PRESIDENT Donald Trump has signed a new order that affect all college sports and its players.
Trump has informed members of his Cabinet to come up with a plan with a goal for the future of college sports.
Trump signing an executive order in the White House Cabinet Room in April[/caption]
On Thursday, Trump introduced new rules for the name, image and likeness to prevent college athletes from becoming professionals,.
Trump signed an executive order which sets specific guidlines for keeping athletic scholarships based on a respective athletic department’s annual revenue.
The order seeks to ban “third-party, pay-forplay payments to collegiate athletes,” while still letting athletes to receive brand endorsement deals.
It also asks universities and athleties to expand or preserve “scholarships and collegiate athletic opportunities in women’s and non-revenue sports.”
The order said schools with more than $50 million in athletic revenue cannot reduce the number of scholarship opportunities for “non-revenue sports,” which are usually sports other than football and basketball.
“A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond report and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics,” Trump said in the order.
Schools that receive more than $125 million are called on to increase their non-revenue scholarships in the 2025-26 academic year.
Trump told top administration officials to “develop a plan” within 30 days to advance the order.
It’s not known how the order will be enforced.
Recently, collegiate sports have been change by a landmark policy that allows student-athletes to earn millions of dollars while still being in school.
In 2021, the NCAA allowed athletes to make money for the use of their name, image and likeness, or NIL.
Since then, numerous student-athletes have been given lucrative brand endorsement deals that were once just common with professional athletes.
Rules restrictring schools from directly paying athletes have loosened.
Earlier this year, a legal settment involving the NCAA has permitted schools to begin sharing revenue with athletes for the first time.
Texas Longhorns star Arch Manning and other big names have been given lucrative brand endorsement deals thanks to NIL[/caption]
Steve Berman, a co-lead plantiff attorney in the antitrust settlement, called out Trump for trying to be involved.
“Plain and simple, college athletes don’t need Trump’s help, and he shouldn’t be aiding the NCAA at the expense of athletes,” Berman said last week.
“… As a result of our case, college athletes are now free to make their own deals.
“For Trump to want to put his foot on their deal-making abilities is unwarranted and flouts his own philosophy on the supposed ‘art of the deal.’”
The NCAA responded to Thursday’s executive order, saying in a statement that it “appreciates the Trump Administration’s focus on the life-changing opportunities college sports provides millions of young people.
“The NCAA is making positive changes for student-athletes and confronting many challenges facing college sports by mandating health and wellness benefits and guaranteeing scholarships, but there are some threats to college sports that federal legislation can effectively address and the Association is advocating with student-athletes and their schools for a bipartisan solution with Congress and the Administration,” NCAA President Charlie Baker said in a statement.
