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President Donald Trump held a college sports conference Friday to explore solutions to key challenges, including the NCAA’s mandate; Name, image and similarity issues (NIL); collective bargaining; and management problems.
Athletic officials in attendance included NCAA President Charlie Baker, former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, OutKick founder Clay Travis, New York Yankees President Randy Levine and each Power Four commissioner, among others.
“This is the future, I think, beyond college sports. This is the future of colleges,” Trump said to kick off the roundtable. “The amount of money being wasted and lost by the most successful schools is staggering in such a short period of time. It’s only going to get worse. We have to save college sports, and, I believe, colleges.
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President Donald Trump speaks during a college sports roundtable discussion in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
“Crazy things are happening. … We have a seven-year freshman. We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before. College players don’t want to go pro because they make a lot of money in college,” he added.
Trump said there has been an “inability to set rules,” noting that different states have different NIL rules, creating another challenge for college sports.
“If Congress doesn’t act soon, it could destroy college sports,” Trump said.
Trump ripped “one judge who knew nothing about sports, knew nothing about football, knew nothing about the Olympics, knew nothing about anything, and just decided that everything was unconstitutional.”
He may have been referring to Judge Claudia Wilken, who ruled in 2019 that the NCAA’s restrictions on education-related benefits violated antitrust law.
“It’s crazy. Only Congress can deliver a permanent solution,” Trump said.
Trump noted that he had no intention of returning to unpaid athletes.
“Although, not a very bad idea,” he agreed. “But I think most people can control me for that.”
Later, Trump said he wanted to “just go back to what you had, have some judge tell you you can’t do it, appeal, and win at some point. Because what you had — what a great plan. Everybody was happy.”
Saban said helping athletes succeed on a personal level is “impossible” in today’s age.
“People instead of making decisions about building their future, they were making decisions about how much they could make at any school they could attend or transfer to,” said Saban.
“I think we need to come up with a plan, and, obviously, we need to do it with the leadership of the president and Congress maybe … to allow student-athletes in all sports to improve their quality of life while in college but provide an opportunity to develop themselves beyond their athletic career, which is what the philosophy of college athletes and getting a college education has always been about.”
Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban is seen before a roundtable discussion about college sports in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
Trump has been adamant about “saving college sports,” I mean to sign an executive order set new limits on paying college athletes in July.
The presidential order prohibits athletes from receiving performance payments from third-party sources. However, the order did not place restrictions on NIL payments to college athletes through third-party sources. It also requires schools to be involved in maintaining non-intrusive sports facilities.
The SCORE Act was at the forefront of the round table. A vote was supposed to take place in December, but the vote was called off soon after. The White House approved the act, but three Republicans – Byron Donalds of Florida, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Chip Roy of Texas – voted with Democrats not to bring the act to the floor. Democrats strongly opposed the bill, urging House members to vote against it.
The SCORE Act would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption in hopes of protecting the NCAA from potential lawsuits over eligibility rules and would prevent athletes from becoming employees of their schools. It prevents schools from using student fees to fund NIL payments.
President Donald Trump greets House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, as he arrives at a college sports roundtable discussion in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)
Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said the move “hurts” women’s sports, and strengthening Title IX “should be part of the SCORE Act.” He also said that the SCORE Act “represents the consolidation of what we have today, which is the SEC and the Big Ten” to get a boatload of college athletics funds.
Trahan agreed that “the SCORE Act is probably the right vehicle that we’re continuing to work on,” showing some confidence and expressing his desire to work with those at the roundtable to make it a success. U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said women’s sports would be “protected,” and Jim Phillips, ACC commissioner, said 56% of ACC athletic scholarships have gone to women since the House case.
Tim Pernetti, commissioner of the American Conference, said the SCORE Act does not fix the “economic crisis” of college athletes. Meyer admitted he didn’t like how collections were still included in the SCORE Act, calling it “cheating.”
“I think the more the collective gets going, the faster college sports get,” Meyer said.
After the talks, Trump said he would write the order “based on greater wisdom.”
“It’s going to allow colleges to survive and athletes to survive and a lot of people to be a lot happier,” Trump said.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House on March 6, 2026, in Washington, DC The Trump administration hosted a roundtable titled “Saving College Sports” with leaders from the Power Four conferences, media executives and former coaches. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
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A month before Trump’s order, Wilken approved an agreement between the NCAA, its most powerful conferences and lawyers representing all Division I athletes. This agreement means that the NCAA will pay approximately $2.8 billion over the next 10 years to college athletes who compete from 2016 to 2025. The agreement also allows college programs to pay athletes directly.
Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.
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