Trump Urges Congress to Pass College Sports Reforms

President Trump has called on Congress to pass legislation addressing college athletics, according to a Fox News report on a draft proposal from a White House-backed committee. The committee is pushing for creation of a task force that would receive an antitrust exemption to establish national standards overriding state laws.

Ideas under consideration include pooled media rights across conferences, limits on coaching salaries, rewritten eligibility rules, transfer portal changes and rules targeting salary-cap circumvention through third-party name, image and likeness deals.

Trump signed an executive order last month that described college athletics as an “out-of-control financial arms race” fueled by loosening rules around player compensation, transfers and eligibility. The order states “further delay is not an option given what is at stake,” citing roughly 500,000 annual educational, athletic and leadership opportunities and nearly $4 billion in scholarships provided by universities.

It directs agencies that contract with or provide grants to higher education institutions to evaluate violations of college athletics rules, including eligibility limits, transfers, revenue sharing and improper financial activities such as fraudulent NIL schemes or use of federal funds for athlete payments.

The draft document obtained by Yahoo Sports and reported by The Associated Press calls on lawmakers to act before Congress leaves for its traditional August recess. Congress has been stalled for more than a year on legislation that would codify parts of a House settlement placing revenue sharing into effect.