INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — On the eve of the Final Four, the president of the United States is causing a stir.
President Donald Trump on Friday issued his latest executive order regulating college sports.
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The 10-page order comes one day before the NCAA’s crown jewel, the men’s basketball tournament, culminates in central Indiana.
The order empowers the NCAA and recommends that the organization restrict athlete transfers, limit player eligibility, implement funding requirements specific to women and Olympic sports, and ban NIL collectives. As a means of enforcement, the order relies on reductions in federal funding for universities — an incentive for schools and conferences to comply with these concepts.
A source who has reviewed the document told Yahoo Sports that the order directs the NCAA to update its rules by August 1 to the fullest extent permitted by law to “bring order and stability to certain critical areas.” Most notably, one of the areas is shifting.
Compliance with these rules will determine whether the school continues to receive federal funding.
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Many — including the president himself — expect the order to be subject to legal challenges.
President Donald Trump gestures as former Alabama football coach Nick Saban (right) speaks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House Chief of Staff Suzy Wells during a roundtable discussion about college sports on March 6. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(Anna Chanmemaker via Getty Images)
Perhaps the most important concept in the document is the effort to regulate the movement and compensation of athletes.
The order not only authorizes, but orders the association to erect strict guardrails around supporter-backed NIL collectives (which it calls a “fraudulent NIL scheme”) and restrict transfer flow by reinstating the NCAA’s “one-and-done” transfer rule. The court found the rule illegal in an antitrust ruling. The rule would allow athletes to transfer once and then require them to sit out a season as a penalty for subsequent transfers.
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The order does not unilaterally and immediately change transfer rules, a key concept. Language is key as thousands of players, some of whom have already transferred once, prepare to enter the basketball portal, which opens on Tuesday.
The order prohibits professional athletes from returning to college competition and encourages the NCAA to limit athletes’ eligibility windows to five years. The current NCAA eligibility standard is four seasons in five years. It’s a critical topic that even the most ardent critics of the NCAA believe should be regulated.
More than 70 athletes filed lawsuits against governing bodies last year as athletes used state and local judges to extend their eligibility. The NCAA spent $16 million on eligibility litigation alone.
Trump wrote in his order that the NCAA should implement revenue sharing to “preserve or expand scholarships in women’s and Olympic sports”; prohibit federal funds from being used for zero revenue or revenue sharing; and prohibit “improper financial activities…including collectives.”
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Women and the Olympics are said to be a focus for Trump, who believes non-revenue programs are being eliminated or at least defunded as schools shift more resources to football and men’s basketball in a fiercely competitive recruiting environment, where athlete compensation has been decriminalized.
Finally, the order invalidates certain state laws that conflict with the order, which may include several state laws governing NILs.
But the true impact of the order remains unclear and questionable considering Trump’s previous executive order in July did not produce any real results within the industry. However, this one is more comprehensive and direct than the previous one, which only directed cabinet members to set the rules but never implemented them.
Executive orders are subject to legal scrutiny, especially those that ignore court orders. In fact, courts have struck down several of the president’s orders over the past few months, rendering them meaningless and unenforceable. At a White House roundtable last month, the president himself predicted that any order would be subject to legal challenges. He said he “hopes” there will be a favorable judge.
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Why can’t the industry “go back to the old system”? Trump asked a roomful of dignitaries at a March 6 roundtable. “I want to get back completely to what we have and get it through the courts.”
Like the roundtable itself, the order may be designed to draw attention to the issue in order to pressure congressional lawmakers to agree on a more concrete solution: legislation. That’s something lawmakers have been unable to do for seven years, as they lobbied the NCAA for a bill that would, most notably, allow college sports leaders to make and enforce rules without legal challenge — in other words, antitrust immunity.
However, there are differences between the two parties on what many initially viewed as an inherently bipartisan issue. This has not been proven to be true.
Republicans are backing a narrower, NCAA-leaning bill that places restrictions on athletes; Democrats, many of whom have harshly criticized the NCAA and power conference leadership, are backing a broader bill dealing with athlete freedoms.
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Despite the confidence of House Republican leadership, the Republican-drafted SCORE Act — a catch-all legislation developed in committee — failed to come up for a vote in the House twice. Lawmakers are working to bring SCORE to a vote by the end of the month, but they are continuing with the voting process. Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and cannot afford to lose members of their own, some of whom oppose parts of the bill.
Even if it successfully passes the House, SCORE will need significant changes to pass the U.S. Senate, which requires a 60-vote margin to approve the legislation. That meant seven Democrats voted for the measure — a tall order.
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In the Senate, Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) are negotiating separately on a bill, though if past discussions are any indication, the two differ on various concepts of the bill, most notably government oversight of college sports, athlete employment and the breadth of antitrust protections.
Meanwhile, five presidential committees made up of college athletics stakeholders, business executives and other dignitaries began meeting this week with the goal of informing congressional legislation. Each committee studies a single issue, and a sixth group, the Oversight Committee, reviews their work.
The Board of Supervisors includes six presidents/chancellors from Georgia, Nebraska, Tennessee, Kansas, Utah and North Carolina, as well as former Clemson University presidents Jim Clements, Cody Campbell, Randy Levine and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. The five “issue” committees are the Legislative Committee (working with Congress on federal antitrust protections), the Rules Committee (determining NIL, portal, eligibility standards), NCAA Reform Committee (future governance), Media Committee (media rights and SBA), and player-agent relations issues.
Commissioners from the SEC, ACC, Big 12, Big Ten and American, as well as Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua and many other notables including Nick Saban, Condoleezza Rice and Adam Silver, are assigned to the Rules, Media and NCAA Reform Committee.
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Conference commissioners react to executive order
Here’s what each of the power conference commissioners had to say after the executive order was issued Friday night.
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Commissioner Greg Sankey:
Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti:
Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark:
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips:
