For years, issues over name, image and likeness deals, athlete eligibility, the transfer portal and more have roiled college sports. The debacle has deepened despite efforts by states and now President Donald Trump, with no clear end in sight.
The NCAA has faced lawsuits in recent years over allegations that it has violated antitrust laws through its rules, including its longstanding ban on NIL deals and its limit on transfers. The so-called House settlement, approved last June, laid the groundwork for athletes to begin getting pay through revenue sharing, in addition to setting roster limits and other restrictions on NIL deals.
Revenue sharing under the settlement agreement is only in place until the 2034-35 academic year.
“Something’s got to happen much sooner, because right now you’re looking at cuts to women’s sports and Olympic sports, because of the need to fund revenue sports,” said Jodi Balsam, director of the Sports Law Clinic at Brooklyn Law School.
Agreeable solutions have proven elusive.
Legislative remedies, like the SCORE Act, have failed to gain traction in Congress, and recent presidential action appears unlikely to change much.
On April 3, Trump signed his executive order, “Urgent National Action to Save College Sports,” weeks after a roundtable with big names in the college athletics sphere. The order, which follows one Trump issued in the summer of 2025, went further than before, encouraging the NCAA to adopt new rules and threatening higher education institutions’ federal funding if they don’t comply.
Among the most notable new rules the order advises is a five-year eligibility limit for players, during which time they can transfer once with immediate eligibility, with one additional transfer allowed after an athlete graduates with a four-year degree. The order also recommends the elimination of NIL collectives, which are third-party groups that pool funds to pay athletes.
The University of Alabama “appreciates President Trump’s sense of urgency and understanding that extensive ‘action is required before college sports are lost forever,’” said University President Peter Mohler in a statement posted to social media April 6, a rare political statement from University officials.
“We are grateful for his leadership in mobilizing attention to this important issue,” Mohler added, pledging to work with the White House, Congress, the College Sports Commission and the NCAA on a sustainable framework where athletes can get degrees and enjoy “legitimate” NIL opportunities.
Even as the White House pitched the order as action to “save” college sports, concerns about its legality arose. The president has no clear authority over NCAA bylaws, nor the ability to override state laws with executive orders.
Trump acknowledged that this order would face legal challenges. Darren Heitner, a prominent sports attorney that represented Charles Bediako in his eligibility case against the NCAA, vowed on X to challenge the order.
“This is all aspirational,” Balsam said of the order, noting that the process to develop new regulatory guidance is “protracted and contentious,” and much of it likely won’t come to fruition.
A better solution, she said, would come not from legislation or an executive order, but from the NCAA and member institutions treating student athletes as employees. Under such a system, the NCAA could avoid running afoul of antitrust law by negotiating rules with student athletes, as employees, through their collective bargaining.
“Unionization will bring with it a greater degree of predictability and stability for the college athletes educational program,” she said, adding that it also would result in limits on transfers.
“Just as in the professional leagues, the workers have agreed there should be some restriction on free agency for the good, for the long term health of the sport, and for the value proposition for all athletes playing that sport,” she said. Professional athletes, as employees of their teams, can unionize.
The NCAA has so far spurned calls to make athletes employees, preferring the “amateurism” model, she said.
But the onus is on Congress to set national standards to weave together the patchwork of state laws and court rulings that have come to define the rules of modern college sports, NCAA and other sports leaders argue. Trump’s order joined the chorus of calls for legislation.
“Stabilizing college athletics for student-athletes still requires a permanent, bipartisan federal legislative solution, so we look forward to continuing to work alongside the Administration and Congress to enact targeted legislation with the support of student-athlete leaders from all three divisions,” said NCAA president Charlie Baker in a statement supporting the order.
Enacting such national standards may be easier said than done.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey said the SEC supports the SCORE Act and the Senate’s consideration of other legislation. The SCORE Act would empower the NCAA to make rules on hot-topics like transferring, eligibility, NIL and athlete compensation. It would also clarify that athletes are not employees of higher education institutions and would give the NCAA limited antitrust protection.
Though it is bipartisan, the SCORE Act has floundered in the House. It was pulled from a House vote in December due to concerns it wouldn’t pass. Though Speaker Mike Johnson said in a March college sports roundtable that the bill was on the “verge of passage” in the House, it still would face an uphill battle in the Senate. In that chamber, votes from Democrats are needed, but Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said there are currently no Democrats supporting it.
Critics point to the bill’s antitrust exemptions and preclusion of student athlete employment as sticking points.
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said in an X post in December that the SCORE Act was a “gift to the NCAA and Power Two conferences at the expense of athletes.” She is one of several lawmakers to have proposed alternate legislation. Part of her bill, the College Athletics Reform Act, would create a commission to study college athletics, including how collective bargaining could be implemented without designating athletes as employees.
Without a solution soon, Balsam said, colleges may go into debt to keep their field advantage, causing disruptions outside of athletics.
“There has to be some rationality imposed,” she said. “I think it can only be imposed through collective bargaining.”
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