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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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Also, it’s Oregon State Beavers.
Charlie Kirk tonight, he loved college athletics, especially the Oregon Beavers.
Sacrilege, Charlie loved the Oregon DUCKS!!
It’s kind of pathetic that a U.S. President feels a need to meddle in something as extraneous as college sports.
He is not the first. Teddy Roosevelt saved college football in the early part of this, err, last century.
https://www.history.com/articles/how-teddy-roosevelt-saved-football
Did you mean the oregon state beavers? Or the Oregon ducks?
College sports are businesses. Not worth the time to be a fan.
You folks are missing something. All 18 year-olds have the same right to cash in on their talents as you and I.
What’s missing here is the fact that public universities are using taxpayer money to pay off the athletes. Even the privates get money from government loans to the students. What’s needed is more Hillsdale’s.
They’ve always cashed in, it is called a “scholarship”.
“College” sports haven’t been collegiate for at least 25 years.
Colleges are running the minor leagues for the pros.
Spin them off at let colleges get back to their educational mission.
right, Ducks, I appreciate your point of view.
Ducks, sorry
Mandate only soccer, cricket, darts, bowling and field hockey, Lacross, and racket sports. Maybe golf.
Hoops, baseball/softball, and American Football will take care for itself.
Legalized sports betting will be the death of college sports.
It’s just a matter of time.
And then the problems become moot.
#1 rule for a parasite is don’t kill the host
most of those you mention could be done intramural and they are the ones being xed out of the athletic budgets
Of course the president has absolutely no purview over college sports, so any executive order he writes is completely meaningless, unenforceable and frankly a giant waste of time. And if they think college getting paid is a problem, well those executive orders would also be on the wrong side of history. People should be paid to work. The NCAA system was slavery disguised as purity, and vile.
But as you said, it’s just a minor thing. Or is it?
How about 15 and 16 year olds. Don’t they have rights too? Should we pay high school jocks too?
He’s rolling in his grave that you called his Ducks their rival the Oregon State Beavers.
No, the country will not address gambling, porn or pot.
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