{"id":852172,"date":"2026-04-03T23:08:23","date_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:08:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852172\/"},"modified":"2026-04-03T23:08:23","modified_gmt":"2026-04-03T23:08:23","slug":"trump-issues-widespread-nil-executive-order-in-attempt-to-fix-college-athletics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/852172\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump issues widespread NIL executive order in attempt to fix college athletics"},"content":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday in his attempt to \u201csolve all of the problems<\/a>\u201d affecting college sports, particularly the polarizing Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) legislation.<\/p>\n

The executive order \u2014 which will likely need to clear several legal challenges to be considered enforceable \u2014 includes sections on eligibility, transfer rules, specifications on pro athletes aiming to return to college, revenue sharing and medical care, among other topics.<\/p>\n

The order calls on Congress to \u201cquickly pass legislation\u201d and directs the the Federal Trade Commission and the Attorney General to take \u201cappropriate enforcement actions.\u201d:<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s executive order calls for athletes to only have eligibility for a five-year period, although there are some exceptions like military service, and ban professional athletes from returning.<\/p>\n

US President Donald Trump speaks during a \u2018Saving College Sports\u2019 roundtable in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC, USA, 06 March 2026. AARON SCHWARTZ\/POOL\/EPA\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

The latter has become a recent problem with ex-G Leaguer Charles Bediako returning to Alabama after previously entering the NBA draft, only for a judge to eventually end his season<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The order also calls for \u201csetting structured transfer rules for academic and athletic continuity\u201d \u2014 which would reportedly limit transfers to one time in a five-year window with immediate eligibility, but an extra transfer can be allowed should the individual earn a four-year degree.<\/p>\n

The plan motions for the transfer window, which coaches have criticized for when it falls during the calendar, to be pushed to a time where it doesn\u2019t affect seasons or academics.<\/p>\n

There is also a section stating that collectives and the like which employ essentially pay-for-play transactions should be banned.<\/p>\n

This proposal additionally ensures forth medical care for athletes during their collegiate time and for a period after their exit, plus revenue sharing with the goal to help women\u2019s and Olympic sports, which generate little to no money, compared to the moneymakers in football and basketball.<\/p>\n

This executive order comes one month after Trump hosted a \u201cSaving College Sports Roundtable\u201d featuring roughly 50 people, with Yankees president Randy Levine being tabbed as the vice chair<\/a>.<\/p>\n

U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a helmet and football that were gifted to him during a ceremony awarding the Commander-in-Chief Trophy to the Navy Midshipmen football team on March 20, 2026 in Washington, DC. Getty Images<\/p>\n

NCAA president Charlie Baker, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, several college commissioners and former Alabama football coach Nick Saban attended the discussion.<\/p>\n

That meeting set the table<\/a> for this executive order to be put forward via a collaborative effort between The White House and the Justice Department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will have an executive order within one week, and it will be very all-encompassing,\u201d Trump said then, per ESPN. \u201cAnd we\u2019re going to put it forward, and we\u2019re going to get sued, and we\u2019re going to see how it plays, OK, but I\u2019ll have an executive order, which will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we\u2019ll put it forward. We will get sued. That\u2019s the only thing I know for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yankees president Randy Levine (second from left) during the roundtable. Getty Images<\/p>\n

The NIL era established in 2021 has pioneered college athletics into a new realm where the collegiate ranks resemble the pros, with teams able to buy players and establishing haves and have-nots.<\/p>\n

Schools previously cheated by paying players under the table, but they can now do it in public for staggering figures.<\/p>\n

BYU men\u2019s basketball star AJ Dybantsa signed an NIL deal reportedly worth $7 million<\/a>, while Kentucky allegedly spent $22 million on a team<\/a> that won one NCAA Tournament game this season.<\/p>\n

(L-R) Former NBA player Charlie Ward, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, New York Yankees President Randy Levine, U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA), U.S. President Donald Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attend a roundtable discussion on college sports on March 06, 2026 in Washington, DC. Getty Images<\/p>\n

Texas quarterback Arch Manning, Eli\u2019s nephew, has a $5.4 million NIL projection, per on3.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s cheating,\u201d former Ohio State and Florida coach Urban Meyer said while decrying the collectives that pay the athletes, per ESPN<\/a>. \u201cDonors put money in a pot. It\u2019s distributed to the players through coaches and managers. That\u2019s not allowed. Not supposed to do that. That\u2019s pay-for-play.\u201d<\/p>\n

The advent of the transfer portal has also led to chaos at times, with players changing schools seemingly every year \u2014 and sometimes just for a money grab.<\/p>\n

Baker previously asked for legal help in handling this new frontier.<\/p>\n

He aimed for help in preventing athletes from becoming employees of their school, replacing state laws with a federal statute and shield the NCAA from lawsuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I took this job, the message I heard from Congress was clear \u2014 fix what you control first,\u201d Baker said in January, per the Associated Press<\/a>. \u201cSince then, we have modernized college sports to meet the needs of today\u2019s student-athletes. But we can\u2019t solve every threat we face alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

This is the second executive order Trump has issued regarding college sports in short time, calling for an exclusive window for the Army-Navy game.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"President Donald Trump issued an executive order Friday in his attempt to \u201csolve all of the problems\u201d affecting…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":852173,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[615,18234,331,78,7,49,48,8424,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-852172","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-football","8":"tag-arch-manning","9":"tag-college-basketball","10":"tag-college-football","11":"tag-donald-trump","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-ncaa","14":"tag-ncaa-football","15":"tag-nil-rules","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116343296354161975","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=852172"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/852172\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/852173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=852172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=852172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=852172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}