President Donald Trump is set to sign an executive order setting national standards to better control the name, image and likeness landscape in college sports, according to multiple reports Wednesday.
Since 2021, and under pressure from states and the courts, the NCAA has allowed student-athletes to profit from their name, image and likeness (NIL). Student-athletes can now be compensated for merely showing up to play and can earn a profit for spokesperson gigs, clothing and autograph sales and more.
Additionally, a legal ruling on June 6 allowed colleges to directly pay players via revenue sharing for the first time. The settlement of House v. NCAA marked the end of the NCAA’s previous model of amateurism, in which athletes were not allowed to earn money while in school. Schools can now share up to $20.5 million of their revenues with their athletes.
The reports of an upcoming executive order come one day after a House subcommittee advanced a bill along party lines that would establish national standards for student-athlete sponsorships. Called the SCORE Act, the proposed legislation would supersede current state laws regulating NIL.
The White House has not commented on the latest report of an NIL-related executive order, but President Trump has a long history of expressing interest in sports. He has attended many major sporting events, including several prominent college football games like the Army-Navy football game last December.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday on “SEC This Morning” that he had no details or further information about an executive order but that he believes the President is generally supportive of college sports.
“It’s not a secret, I had a chance to visit with the President … his interest is real. My takeaway, he wants to be supportive of college athletics, make sure that it’s sustainable, the Olympic program and the Olympic development,” Sankey said.
“The President clearly has an interest in sports, big picture, has an interest in college sports, has been at our games. The notion of an executive order has been mentioned before. There were some reports of a commission or an executive order back to like, April, I think, is when that started to bubble. So we’ll wait and see.”
Reports surfaced in May that Trump had asked his aides to begin researching the idea of an executive order related to NIL after a meeting with former Alabama football coach Nick Saban in Tuscaloosa, Ala., where Trump was the school’s commencement speaker.
Saban has been critical of the NIL funding in the past, largely because he was concerned about the effect on college football. The NIL era also has brought a rise to the transfer portal era, with thousands of students across all sports seeking to move schools — some of them for bigger paydays.
“Each year, it’s gotten a little worse,” Saban said last December on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN. “The first year we had name, image and likeness four, five years ago, we had a $3 million (roster), and everybody was happy. Then the next year it was $7 million, then the next year it’s $10 million. Then this year it’s $13 million. Now they’re looking at $20 million. I mean, where does it end?”
Per a report by The Wall Street Journal in May, Saban told the president that he wasn’t trying to put an end to NIL funding for players but instead wanted to see the creation of a more level playing field between the schools with deep pockets and those that didn’t have as much money available.
Saban has previously said the current model is unsustainable for college sports, and Trump apparently agreed.
–Field Level Media
