President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday as part of his administration’s “Save College Sports” initiative, in an effort to restore “order, fairness and stability” to college athletics, according to a release from the White House.
The executive order, which goes into effect on Aug. 1 per Ross Dellenger of Yahoo, directs the NCAA to update its bylaws to bring order to the college landscape.
Key provisions of Trump’s executive order
Specifically, the Order directs Federal agencies to “bolster the effectiveness of key college sports rules on transferring, eligibility, and pay-for-play by evaluating whether violations of such rules render a university unfair for Federal grants and contracts.”
The order is also calling for “consistent and fair eligibility limits” which includes a five-year participation window for student-athletes, structured transfer rules, medical care for student-athletes and revenue-sharing that “protects and expands opportunities in women’s and Olympic sports.”
The executive order also calls for an end to “improper financial arrangements” such as pay-for-play agreements facilitated by NIL collectives, and protections against “unscrupulous agent conduct.”
What does the NCAA have to say about Trump’s executive order?
NCAA president Charlie Baker released a statement on Friday shortly after the release of the administration’s executive order. While Baker acknowledged that this is a good step forward, he called for a “permanent bipartisan federal legislative solution” to take shape.
“The NCAA has modernized college sports to deliver more benefits for student-athletes, and the Executive Order reinforces many of our mandatory protections—including guaranteed health care coverage, mental health services, and scholarship protections,” Baker said in a statement to Front Office Sports.
“This action is a significant step forward, and we appreciate the Administration’s interest and attention to these issues. Stabilizing college athletics for student-athletes still requires a permanent, bipartisan federal legislative solution, so we look forward to continuing to work alongside the Administration and Congress to enact targeted legislation with the support of student-athlete leaders from all three divisions.”
What’s next for college athletics as a result of the executive order?
It remains to be seen whether or not the President’s executive order ends up having any tangible impact on the current state of affairs in college athletics. But in an era where pay-for-play runs rampant across the revenue sports in particular, this would represent a step towards enforceable guardrails around the pay of student-athletes.
With that said, it’s a near certainty that this gets hung up in the courts and is subject to major legislative scrutiny. While the EO has an effective date of Aug. 1, it’s anybody’s guess what this order looks like by that time and whether any tangible effects are seen across college sports.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as President Donald Trump Signs Executive Order to ‘Save College Sports’.
