President Donald Trump is stepping in to regular college sports.
On Friday, Trump signed an executive order designed to limit how long athletes can play college sports and how often the can transfer between schools.
The order directs the NCAA to create rules that mandate college athletes can play for “no more than a five-year period” and allow them to transfer schools only once before they graduate without having to sit out a season. The rule changes are scheduled to go into effect Aug. 1. A school that plays an athlete who doesn’t meet these new limits could risk losing its federal funding.
In addition, the executive order also states that the NCAA should update its rules to create a national registry for player agents and create policies that prohibits schools from cutting scholarships or other opportunities for women’s and Olympic sports in order to pay their athletes.
“College sports cannot function without clear, agreed-upon rules concerning pay-for-play and player eligibility that can’t be endlessly challenged in court, as is the case now,” the White House said in a news release about the order.
Trump has expressed interest in helping the college sports industry find its balance multiple times in the past year. Several dozen college sports leaders joined Trump and other sports executives at the White House roundtable discussion in early March in search of a way for the federal government to restore some power to the NCAA and its schools. Trump said at that meeting that he intended to write an executive order within a week that would “solve every problem in this room.”
The NCAA has struggled to enforce its rules since a Supreme Court decision in 2021 made clear that the organization was not exempt from antitrust laws, which prevent any group of businesses from colluding to limit the earning potential of their labor market.
Since then, the organization has changed its rules to allow athletes to transfer every year and has had mixed results in fighting dozens of lawsuits filed by athletes who wanted to continue playing after their eligibility expired. Current NCAA rules allow athletes to play four seasons during a five-year window.
“This Executive Order identifies some of the key issues facing college sports, including continued funding for women’s and Olympic sports,” Cantwell said. “Congress should continue to have bipartisan discussions about how to increase revenue to meet these goals. I’m glad to know the President wants Congress to pass something.”
The president’s executive order does not address employment or other major unresolved issues in college sports, such as a push from Cantwell to reshape how schools share the revenue from their television contracts.
