Donald Trump Hosts College Sports Roundtable, Promises Executive Order as Leaders Push for National NIL Rules

The “College Sports Roundtable” at the White House is no longer a calendar item. It happened Friday afternoon in the East Room, and the people who run college athletics showed up with a list of problems and a request for national standards.

President Donald Trump closed the meeting by saying he plans to write an executive order within a week, describing it as a way to address the issues raised during the session and acknowledging it could be challenged in court.

Trump told the room, “We have to save college sports,” and said the new order will be “more comprehensive” than the executive order he issued in July. He also emphasized that Congress needs to act on rules governing name, image and likeness deals, calling the current spending levels unsustainable for many schools.

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Who was in the room
The meeting brought together a mix of college power brokers, policymakers, and sports executives. Conference commissioners from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, and ACC attended, along with NCAA president Charlie Baker.

Fox Sports CEO Eric Shanks and ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro were also part of the gathering, putting the sport’s two biggest media lanes at the same table as the commissioners who sell the inventory.

Former Alabama coach Nick Saban participated and used the session to push for a workable revenue-sharing structure, while also raising concerns about extended eligibility that can keep some players in college into their mid-20s. The event also included former athletes and coaches, and it notably did not include active college athletes.

What was discussed
The central theme was cost control and national uniformity in an NIL era where state laws, collectives, and school policies are often operating on different tracks.

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Trump said NIL costs in football are spilling over into the rest of athletic departments and forcing some schools to cut sports. He described the spending and losses at successful schools as “astounding.”

Saban called for revenue sharing and flagged eligibility timelines as part of the broader roster-management mess. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise advocated limiting how often athletes can switch schools, praising a concept that would limit football athletes to five playing years with only one transfer.

Participants also raised concerns about Olympic and non-revenue sports, which often rely on football and basketball revenue to stay funded. Trump and others cited the risk that those programs could be squeezed as NIL spending rises.

What came out of it
The clear outcome is that the White House plans to move quickly on an executive order. Trump said he expects legal challenges and indicated he would let the courts test it.

The other outcome was renewed pressure on Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson told those in attendance that he believes NIL-related legislation has enough votes to pass the House, while Trump expressed skepticism about whether a bill can clear Congress and said that uncertainty is part of why he’s moving toward an executive order.

Shortly after the meeting, a separate bipartisan Senate effort was discussed publicly: Sens. Eric Schmitt and Maria Cantwell said they plan to introduce a bill next week that would allow conferences to pool and collectively market media rights, something currently limited by the Sports Broadcasting Act.

Whether that TV-rights concept advances is its own fight, but the roundtable itself produced a simple scoreboard: a formal gathering of the sport’s key decision-makers, an announced executive-order timeline, and a public push for national NIL standards that would override the current patchwork.

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