President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Thursday, July 24 that attempts to create a national standard for NCAA name, image and likeness programs.
The order is Trump’s latest entry into a debate that has embroiled the NCAA since NIL rules went into effect in 2021, ushering in a wild-west era of college sports that has come under increasing scrutiny by local and national legislators.
Broadly focused on efforts to “save college athletics,” a fact sheet sent out by the White House says the order also seeks to preserve and support "expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports." Most of the NIL money is given to athletes in football and men's and women's basketball.
The settlement in the long-running House v. NCAA case went into effect July 1 and allowed schools to directly pay college athletes through a revenue-sharing model.
Trump's order says, in part, "it is the policy of the executive branch that third-party, pay-for-play payments to collegiate athletes are improper and should not be permitted by universities. This policy does not apply to compensation provided to an athlete for the fair market value that the athlete provides to a third party, such as for a brand endorsement."
