President Trump signed an executive order in late July titled “Saving College Sports,” aiming to level the playing field for collegiate sports and also preserve non-revenue and women’s college athletics in the US.
The order describes the state of college sports as chaotic with respect to recruitment, and the transfer portal used heavily in men’s football and basketball.
“This has created an out-of-control, rudderless system in which competing university donors engage in bidding wars for the best players, who can change teams each season,” the order states. “Meanwhile, more than 30 States have passed their own NIL laws in a chaotic race to the bottom, sometimes to gain temporary competitive advantages for their major collegiate teams.”
The order specifically references women’s sports as being one of these non-revenue sports in need of saving.
“A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics, drive American superiority at the Olympics and other international competitions, and catalyze hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to fuel American success in myriad ways.”
As to remedying these issues in US college sports, the order specifically requires that universities with various amounts of scholarships bestowed in revenue-heavy sports provide an equal, or, if university revenue is less, an appropriate amount of scholarships in non-revenue sports. The same approach applies to roster spots for teams in these less-popular sports.
Concerning the controversial topic of Name Image and Likeness (NIL) of a college athlete’s legal rights to their identities, including brand endorsements and compensation for such, the policy does not apply.
“This policy does not apply to compensation provided to an athlete for the fair market value that the athlete provides to a third party, such as for a brand endorsement,” the order states. However, the order prohibits “third-party, pay-for-play payments to collegiate athletes.”
Concerning pay-for-play, the order notes that some universities spend “more than $50 million per year on fielding rosters, mostly for the revenue-generating sports like football. Football players on one team will receive $35-40 million in 2025 alone.”
