President Donald Trump signed an executive order July 24 directing top administration officials to implement policies regulating how much college athletes make off of name, image, and likeness deals, aiming to protect littler-known college sports and universities with smaller sports programs.
Name, image and likeness, or NIL, allows athletes to make money through brand endorsements. It has radically changed the landscape of college sports since 2021, when a Supreme Court ruling on antitrust laws removed many NCAA restrictions on how much college athletes could earn. The Supreme Court ruling, along with changes in state law, forced the NCAA to change its rules on athlete compensation and allow players to profit off their name, image and likeness. In practice, NIL deals and brand endorsements are often payments in exchange for commitments to play.
Trump’s order, named “Saving College Sports,” calls for an elimination of pay-for-play payments, where boosters — rich alums or a team’s fans — give players money or gifts to play at their school. Players would still be paid without pay-for-play, but it would have to be for a “legitimate fair-market-compensation” such as a brand endorsement.
The order also urges universities to maintain and increase scholarships for nonrevenue sports, like swimming and track and field, aiming to preserve Olympic and women’s sports from cuts as more funding goes toward athletes that generate money in football and basketball.
The order itself is not law, but Trump directed top officials, including the secretary of education and attorney general, to find a way to advance the suggested regulations within 30 days of signing. It’s not clear whether the NCAA will implement the directives or whether Congress will pass related legislation.
Trump’s order outlined suggested regulations, such as that universities bringing in more than $125 million from athletics be required to provide more scholarships for women’s and nonrevenue sports, while universities bringing in between $50 million and $125 million not be allowed to cut scholarships for those sports. The order also states that any revenue sharing between athletes and universities should be done in a way that “preserves or expands scholarships and collegiate athletic opportunities in women’s and non-revenue sports.”
For universities like Northeastern that have smaller athletic programs, the policies outlined in the order could help even the playing field for recruiting athletes, allowing them to land bigger recruits. Many bigger universities have large NIL collectives that allow boosters to pool resources in order to lure recruits to their programs.
One of these universities, Texas Tech, won the bidding war for five-star offensive tackle recruit Felix Ojo with $5.1 million and has been very active spending $10 million on transfers this offseason. The NIL system favors big programs with large fan bases that can raise large amounts of cash through collectives and bring in high profile recruits and transfers, leaving smaller programs at a disadvantage.
Since their implementation, NIL deals have helped storied programs return to relevance. Most notably, St. John’s basketball saw a resurgence under coach Rick Pitino this year after billionaire alumnus Mike Repole promised his full support for the team following Pitino’s disappointing first year. Oregon football has also seen a revival with the backing of Nike and Phil Knight; from 2016 to 2020, the team ended the season unranked in every season but one, but since NIL was put in place in 2021, it has ended the season ranked every year and made the college football playoff last year.
Many people, including high-profile coaches like John Calipari, have been calling for reform of the system. Trump’s order looks to even the playing field and allow smaller schools to compete again.
“While changes providing some increased benefits and flexibility to student-athletes were overdue and should be maintained, the inability to maintain reasonable rules and guardrails is a mortal threat to most college sports,” the executive order reads.
