Donald Turmp’s administration reportedly is mulling over a new executive order meant to reform NIL and its rules after meeting with legendary head coach Nick Saban at Alabama
Donald Trump’s administration could be preparing a new executive order on changing name, image, and likeness (NIL) deals for college athletes.
Recently, Trump met with legendary football coach Nick Saban when the U.S. President visited the University of Alabama to give a commencement address. The President also was met with a standing ovation when speaking about transgender athletes in sports, pledging to defend the sanctity of women’s athletics.
But before his address, Trump – who recently came up with a ludicrous way to make himself look taller next to Ohio State’s football team – spoke further with Saban and during their conversation, the topic of NIL came up. In particular, Saban noted how the college sports landscape has changed for the worse, with the President on the same wavelength as the former head coach.
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The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump and his administration are working on language to potentially change NIL deals. The outlet writes that while Saban is not asking to end NIL deals outright, he wants to reform how players and universities approach the topic.
Those familiar with the conversation between Trump and Saban claim the latter believes NIL deals have caused an “uneven playing field,” with the biggest programs often getting the best players. With NIL rules becoming a hotly debated topic of conversation, considering the thousands of players entering the transfer portal, Republican Senator Tommy Tuberville gave his two cents on the matter.
During an appearance on 100.9’s ‘The Game with Ryan Fowler’ earlier this week, Tuberville stated he was all for change to NIL rules. The Republican senator, however, claimed it was the Democrats who held up any potential changes to the rules.
“I think we can get it on the floor, the problem is getting it past a Democrat group that really wants nothing to do with making this country better,” he said. “They don’t care about college sports or education, they worry about the power that they control in this country.
“It’s a hard way to go, but if anybody can get it done, it’s President Trump, and hopefully we can have some discussion to get on the right track toward helping the NIL and college sports.”
In the same vein, he also suggested changes for the transfer portal, including introducing a contract for players.
“We do not want to turn into minor league sports,” he added. “I talked to (Auburn men’s basketball coach) Bruce Pearl a few weeks ago, he says it’s a disaster, absolute disaster in basketball, and I’m sure it goes over into football and some of the other sports.”
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Saban, as well, had been an ardent supporter of having more defined rules for the transfer portal. During an appearance on ‘College GameDay’ in December 2024, Saban spoke on how there seemingly are no rules regarding the transfer portal, leading to many stars transferring to greener pastures quickly.
He said: “We’ve gone overboard a little bit to give these players all these opportunities and you have to have contracts. If you have a contract, you have a responsibility and you have to fulfill the contract – it’d be for coaches and players, and the players should make money.
“I’m not against the players making money. They should make money, but they should have a contract and the responsibility to fulfill, just like a coach does. And there’s some penalty if you leave your team and you have a contract, just like most colleagues have buyouts and they have to pay them if they leave.”
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