United States President Donald Trump expressed concern for the future of college athletics under the NCAA’s new NIL payment system following the House settlement on the Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday.
Although Trump’s take that non-revenue-generating sports are being affected negatively by the revenue-sharing agreement, and in some cases, seeing programs cut, is accurate, he said he wants to see “very powerful caps” to limit college athlete salaries so schools won’t “go out of business.”
However, as part of the new revenue-sharing agreement, schools will have a $20.5 million cap beginning next season, and though it projects to rise to $33 million over the next decade, Trump’s belief that schools will be in financial peril due to players demanding more than $10 million per year appears to be off, because at this point they can’t. However, it’s possible he believes the current cap and the rules surrounding them aren’t firm enough and schools will be able to find workarounds.
“College football, it’s very big — but as big as it is, if they don’t do some very powerful caps, these colleges are all going to go out of business, no matter how rich they are,” he said Tuesday, according to MSNBC.
“It is a very serious problem because even football, when they give quarterbacks $12 million, $13 million, $14 million — I read a couple of them — and all of a sudden you’re going to see it’s going to be out of control, and even rich colleges are going to go bust,” he said, according to the New York Post.
“You’re gonna have NFL-type payrolls. Colleges don’t make that much money, even the most successful, so they’re not gonna be able to do this. Bad things are gonna happen” — Trump on Pat McAfee’s ESPN show makes a case against paying college athletes pic.twitter.com/d6kK1SFzYu
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) November 11, 2025
“They had the old way. They gave scholarships, and they did lots of good things. But there could be some form of payments, but… look, the NFL, and all of you know, all teams, they have caps. You don’t really have that in college sports.
“When the guard comes along that weighs 350 pounds and he’s phenomenal, and they say, ‘That’s going to make the difference between having a great team and a lousy team’, and they give him $10 million — that’s going to start happening pretty soon — all of a sudden you’re going to have NFL-type payrolls.”
Regarding smaller sports feeling the squeeze, Trump said: “I don’t want to use any particular sport, because it’s, you know, degrading. But they are really terminating a lot of sports… you would call them lesser sports, but big sports, good sports, and sports where they have tremendous interest, they’re getting rid of them.
“A lot of the lesser sports are being totally terminated. You know that? It’s a shame. It was almost like a training ground for the Olympics, and a lot of those training grounds are being lost.”
This comment is directed at everyone here. This is not a political issue. It’s a matter of fairness and survival of non revenue sports in collegiate athletics. Regardless of your politics, if you love or hate this comment 47 made because of his political positions, then it’s time for you all to log off social media, touch some grass, and hug your family and friends. Not everything is political people.
It’s not “almost like a training ground for the Olympics”
That’s 💯💯💯 what it is.
If Kamala won the election and had the exact same quote to the exact same people in the exact same context as trump did, not one person on the this website would have a single negative thing to say about it. That’s how you measure hypocrisy.
The Dubno brothers, one of who was CTO for Obama’s 2008 campaign are known visitors to the Island
The scale of this is comical and absolutely trascends partisanship. That’s the game to keep the masses from overthrowing this and why they go so far as to stage that themselves (1/6)…
This is the massive offshore money laundering facilitated through the biritsh monarchy revealed in the Panama Papers… it’s big
How do you make a completely non political issue into a political one?
May I suggest logging off social media, touch grass, and hug your family and friends? If you can be this angry and cynical on such a non political issue, then it is truly time to take a break buddy.
Everything he said on this topic is true and a valid concern. It’s a good thing that the President of the US is talking about this. Don’t reject ideas just because they come from people you object to.
Can we not act like everything is normal and that we aren’t already having masked federal agents going around demanding people scan their retinasl’s into a “Palantir” database?
Don’t you know that according to these cultists, Tr*mp is God?
Politics aside, there seems to be a worry colleges could go out of business by paying massive salaries to their athletes.
Aren’t most college athletic and academic budgets separate?
Thus if the athletic department goes bust, there still will be academics?
Maybe depends on public versus private.
The President of the United States is advocating for our sport. He made no political statement. He’s trying to help this community by highlighting the fact that our sport will be dead if we don’t make changes.
And yet….TDS is on full display here. I get you don’t like the President. But damn….talk about cutting your nose of to spite your face.
THIS IS ABOUT SWIMMING!!!! Do you hate the President more than you want to save this sport? Take it to another website!!
Best President EVER