By Humeyra Pamuk and Steve Holland
March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday the soaring cost of college football programs is hurting collegiate sports in general, and vowed to issue a fresh executive order on the topic within a week.
Speaking at a White House East Room gathering of lawmakers, college sports commissioners, coaches and former athletes, Trump said he expects his directive to be challenged in court, and emphasized that Congress should solve the problem with legislation.
“We have to save college sports,” Trump said at the event.
Trump issued an executive order in July that sought to block some recruiting payments by third parties to college athletes in big-money sports like football and men’s basketball, in order to preserve funds available for women’s and non-revenue sports.
The new order will be “more comprehensive” than last year’s effort, the Republican president said.
The value of name, image and likeness – known as NIL – contracts has been rising, especially for football players, creating a costly burden for colleges that is forcing some of them to abandon some other sports, Trump said.
Congress must approve legislation on rules governing NIL deals, Trump said.
Until five years ago, the NCAA prohibited college athletes from accepting compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness. After a 2021 Supreme Court ruling, the NCAA changed its rules to allow college athletes to be paid.
“The amount of money being spent and lost by otherwise very successful schools is astounding,” Trump said.
Trump expressed fondness for the old system under which players received only scholarships as compensation, although he acknowledged that there was no going back to that time.
The U.S. House of Representatives for the past several months has been considering legislation that would establish a national standard for NIL contracts. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican, told Friday’s event that he believes the measure now has enough votes to pass his chamber.
“We want to accomplish the necessary ends, and we think we’re very close,” Johnson said.
Expressing doubt that legislation would pass Congress, Trump said he would write an executive order within a week addressing the issue based on the ideas raised at the meeting, and would let the courts test its legality.
“And let’s see (if) we can get it through the court system, which we might not be able to do,” Trump said.
Former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban called for an effective system of revenue sharing to be established. Saban said new rules must address the issue of some football athletes being eligible to play for six or seven years, when they are in their mid-20s.
House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, a Republican, called for limiting the number of times an athlete can switch schools.
Scalise praised the idea of limiting football athletes to five playing years with only one school transfer allowed. Some players switch schools several times in search of more money and more years on the field.
Although football and basketball attract by far the most attention among college sports, many non-football college athletes help feed teams for the Olympics, and ending these programs could damage U.S. participation in these Olympic sports.
Friday’s event did not include any athletes currently competing in college sports.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Steve Holland; Editing by Sergio Non, Will Dunham and David Ljunggren)
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