During the first 100 days of his second term, President Trump pushed the authority of the executive branch by issuing hundreds of executive orders on a wide range of issues. Now, the president is contemplating an executive order to reign in the wild world of Name, Image, and Likeness in college athletics.
Trump spoke with retired Alabama football coach Nick Saban last week in Tuscaloosa, where the president was delivering the commencement address to graduates of the University of Alabama. Saban told the president that since the wraps were taken off NIL in 2021, college athletics had been damaged by the amount of money changing hands.
After the conversation, the president told aides to begin studying what an order could say.
It’s no surprise that the NCAA eventually got the attention of Capitol Hill and now the White House. There is too much money flowing through the system to go unchecked. Unlike professional sports leagues that have employment contracts and collective bargaining, there are no guidelines on how to govern NIL in college athletics.
In 2024, the NCAA generated approximately $1.38 billion from college athletics. March Madness accounted for over $900 million in revenue. That’s not factoring in the NIL deals that are now necessary to attract top talent. The Wall Street Journal, citing Opendorse, reports an estimated $1.67 billion changed hands in 2024-25 in NIL deals, and nearly 4,300 Division I football players transferred.
Star athletes have inked lucrative deals, such as Colorado’s Shedeur Sanders, who was the top earner last year with an NIL deal worth more than $6.2 million. However, most NIL deals are worth much less. The average total NIL earnings of a college athlete last year were just over $21,331 and over half of all deals are valued at $100 or less.
With a wide-open system, with little to no checks, players can move freely, and maximize their earning potential, while athletic programs try to rebuild from the ground up year after year.
Unable to get a handle on the situation, leaders from the Power Four conferences, the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 and ACC have asked Congress to step in. Last month, leaders from each of the conferences met with congressional representatives to lobby for federal NIL guidelines.
Major college athletics have been big business for several decades now and the NCAA and its member institutions only began sharing the success after feeling pressure from the courts and legislators. However, the NCAA failed to establish any kind of structure to protect the institutions or the athletes.
It’s easy to roll your eyes and lament another executive order from the president or the perceived overreach of the federal government. However, the NIL world is the Wild West due to the NCAA’s lack of foresight and inability to recognize the changing times. Now, the only recourse is to ask Congress to clean up its mess.
That is unless the President steps in first.