" roundtable, hosted in the East Room of the White House, brought together leaders from the major conferences, media executives and former coaches, among others. Notably absent were any student-athletes. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images NCAA president Charlie Baker was in attendance, along with ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, Big 12 commissioner Brett Yormark, Big Ten commissioner Tony Petitti, American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua.
The meeting was scheduled for an hour but lasted almost two, and reporters in attendance were allowed to stand in the back of the room for the duration. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, sitting two seats to the left of the president, was the first to speak for the college space.
Saban said his goal was to help prepare players for success in life and create an environment that would help them through personal development and academic support -- and that became "impossible to do in this system."
"I think we need to come up with a system, and we obviously have to do with the president's leadership and also Congress, probably, whether it's antitrust legislation or whatever it is, to allow student-athletes in all sports, including women's and Olympic sports, to enhance their quality of life while going to college," Saban said, "but still provide opportunity to advance themselves beyond their athletic career, which is what the philosophy of college athletics and getting a college education has always been about. And how much does anybody talk about getting an education anymore? Nobody talks about it at all, which is the most important thing any of these student-athletes can do in terms of enhancing the future."
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said part of the solution is to "get rid of the collectives."
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NCAA prez urges Congress to act on college sports "That's cheating," he said. "Donors put money in a pot. It's distributed to the players through coaches and managers. That's not allowed. Not supposed to do that. That's pay-for-play."
Lawmakers and others in the room rallied around hope that the SCORE Act, Congress' leading Republican-backed effort to create a national NIL and college athletics regulatory structure, will pass. Sen. Ted Cruz said 60 Senate votes are needed, including seven Democrats, but he added that zero Democrats are ready to vote for it.
Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell, who has been working on the issue for months, cautioned that as it moves into the Senate, "certain dynamics are going to change."
"Many of the agendas in this room and outside this room are going to become impossible," he said. "The reality is nobody's going to get everything. If we're going to come to a solution on this, we have to find a place where we're all equally unhappy, just like any other business deal."
Phillips told the president, "We need your help," and said none of the commissioners in the room has been told by any players that they want to be considered employees.
"They're smart enough to understand what that means," Phillips said.
Sankey also expressed a sense of urgency.
"We'll fracture more if we fail to act," he said.
"I will have an executive order within one week, and it will be very all-encompassing. And we're going to put it forward, and we're going to get sued, and we're going to see how it plays, okay, but I'll have an executive order which will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we'll put it forward. We will get sued. That's the only thing I know for sure." President Donald Trump Sarah Hirshland, CEO of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said the college feeder system has "been the backbone of Team USA for generations."
In the Paris Games, she said, athletes represented 231 different colleges and 71 conferences, and 90 different schools were represented by medalists. She cautioned not to take those sports at the collegiate level for granted.
"And while the United States has topped the gold medal table in eight of the last 10 Summer Games, I am here to tell you the margin is narrowing," she said. "Around the world, nations are investing aggressively in sports, building centralized training systems, expanding funding and prioritizing athlete development in new ways. That growing global competition comes at a moment when U.S. colleges must increase their investments in football to stay competitive. The economic pressures are unsustainable. ...
"We know what happens when those investments are reduced or disappear," she said. "It hinders the future pipeline of Team USA, but frankly, it threatens the future health of sport in our country. We cannot wait for the economic pressure to create this crisis."
Notably absent were any student-athletes.
"They're very well-represented," Trump said. "You know why? Because people like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, all of the people that I know in the room -- and the people probably I don't know -- they all care very much about the student-athlete more so than they care about themselves, so I think they're really here. In that sense, they're represented very well here."
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Will they address the gambling problem that has permeated all levels of sports? Will they address NIL issues that are ruining college athletics? It seems pretty short on details about what they will actually be doing.
This is one of the enumerated powers in the constitution. Article 99 i believe. very important.
Leave it to Donald Trump to be surprised and disappointed at a 9-0 Supreme Court ruling. LOL.
It’s kind of pathetic that a U.S. President feels a need to meddle in something as extraneous as college sports.
Apparently I heard only hour 2, it wasn’t metioned that I heard, but they had a lot of people in that rom and he made it very clear he wanted their opinions on a wide range of issues. HThey brought out that agents are pushing college athletes into the transfer portals and about forty % are left there without landind anywhere , losing the scholarship at the original school.
The President shouldn't be involved.
It should be up to the NCAA to handle it themselves.
They’re throwing so much money at the football stars, they are dragging down not only the sports programs but the colleges themselves. The donors are diverting to the athletic programs so they can sign top football and basketball recruits to multi-million dollar contracts, like this https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/6867734/2025/12/06/mighigan-state-401-million-donation/
$400 m donaton, $237 m earmarked to athletics at Michigan State.
They can’t beat tentrial lawyers judge shopping in the courts, they need anti-trust exemption for one thing like major league baseball , and i suppose the other pros have had for decades if not a century.
well in a way, it is like articles of confederation, as each state can now regulate differently, fedral government partly constituted to allow a functioning republic. Witkoff was there by the way, didn’t speak during portion i saw anyway.
Really — who cares? The government has no business involving itself in that nonsense.
How would higher educatiion do without federal grants, it is our money they’re talking about here , nd not peripherally;and our way of life, frankly. Hillsdale’s one beautiful place, but that model would be hard to replicate
Showing up for a football game is fine because he's there as a fan (and Commander in Chief). But it's not his problem—he has nothing to do with NIL so it's up to others to deal with it.
Personally, I’d remove sports (as currently in use) from ALL levels of education. Education and sports don’t mix. Maybe establish a different system to develop athletes.
Too late now, too much money involved.
so many parents and kids that participate in sports disagree with you.
I’ll quote myself “While the side bar commentators moaned and groaned about “wasting time on this,” Trump made it clear that this was the same subject as the Iran War, his passion for America, America first.”
you must not be Charlie Kirk tonight, he loved college athletics, especially the Oregon Beavers. wake up, it’s our culture here.
I was just saying that college sports is a huge cash cow, you’ll never get rid of it, and it’s also tradition. Didn’t say I wanted to do away with it. But even if I wanted to, it would never happen.
My high school chemistry teacher taught the gifted chemistry classes. All of his basketball players took his class. They all received undeserved A’s. This is a common practice....
It punishes the non athletes when they get a free ride on the backs of those who ONLY have academic prowess.
Early DEI. I’m against it.
Try saying that in Tuscaloosa. Or Ann Arbor.
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