Trump signs new executive order on college sports: Will it change anything, and how soon?
President Donald Trump has signed a second executive order aimed at fixing college sports, this time laying out specific transfer and eligibility rules, limiting how athletes can be compensated for their name, image and likeness and threatening schools that violate rules with financial penalties, the White House announced Friday. The order was signed on Final Four weekend for the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments and less than a month after the president convened a roundtable of college sports and business leaders to discuss concerns, big-picture solutions and potential federal legislation. Whether many aspects of the order could stand up to legal challenges is uncertain, but multiple sources who have contributed to the document told The Athletic before the order was released that its goal was to spur legislative action.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the executive order before its release. The order’s mandates — such as limiting athletes to one unrestricted transfer as undergraduates and placing a five-year cap on college eligibility — would not take effect until August 1. Most notably, the order poses the possibility of federal funding being withheld from schools that do not comply with the rules, a hammer the Trump administration has held over institutions of higher education throughout the first 18 months of his second term.
An executive order cannot establish new laws or override existing state laws, some of which are contradicted by the directives of this order. The order also conflicts with previous court rulings and NCAA decisions, such as the ones allowing multiple immediate transfers. A number of Trump’s executive orders have been struck down in court, including one that would have barred federal funding for NPR and PBS; a federal judge recently blocked that order , ruling it in violation of the First Amendment.
For several years, college sports leaders have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington for a federal law to help regulate compensation, eligibility and other parts of college sports that have been thrown into upheaval by antitrust lawsuits and state laws. The SCORE Act, a bill which would provide antitrust protections, preempt state laws that target rules set by the NCAA and conferences and prevent college athletes from being deemed employees, has been in limbo in the House of Representatives since last summer. The bill has some bipartisan backing in the House, but even with a Republican majority it has not generated enough support to reach the floor for debate and a vote.
The SCORE Act also stands little chance of making it through the Senate , where it would need 60 votes and significant Democratic support. But many college sports leaders are still pushing for the passage of the SCORE Act to provide legislative momentum and attention on their issue. This article originally appeared in The Athletic .