Donald Trump Getting Involved In College Sports NIL Policy

U.S. President Donald Trump floated the idea of an executive order to address college athlete payments and created a committee on the issue.

The Wall Street Journal first reported Trump’s consideration of a potential executive order to “increase the scrutiny” of the “explosion” of NIL payments. The report followed a conversation between the president and University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban. A record seven NCAA titles to his name, Saban is an outspoken critic of the implementation of changes from NIL antitrust lawsuits.

Sources with knowledge of the meeting said that Saban proposed not ending NIL but ‘reforming’ current policies related to athlete payments. Trump reportedly agreed with Saban and said he’d look into creating an executive order.

On May 1st, Trump travelled to Tuscaloosa to speak at the University of Alabama’s commencement ceremonies. There, he spoke with Saban as well as the Republican U.S. Senator from Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, about college sports. Tuberville said in a Tweet that the pair had a “great conversation” about the “importance of regulations in college sports”.

Following Trump’s trip to Alabama, reports said that his administration is creating a committee on college sports. It will be chaired by Saban and Cody Campbell, oil billionaire and founder of the Texas Tech NIL collective.

At this point, few specifics about the potential executive order or the committee are known. However, what is known is that the Republican Party – which holds the presidency and a majority in both chambers of Congress – tends to be more sympathetic to the NCAA and its traditional model that restricts student-athletes from profiting off their name, image, and likeness.

As cases such as House have made their way through the courts, however, the NCAA has signaled its support for a codification of House. The logic behind this is that the governing body wants to solidify the specifics of this settlement to avoid the risk of having to pay more in the future. Read SwimSwam’s post-election coverage of this subject here.

Legislator Support of Regulation

Apart from Trump and Tuberville, another prominent Republican politician who has supported college athlete pay regulation is Ted Cruz. Like Trump, Cruz has met with Nick Saban and discussed the football coach’s frustrations with the new NCAA payment system.

The Texas Senator stepped into the Chair position on the Senate Chamber of Commerce this January. Prior to his appointment, he said that college sport regulation would be a “very, very high priority” if he got the position. 

Though Trump did speak with at least one Senator (Tuberville), other legislators from both sides of the aisle were surprised to learn about the White House’s involvement in the issue.

One thing is certain – any bill or executive order on the subject would be incredibly complex. As Tulane sports law professor Gabe Feldman said, “The challenge with any ruling or order is that there are multiple levels that would need to be addressed. This is not just an antitrust issue; it’s also a labor and employment issue. It’s also a Title IX issue. There’s also contract issues, right of publicity issues. There’s a lot in there.”