WASHINGTON – After a plea for help from the highest levels of college athletics, President Donald Trump said Friday he will draft an executive order within a week that will “resolve all of the issues” raised in an unprecedented White House meeting to address the future of college sports.
Trump, who was joined in the East Room by about 50 people from diverse backgrounds, hosted the first-ever “Save College Sports” roundtable with vice presidents 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 conveyed a similar message: College sports need federal legislation to restore order to the NIL space and its overall economy.
“I will have an executive order in a week and it will be very comprehensive,” Trump said. “And we're going to file it, and we're going to be sued, and we're going to see how it goes, okay, but I'm going to have an executive order, which will solve every problem in this room, every problem imaginable, within a week, and we're going to file it. We're going to be sued. That's the only thing I know for sure.”
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 the journalists present were allowed to remain in the back of the room for the duration. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban, sitting two seats to the president's left, was the first to speak on behalf of the college space.
Saban said his goal was to help prepare players for success in life and create an environment that helped them through personal development and academic support, and that became “impossible to achieve in this system.”
“I think we need to create a system, and obviously we have to do with the leadership of the president and also with Congress, probably, whether it's antitrust legislation or whatever, to allow student-athletes in all sports, including women's and Olympic sports, to improve their quality of life while they go to college,” Saban said, “but still provide the opportunity to advance beyond their athletic career, which is what the philosophy of college athletics has always been about and getting a college education. And how much “Does anyone talk about getting an education? No one talks about it anymore, which is the most important thing any of these student-athletes can do in terms of improving the future.”
Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer said part of the solution is to “get rid of the collectives.”
“That's cheating,” he said. “Donors put money into a fund. It's distributed to players through coaches and management. That's not allowed. You're not supposed to do that. That's pay-for-play.”
Lawmakers and others in the room rallied around hopes of passing the SCORE Act, the major Republican-backed congressional effort to create a national NIL and college athletics regulatory structure. Sen. Ted Cruz said 60 Senate votes are needed, including seven Democrats, but added that no Democrats are willing to vote in favor.
Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell, who has been working on the issue for months, warned that as the bill moves toward the Senate, “certain dynamics are going to change.”
“Many of the agendas in this room and outside of this room are going to be impossible,” he said. “The reality is that no one is going to keep everything. If we want to find a solution to this, we have to find a place where we are all equally unhappy, just like in any other business.”
Phillips told the president, “We need your help,” and said no players have told any of the commissioners in the room 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 will fracture ourselves more if we do not act,” he said.
“I'll have an executive order in a week, and it's going to be very comprehensive. And we're going to file it, and we're going to be sued, and we're going to see how it works, okay, but I'm going to have an executive order that will solve every problem in this room, every problem imaginable, in a week, and we're going to file it. We're going to be sued. That's the only thing I know for sure.”
President Donald Trump
Sarah Hirshland, executive director of the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee, said the college food system has “been the backbone of Team USA for generations.”
At the Paris Games, he said, athletes represented 231 universities and 71 conferences, and 90 schools were represented by medalists. He warned that these sports should not be taken for granted at the university level.
“While the United States has led the gold medal tally in eight of the last 10 Summer Games, I'm here to tell you that margin is narrowing,” he said. “Around the world, nations are investing aggressively in sports, building centralized training systems, expanding funding and prioritizing athlete development in new ways. That increasing global competition comes at a time when American universities must increase their investments in soccer to remain competitive. The economic pressures are unsustainable.
“…We know what happens when those investments are reduced or disappear. It hinders the future of Team USA, but, frankly, it threatens the future health of the sport in our country. We cannot wait for economic pressure to create this crisis.”
It is worth highlighting the absence of student-athletes.
“They are very well represented,” Trump said. “You know why? Because people like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, all the people I know in the room, and the people I probably don't know, they care a lot more about the student-athlete than they care about themselves, so I think they're really here. In that sense, they're very well represented here.”
