The vibe around college football lately has been... intense. If you’ve tuned into a Saturday morning pregame show over the last couple of years, you’ve heard the same doom-and-gloom talk. "The portal is broken." "NIL is a Wild West." "Non-revenue sports are dying." It felt like the "student-athlete" model was being sucked into a black hole of litigation and hundred-million-dollar TV contracts.
Then came July 24, 2025.
That was the day President Donald Trump stepped into the middle of the chaos. He signed an Executive Order—officially titled Executive Order 14322: Saving College Sports—that basically acted as a massive emergency brake on the legal train wreck. Honestly, whether you love the guy or hate him, you can't ignore that this move fundamentally shifted the trajectory of every athletic department in the country. It wasn't just a photo op; it was a policy-heavy attempt to stop the "professionalization" of campus life.
Why Trump Saves College Sports Became the Biggest Story in Athletics
To understand why this happened, you have to remember how messy things were. The NCAA was getting sued from every direction. The House v. NCAA settlement had just opened the door for schools to pay players directly—up to about $20.5 million a year per school. Sounds great for the stars, right? Well, the unintended consequence was that athletic directors started looking at their budgets and realized they couldn't afford a $20 million payroll and a women’s rowing team.
The administration saw an "oligarchy" forming. The White House fact sheet even pointed out that some big-school football players were on track to pull in $35 million to $40 million collectively in 2025. Trump’s argument was pretty simple: if we don't fix this, the sports that actually build the U.S. Olympic team—swimming, wrestling, track—are going to be sacrificed to pay for one or two five-star quarterbacks.
💡 You might also like: Navy Notre Dame Football: Why This Rivalry Still Hits Different
The "Pay-for-Play" Lockdown
One of the meatier parts of the order targets those "third-party collectives." You know the ones—the groups of wealthy boosters who pool money to "buy" recruits under the guise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL).
Basically, the order says:
- Fair Market Value is okay. If a local car dealership wants to pay a receiver $10k to be in a commercial, fine.
- Bidding wars are not. The order prohibits "pay-for-play" inducements that function like de facto salaries.
It’s an attempt to return to a version of amateurism that many thought was dead and buried. By directing the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to clarify that student-athletes are not employees, the administration basically tried to kill the unionization movement in one shot.
Protecting the "Non-Revenue" Programs
This is where the rubber really meets the road for the average student. The order isn't just a set of suggestions; it’s tied to federal funding. If you're a school like Ohio State or Texas—those making over $125 million a year—you’re now "directed" to actually increase scholarship opportunities in non-revenue sports.
📖 Related: LeBron James Without Beard: Why the King Rarely Goes Clean Shaven Anymore
It’s a weird paradox. The very revenue-sharing that was supposed to help athletes was actually threatening to eliminate thousands of roster spots for women and Olympic hopefuls. Trump’s policy forces these big-budget schools to use their surplus to shield the smaller programs.
The Breakdown of Expectations:
- The Giants ($125M+ revenue): Must expand scholarships and roster spots for non-revenue sports.
- The Mid-Tier ($50M - $125M): Must maintain their current levels. No cuts allowed.
- The Small Schools (Under $50M): Cannot disproportionately cut sports just because they don't make money.
It puts athletic directors in a tough spot. They have to find the $20 million for the football stars while also potentially spending more on the tennis team. Something has to give, and the administration is betting that it’ll be the booster-led "bidding wars" that dry up first.
Can an Executive Order Really Fix the NCAA?
Look, a lot of legal experts, like those at firms like Husch Blackwell and Crowell & Moring, have pointed out that an Executive Order isn't a magic wand. It doesn't instantly overwrite every state law. Florida, for example, had its own NIL rules that were much more permissive.
But what it does do is provide a "national solution." For years, the NCAA has been begging Congress for a federal law to replace the "patchwork" of state rules. This order, combined with the SCORE Act (the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act), creates a unified front. It’s about "stability."
👉 See also: When is Georgia's next game: The 2026 Bulldog schedule and what to expect
The Attorney General and the FTC were also told to start defending the NCAA against "endless, debilitating antitrust challenges." Basically, the government is now playing defense for the collegiate model. They’re trying to build a legal fortress around the idea that college sports are an "educational" experience, not a professional league.
What This Means for the 2025-2026 Season
If you're an athlete or a fan, the landscape is shifting again. We’re likely to see a cooldown in the transfer portal. Why? Because if the "pay-for-play" money from third-party boosters gets squeezed out by federal regulators, the incentive to hop schools every 12 months for a bigger check starts to fade.
There's also the Title IX factor. The Department of Education has been signaled to ensure that revenue sharing doesn't become a "boys-only" club. If a school gives $10 million to the football team, they’re going to have to justify how they’re supporting female athletes under the same roof.
Actionable Insights for the "New" Era:
- For Athletes: Focus on "Fair Market Value" deals. If a deal looks like a straight-up salary with no actual work involved, it’s going to be under the microscope. Documentation is your friend.
- For Schools: Audit your Title IX compliance immediately. The administration is using federal funding as leverage, and they’ve shown they aren't afraid to use "all available regulatory mechanisms" to enforce these quotas.
- For Boosters: The era of the "unregulated collective" is likely over. Expect more oversight from the FTC and DOJ regarding where that money is going and whether it’s a "valid business purpose" or just a recruiting bribe.
The reality is that college sports was on the verge of a total collapse into two or three "super-leagues" that looked exactly like the NFL. This intervention was a massive, somewhat heavy-handed attempt to keep the "college" in college sports. It's a gamble. It assumes that you can regulate a multi-billion dollar industry back into a semi-amateur state. Only time—and the next round of lawsuits—will tell if the "Saving College Sports" order actually lives up to its name.
Stay tuned for how the NLRB responds to the directive to certify athletes as non-employees. That’s the next big domino to fall. If that holds up, the "pro model" for college sports might just be dead on arrival.
Check your local university's athletic department updates to see how they're adjusting their 2025-2026 scholarship numbers in response to these new federal guidelines.