A new executive order won't fix college sports, but it illuminates what will

On the eve of the Final Four, the grand stage of the NCAA’s premier product, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that essentially directs the NCAA to violate federal court rulings.

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The order hits on all the major issues in college sports, most of which dominated the discourse at the President’s roundtable last month. The order tasks the NCAA to create stricter regulations and limitations on transfer portal movement, eligibility, NIL collective capabilities, and to create funding requirements for women’s and Olympic sports. The specifics include restricting player eligibility to a 5-year period, and one free transfer before having to sit out a season.

The order will certainly trigger legal action, as courts have ruled almost everything it mandates illegal under antitrust law. As leverage, the order also tasks the Department of Education and other federal agencies to evaluate whether institutions not following the EO and engaging in “improper financial activities” are subject to having their federal funding cut. Despite the ineffectiveness of the President’s last college sports EO, this threat means schools are bound to address this seriously.

However, it is the overwhelming consensus amongst legal experts that judges would deem the order unconstitutional if challenged in court. This isn’t a difficult conclusion to come to, as we have seen the NCAA lose court case after court case when trying to enforce rules on many of the issues mentioned in the order. Schools must either ignore previous rulings or follow the order. The EO, however, directs the NCAA to write new rules “as permitted by law and applicable court orders,” and that federal agencies can only investigate violations of “lawful” NCAA rules. This specific language indicates that this executive order signifies very little. The rules it directs the NCAA to make are, in fact, not permitted by court orders, and therefore, institutions are only violating “unlawful” NCAA rules. This, in turn, renders the actual mandates in the order futile. 

The real significance of the order is not its substance, but the pressure it puts on Congress. 

In a statement echoed by conference leaders, NCAA President Charlie Baker expressed his appreciation for the Trump administration’s attention to the issue, but emphasized that Congressional legislation is necessary to solve the issues plaguing college sports athletics.

“This action is a significant step forward, and we appreciate the Administration’s interest and attention to these issues. Stabilizing college athletics for student-athletes still requires a permanent, bipartisan federal legislative solution, so we look forward to continuing to work alongside the administration and Congress to enact targeted legislation with the support of student-athlete leaders from all three divisions,” Baker said.

President Trump made it clear that he expects his order to be challenged in court and that he hopes for a “favorable judge.” A favorable judge is not the missing piece to bring stability back to college sports. The NCAA’s amateurism-powered antitrust exemptions are extinct in 2026. Courts can only interpret the law, but Congress can rewrite it. 

The NCAA backed itself into a wall and was unable to establish the proper guardrails when NIL was integrated in 2021, and has lost nearly all of its autonomy. The college sports ecosystem has descended into chaos in the absence of proper governance. New legislature that includes an antitrust exemption for the lack of employee status is the most straightforward conclusion to bring stability back to the landscape.