Trump calls on Congress to pass bill aimed at bolstering college sports

President Trump called on Congress on Friday to establish a national framework to stabilize college sports amid court rulings, image and likeness deals and recruiting changes have put the multibillion-dollar NCAA system under siege.

Speaking at the White House, Mr. Trump listed some of the problems, including the lack of uniform rules across all sports associated with the name, image and likeness (NIL) deals, which have transformed recruiting into a high-dollar competition and further professionalized college sports.

The president said addressing the issue would garner much bipartisan support in Congress. If Congress won’t take it up, Mr. Trump said he would consider issuing an executive order, but did not detail what exactly an order would do.

“The inability to set rules on eligibility, transfers, name and image and likeness and more, much more than that, in the face of endless lawsuits … is incredible,” Mr. Trump said.

“Under the current system, educational institutions find themselves in a financial arms race for athletes in sports like football and basketball,” the president said. “Basketball is being hurt very badly. It’s really being dominated by football.”

NIL deals have resulted in 17-year-old quarterbacks earning $12 million a year, athletes being redshirted as freshmen that could lead to them staying in college for seven years, and players transferring among schools based on how much they could make.

To address the issues plaguing college sports, Mr. Trump convened a roundtable at the White House with a mix of professional athletes, NCAA conference executives, former coaches, sports media personalities and others.

Attendees included Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Big East Commissioner Val Ackerman, former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, New York Yankees President Randy Levin, former, Utah, Florida and Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

No current college athletes attended the event.

The meeting was a follow-up to Mr. Trump’s executive order issued last summer that aimed to address some of the issues impacting college sports. Mr. Trump has tasked the roundtable to discuss topics ranging from conference governance and structure, media rights, funding for nonrevenue sports, athlete compensation and antitrust exemptions.

According to the White House, the plan is to get college sports leaders to agree on the best path forward and then reshape that plan into legislation that can get through Congress. Mr. Trump expressed confidence that the legislation would be in place before football season kicks off in the fall, which would coincide with this year’s midterm elections.

“I think we’ll get it through Congress. We have a very good chance. I think it will be bipartisan,” he said.