WASHINGTON \u2014 On Thursday morning in the nation\u2019s capital, NCAA president Charlie Baker spoke to a few dozen members and guests of the National Press Club \u2014 an operation located in Washington\u2019s downtown, just a short walk to the White House.<\/p>\n
Just hours later, the association\u2019s years-long fight for federal intervention in college sports received, perhaps, a boost from the man living just a few blocks away.<\/p>\n
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President Donald Trump released his long-awaited executive order related to college athletics, announcing in a five-page order titled \u201cSAVING COLLEGE SPORTS\u201d that he is directing members of his cabinet to create policy around several aspects of the industry that protect the NCAA and conferences from enforcing and creating rules to govern it.<\/p>\n
But what exactly does Trump\u2019s executive order mean? What will it change, if anything, about college sports\u2019 athlete compensation and transfer environment?<\/p>\n
The short answer, at least for now, is not very much.<\/p>\n
The longer answer is \u2026 well \u2026 there are still questions.<\/p>\n
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What are the most important items in the order?<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s executive order has been a long time coming. In fact, just last week Yahoo Sports obtained a copy of a draft of the order<\/a>, which isn\u2019t wholly different to the one he signed and released on Thursday.<\/p>\n Above anything else, the order\u2019s preamble describes the college athletics landscape as having been subject to unfair court rulings that \u201ccreated an out-of-control, rudderless system\u201d which is \u201cunder unprecedented threat.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWaves of recent litigation against collegiate athletics governing rules have eliminated limits on athlete compensation, pay-for-play recruiting inducements, and transfers between universities, unleashing a sea change that threatens the viability of college sports,\u201d Trump writes in the order.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n He goes on to write critically that some schools are paying their athletes as much as $50 million this year from a combination of House settlement-related revenue share and third-party NIL<\/a>. \u201cA national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n How he plans to do this is to direct various members of his cabinet \u2014 the attorney general, secretary of labor, secretary of education, etc. \u2014 to create policy around several concepts that the NCAA and conferences have been requesting help on from Congress for years. Among those:<\/p>\n Protecting scholarships for non-revenue sports: The executive order, most notably, requires schools to maintain or even increase the number of scholarships they provide to non-revenue sports<\/a>. This is geared to protect Olympic and women\u2019s sports that are at risk of elimination as schools direct more funding away from those<\/a> and to the sports that generate the revenue like football and men\u2019s basketball. Those with $125 million or budgets (most of the power league schools) must provide more scholarship opportunities than they did last year, for instance. Those with budgets of $50 million must provide at least the same.<\/p>\n Prohibit third-party, \u201cpay-for-play\u201d: You might call this the prohibition of booster collective pay to athletes, which, in a way, codifies the House settlement terms that prohibit collective pay to athletes if they are not deemed to be for legitimate endorsement or commercial opportunities. This issue is at the heart of negotiations among attorneys that is expected to result in a resolution soon that permits collectives to operate in a more open capacity than first thought<\/a>. The executive order reinforces that provision in the House settlement.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n How does Trump plan to enforce these parameters? Well, that remains a bit murky, but he suggests in the order that members of his cabinet, as well as the Federal Trade Commission, have 30 days to create a plan on the enforcement of such, including potentially withholding federal funding for violators, opening up Title IX investigations, etc.<\/p>\n Athlete employment: Trump directs the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to \u201cclarify the status of college athletes\u201d \u2014 an obvious gesture toward the ongoing debate over courts potentially deeming college athletes as employees. As stated in the order preamble, Trump is against college athletes becoming employees and is clearly, with this directive, ordering cabinet members and the NLRB \u2014 he appoints the board \u2014 to rule that college athletes are students. Ironically enough, while many college leaders fight against employment, some of them believe collective bargaining is the only solution for the industry<\/a>.<\/p>\n Limited liability protection: This is another issue the NCAA and conferences have spent millions of dollars and six years lobbying for. They want to be protected from legal challenges so they can enforce their rules over things such as transfers, roster limits, booster pay \u2014 many of which have been deemed illegal by courts. Trump clearly disagrees with these court rulings, as he notes in the preamble.<\/p>\n The order directs the attorney general and the chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to create policies to protect the \u201clong-term availability of college athletic scholarship and opportunities\u201d when such is \u201cunreasonably challenged under antitrust\u201d law. The attorney general and the FTC have 60 days to create such a plan, the order says.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n The answer here is potentially \u2026 nothing.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s cabinet members \u2014 many of whom are quite busy with other more pressing matters \u2014 will need to make policy around these subjects. The specifics of that policy will dictate exactly how pivotal, if at all, this order is.<\/p>\n What is a certainty is that whatever policies are created are not law and will likely be subject to legal scrutiny. Congressional action and court rulings are law in this country \u2014 not executive orders, legal experts tell Yahoo Sports.<\/p>\n Baker even suggested this during his talk Thursday morning.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cYou can\u2019t fix this stuff from executive order,\u201d he said. \u201cOur focus for now really needs to be trying to get stuff dealt with through the legislative process.\u201d<\/p>\n As it turns out, Wednesday was a historic day for college sports with regard to congressional legislation. An all-encompassing federal college sports bill made its way out of committee for the first time since the NCAA\u2019s lobbying efforts began nearly six years ago. The SCORE Act, bipartisan but pro-Republican and NCAA-friendly legislation that many Democrats are against, received the necessary votes to advance out of committees and is eligible for debate on the House floor when members return in September from their traditional summer break.<\/p>\n