Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order prohibiting “third-party, pay-for-play” payments to college athletes, a move the White House says is intended to curb the booster-funded bidding wars that have upended the landscape of college sports in recent years.

The order asserts that recent court rulings and a patchwork of conflicting state laws have dismantled long-standing NCAA rules, creating what it describes as a “chaotic environment” that threatens the financial stability and competitive balance of collegiate athletics.

It marks the most aggressive federal intervention yet in response to the rapid commercialization of college sports, particularly in football and men’s basketball, where top programs now spend tens of millions of dollars to attract and retain athletes through name, image and likeness (NIL) deals.

Under the new directive, schools would be expected to eliminate any third-party NIL payments used as recruiting inducements, while still allowing fair-market compensation for legitimate services such as brand endorsements.

The order also seeks to protect women’s and non-revenue sports, directing athletic departments to preserve – and in some cases expand – scholarship opportunities and roster spots in programs that don’t generate significant revenue. Starting with the 2025–26 academic year, schools with more than $125m in athletic revenue are urged to increase their investment in non-revenue sports, while schools with $50m or more are required to maintain existing levels.

The president’s order points to growing disparities fueled by state-level legislation, including the more than 30 states that have passed NIL laws, and warns that the resulting imbalance has created an “oligarchy” of wealthier programs that can simply outbid rivals for the best players. It also cites rising concerns that runaway NIL spending is draining resources from Olympic and educational sports that form the foundation of America’s athletic system.

“Absent guardrails to stop the madness,” the order reads, “many college sports will soon cease to exist.”

In addition to targeting NIL abuses, the executive order:

• Calls on the Department of Education, the FTC, and the Department of Justice to develop enforcement and regulatory plans within 30 days

• Directs the Department of Labor and National Labor Relations Board to clarify the employment status of student-athletes in ways that prioritize educational benefits

• Instructs federal agencies to use Title IX enforcement, funding decisions, and litigation strategy to protect the long-term viability of college athletics

• Encourages collaboration with Congress and state governments to advance a national framework

The order highlights the outsized role that college athletics play in US Olympic success, noting that 75% of athletes on the 2024 Olympic team were current or former collegiate athletes, and argues that preserving a broad base of non-revenue sports is essential to maintaining America’s international dominance.

While the order outlines sweeping federal priorities, it remains unclear how many of its provisions will be implemented in practice, particularly in the absence of new legislation. Still, the White House insists the move is necessary to restore fairness and stability to a system that it describes as “drifting toward professionalization”.

“College sports are not, and should not be, professional sports,” the order declares. “A national solution is urgently needed before it’s too late.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Thursday that will prohibit third-party, pay-for-play payments and directs the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify that athletes are amateurs and not employees, the White House announced. Titled “Save College Sports,” the executive order delivers on multiple items the NCAA has recently lobbied Congress for.

The NCAA and Power Five leaders have long pursued Congressional action on Capitol Hill, most recently with the introduction of the SCORE Act in the House. The executive order prohibits third-party, pay-for-play payments but “does not apply to legitimate, fair-market-value compensation that a third party provides to an athlete, such as for a brand endorsement,” according to the White House’s release. It is unknown what entity will have the authority to enforce the prohibition of third-party, pay-for-play payments included in Trump’s executive order.

An executive order streamlines some of the top items on the NCAA’s wishlist. The order “requires the preservation and, where possible, expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports.”

“The NCAA is making positive changes for student-athletes and confronting many challenges facing college sports by mandating health and wellness benefits and guaranteeing scholarships, but there are some threats to college sports that federal legislation can effectively address and the Association is advocating with student-athletes and their schools for a bipartisan solution with Congress and the Administration,” NCAA president Charlie Baker said in a statement.

“The Association appreciates the Trump Administration’s focus on the life-changing opportunities college sports provides millions of young people and we look forward to working with student-athletes, a bipartisan coalition in Congress and the Trump Administration to enhance college sports for years to come.”

The House v. NCAA settlement was officially approved last month, paving the way for institutions to share revenue directly with athletes and pay nearly $2.8 billion in backpay. Through the settlement, the NCAA and power conferences to create the newly-established enforcement arm, College Sports Commission.

House plaintiff attorneys reportedly reached a deal with the power conferences and NCAA officials earlier this week to treat collectives or any “school-associated entity” in a similar fashion as other businesses when determining the legitimacy of third-party NIL deals submitted to the CSC’s NIL Go clearinghouse.

“Within 30 days of the date of this order, the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Education, and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, shall develop a plan to advance the policies set forth in subsections (a)-(c) of this section through all available and appropriate regulatory, enforcement, and litigation mechanisms, including Federal funding decisions, enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, prohibiting unconstitutional actions by States to regulate interstate commerce, and enforcement of other constitutional and statutory protections, and by working with the Congress and State governments, as appropriate,” the order states.

The NCAA has lobbied Congress for an antitrust exemption and state preemption, which President Donald Trump’s executive order does not address. Sources previously speculated to On3 that an executive order from Trump could include language barring athletes from being classified as employees. The National Labor Relations Board’s general counsel rescinded a Biden-administration memorandum in February. The Biden-era memo from the previous NLRB general counsel stated they viewed college athletes as employees of their institutions under the National Labor Relations Act.

Co-sponsors of the SCORE Act include seven Republicans and two Democrats, which gives the bill a fair chance of passage in the House. It would need at least seven Democratic votes in the Senate, where its chances are viewed as slim. The SCORE Act was successfully marked up by two committees in the House on Wednesday and was on track to be introduced following the summer recess.

“The President clearly has an interest in sports, big picture, has an interest in college sports,” SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last week. “He’s been at our games. The notion of an executive order has been mentioned before. There were some reports of a commission or an executive order back to like, April, I think, is when that started to bubble. So we’ll wait and see.”

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday aimed at protecting “student-athletes and collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities” while prohibiting “third-party, pay-for-play payments” to those athletes. The Fact Sheet of Trump’s EO reflects a push that is effectively in lockstep with the goals established by the College Sports Commission’s name, image and likeness clearinghouse. 

Of note, the prohibition of third-party payments does not extend to “fair-market-value compensation” so long as that party has a legitimate business interest. Put another way, the executive order does not target brand endorsements with local and national companies, for instance. 

The CSC was established to govern financial issues in the revenue-sharing era. In partnership with financial consulting firm Deloitte, it established an NIL Go portal to ensure fair market value and valid business purpose based on an actual endorsement. The NIL Go portal allows student-athletes a way to report third-party NIL deals to be evaluated for rules compliance. An athlete can do this before accepting a deal to ensure that their eligibility will not be impacted.        

Trump’s order also contains several points emphasizing the expansion of scholarship opportunities and protection of non-revenue sports, including Olympic sports. Specifically, it “provides that any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be implemented in a manner that protects women’s and non-revenue sports.”

It specifically directs the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Boards (NLRB) to clarify the status of student-athletes in the era of revenue sharing.   

“We thank President Trump for his commitment to supporting student-athletes and strengthening college athletics in the NIL era,” Congressmen Brett Guthrie, Tim Walberg and Jim Jordan, who are joint chairmen on a committee trying to pass the SCORE Act through Congress, said in a statement. “The SCORE Act, led by our three committees, will complement the President’s executive order, and we look forward to working with all of our colleagues in Congress to build a stronger and more durable college sports environment.”

The White House’s announcement calls for federal action to “restore order,” citing the patchwork NIL laws in place in individual states. It also asserts that some universities are relying on outside supporters to field rosters worth more than $50 million, particularly in football. 

NCAA president Charlier Baker endorsed the executive order, but also called on congress to act. 

“The NCAA is making positive changes for student-athletes and confronting many challenges facing college sports by mandating health and wellness benefits and guaranteeing scholarships, but there are some threats to college sports that federal legislation can effectively address and the association is advocating with student-athletes and their schools for a bipartisan solution with Congress and the administration,” Baker wrote in a statement. “The association appreciates the Trump Administration’s focus on the life-changing opportunities college sports provides millions of young people and we look forward to working with student-athletes, a bipartisan coalition in Congress and the Trump Administration to enhance college sports for years to come.” 

South Carolina Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers is expected to be one of the best QBs in the nation next season. In his first season as a starter last year, he completed 196 of 299 passing attempts for 2,534 yards and 18 TDs. With the season approaching, many players, including Sellers, have started to make more media appearances.

On Thursday, LaNorris Sellers, who has an NIL value of $3.7 million according to On3, answered several questions in a CBS Sports interview, which was posted on the CBS Sports Instagram account.

One of the questions was what his favorite thing to do to pass the time off the field was. Sellers gave a simple answer, referring to a popular social media platform.

“TikTok,” Sellers said.

While Sellers, like many people, enjoys scrolling on TikTok, his answer to one of the follow-up questions indicates that he does not like the app as much as he initially said. When asked about a habit he is trying to break, he said:

“Less TikTok.”

Sellers continued to answer several fun questions in the interview. Notably, the interview closed out with him talking about his best and worst sports other than football.

“Best sport, soccer,” Sellers said. “Worst sport, hitting a baseball is hard.”

LaNorris Sellers Opens Up on Expectations for Himself and South Carolina Gamecocks

LaNorris Sellers has made several media appearances lately. While his interview with CBS Sports was fun, it did not provide much insight into the coming season.

However, when he appeared on “The Triple Option” podcast last week, he delved a bit deeper into the Gamecocks’ 2025 season. On the show, he spoke about the internal expectations for the team.

“Just to keep winning,” Sellers said. “No matter who we play, we know it’s not going to be easy. This year we’ve got to keep it up and don’t underestimate [teams] just because we beat them last year.”

South Carolina thrived as an underdog last season, beating teams like Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas A&M and Clemson when they were the betting underdogs. After a slow start to the season where they went 3-3, the Gamecocks won six games in a row to close the regular season. Their success was partially because of the emergence of LaNorris Sellers as a star quarterback.

Next season, the Gamecocks are unlikely to take many teams by surprise. They will kick off their season on Sunday, Aug. 31, against Virginia Tech.

College Sports Network has you covered with the latest news, analysis, insights, and trending stories in football, basketball, and more!

On one hand you’ve got Texas Tech, poster program for college football’s new big bucks era, and its coach, Joey McGuire, claiming the good thing about players in contract years is at least you can expect their best.

On the other hand, you’ve got Mike Locksley, Maryland’s coach, saying he had to choose which players to pay last year and lost his locker room as a result.

Ask any football coach, and if he’s honest, he’d tell you straight up:

Paying players was simpler when it was under the table.

On July 1st, any athletic program that opted in to the House settlement also could kick off revenue sharing. Or rev share, in the new lingo. The cap is $20.5 million per school, to be divvied up however each sees fit. Every school in the SEC, Big Ten and Big 12 is pledging the limit in the hope that, by shifting payments from collectives, administered by boosters, and instituting a national clearing house that would both vet and police NIL deals as well, colleges might rein in the excesses.

Good luck with all that.

Coaches will tell you the new College Sports Commission, run by a former MLB executive who’d been in charge of investigations, is a needed first step. But they’re dubious as to how this will work. For one thing, there’s no guarantee players will fess up about all their NIL deals.

And how, exactly, will the CSC police what one Big 12 coach called “the wild, wild West”?

The NCAA spent decades trying to run down all the crooks, and the only school it caught in its net was poor little SMU.

A sports culture primer: From the days of leather helmets, players got paid one way or another. Many drew salaries for summer jobs they didn’t actually work. Boosters forked over cash in envelopes or hundred-dollar handshakes. Annuities, hard to track, were all the rage in the ‘80s. But nobody got rich. Texas A&M got busted in the ‘70s for giving a basketball recruit’s mom a washer and dryer.

The fleet of cool cars driven by SMU players? Mostly leases, with one exception: Eric Dickerson’s gold Trans Am, a gift from Aggie boosters, which he drove from College Station to the Hilltop. Ron Meyer called it his “Trans A&M.”

The old Southwest Conference formed a reputation in the ‘80s as the cheatingest league in the land when, in truth, it was no more criminal than the rest. Certainly no worse than the SEC. A former Alabama player once told me about parties hosted by a Crimson Tide booster. He tied rubber bands around thick wads of cash and threw them into his pool while players dived in after them.

SMU got in trouble because its sins were over the top for the era, and Texas and A&M, already at each other’s throats, had their hands full without having to worry about the little guys, too. Once the Mustangs were in jail, as Bum Bright told me then, they squealed on everyone else.

The “hit list,” they called it.

A Dallas newspaper war, largely waged between rival sports departments, raised the stakes. Those days are long gone. But college coaches now take the same approach.

No matter how bad the actor, you don’t turn in your peers, mostly out of fear that one day he might turn in you.

The level of mischief in college athletic programs now far exceeds anything we could have imagined back when we chased Danny Robbins’ revelations in the Dallas Times-Herald. Poaching hasn’t reached the level of Texas high school football before the UIL, when West Texas roustabouts suited up for different teams on successive Friday nights. But it’s more lucrative now.

For instance: Taulia Tagovailoa, Tua’s little brother, went to his Maryland coaches after the 2022 season and told them he’d need more money after getting a $1.5 million offer from an unnamed SEC school. Locksley scrambled boosters, who came up with a six-figure deal to get Tagovailoa to stay.

But, as the Terps’ offensive coordinator, Josh Gattis, told CBS Sports, coaches still have to keep their heads on a swivel.

“Because of the nature of college football and the quarterback market,” he said, “you think no one should talk to your kids, but this word ‘tampering’ is not enforced.

“There’s all different ways that people get in contact with players.”

Gattis’ boss told ESPN he “lost” his locker room last year because he didn’t have enough resources to pay both his veteran players as well as transfers and ended up with a room full of what he called “haves and have-nots.”

“You go outside my locker room 1753389237,” he said, “and I have a sign that says, ‘Leave your Louis belts, leave your financial statements and your car keys outside of this locker room, because in here we’re all going to pay the same price for success or failure.”

Locksley hopes rev share will make it easier on coaches now that they don’t have to recruit boosters for collectives. But other coaches say it won’t do anything to level the playing field.

“Some schools are not gonna let it happen,” an anonymous Big 12 coach told The Athletic. “They’ve done it one way, and they’re gonna keep doing it that way.

“They don’t want the gap to get closer.”

Crashing that gap, of course, is Texas Tech, behind the billions of Cody Campbell and his Matador Club collective, which will pay Tech athletes across all sports a whopping $55 million in NIL money and rev share in 2025-26. How big is that number? One Big 12 coach told The Athletic that the Red Raiders are offering three times what others are bidding.

Another coach said McGuire’s players are getting 10 times what he’s paying his roster.

“I do think,” Joey told The Athletic, “people feel a little threatened.”

Welcome to the new reality. Doubtful even Sherwood Blount, the booster behind most of SMU’s shenanigans in the ‘80s, could keep up. A hundred-dollar handshake? Million-dollar recruits would probably just hand it right back.

Twitter/X: @KSherringtonDMN

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