With the world of college athletics in a state of flux, President Donald Trump hosted a “Saving College Sports” roundtable at the White House on Friday afternoon. Attendees included NCAA President Charlie Baker, all five power-conference commissioners, former college coaches such as Nick Saban and Urban Meyer, elected officials such as Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Governor Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), and select media executives, athletic directors and university leaders.
Notably, no college athletes were invited to participate. New York Yankees President Randy Levine, one of the panelists, said that the athletes would be involved in the discussion moving forward.
The summit went an hour longer than expected but left a lot of questions unanswered and did little to calm the chaos that has defined college sports in recent years. There was a lot of talk about what the problems are, but minimal dialogue about how, exactly, those problems should be fixed. Much of the time was spent outlining and lamenting the present situation. President Trump repeatedly voiced his frustration with how the college athletic system has changed in the NIL era and expressed his desire to return to the way things used to be. He said that his intention is to issue a new executive order within a week addressing the most pertinent issues at hand, while Mike Johnson and other key figures continue to promote The Score Act, the proposed federal bill supported by Republicans, the NCAA and major conferences.
“We’re going to do a very well-thought-out executive order,” Trump said. “A lot of you are going to be involved in that. Anybody that would like to be — just let me know. And that will be placed before the courts. And hopefully a judge who’s a real judge, a compassionate judge, and a judge with common sense will get it approved.
“The executive order is going to be based on great common sense,” he continued. “And it’s going to let colleges survive and players survive and let a lot of people be very, very happy. Let’s see if we can get it through the court system, which we might not be able to do. In which case, I guess we’ll have to meet again.”
Trump added that this executive order will be more comprehensive than the one he issued in July 2025, which was also titled “Saving College Sports.” That EO included recommendations for steps that college athletic departments should take.
Over the course of the nearly two-hour summit, panelists shared their takes on the various issues, including athlete eligibility lawsuits, unrestricted NIL, revenue share payments and the transfer portal. They all stressed the importance of reaching a solution as quickly as possible, and many of them advocated for advancing The Score Act. When Trump asked whether everyone on the roundtable was comfortable working off that bill as a baseline, Representative Lori Trahan (D-Mass.) — the sole Democrat in attendance — was the only person to speak up in opposition.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) later told Trump that there are “zero” Senate Democrats who currently support The Score Act.
The absence of college athletes from the conversation was also apparent. In response to their exclusion, the advocacy group Athletes.org released a statement on Thursday. “When the very people whose talent, labor and livelihoods power this entire ecosystem are absent from the conversation, it raises a fundamental question: How can decisions about the future of college athletics be made without the voices of the athletes themselves?” the statement read in part. “We deserve more than decisions handed down to us without our input, a precedent that has defined the history of college athletics and athlete participation.”
Throughout the event, the President repeatedly claimed that everybody was happier with the old college sports model and that the country would be better off going back. “Now you’ve got yourself a mess,” he said.
That much is clear, and it doesn’t seem as though the mess will be resolved anytime soon.
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