President Trump reportedly considering executive order limiting NIL after meeting with Nick Saban

President Donald Trump and Nick Saban want the executive branch to get involved in what was already a complicated NIL debate. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

The latest complication in the ongoing fight over how college athletes should be paid could come straight from the pen of President Donald Trump.

The president is considering an executive order regarding NIL payments after a meeting with former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban on Thursday night, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Saban reportedly complained about NIL to Trump, who was in Tuscaloosa to deliver the University of Alabama's commencement address, and said he believed the system has damaged college sports. However, the coach didn't propose eliminating NIL but instead "reforming" it to address an allegedly uneven playing field.

Trump reportedly said he agreed with Saban and would look at drafting an executive order, directing aides to begin studying what such an order would say.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., helped set up the meeting with the hope it could be a first step in changing NIL, as he said Wednesday:

"Hopefully we'll get to sit down with Coach Saban. President Trump wants to help on this NIL. I don't know how he can do it through an executive order. But possibly we can sit down and talk some insight of what Coach Saban thinks about it, what I think about it and we can come up with some sort of agreement because right now it's in a tailspin."

What would an executive order from President Trump mean for NIL?

If Trump follows through, an executive order would potentially upend years of legal fights involving the NCAA and various levels of government. The NCAA has had its restrictions on student-athlete income and transfers regularly struck down in court over the past five years, a process that is still ongoing.

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

The modern college football landscape now features athletes who can transfer immediately and earn millions of dollars in money from boosters. That landscape could further change soon, as the House settlement, which would open the door for schools to directly pay athletes, is clearing its final legal hurdles.

With the executive order not even drafted, it's impossible to tell how the NCAA, its schools and the legal system might react. The White House does not formally oversee college athletics, so an executive order would usually bear little weight, but a directive from Trump to either limit NIL payments or strike them down would draw attention for at least a couple of reasons.

Most of the changes in college athletics over the past five years have been built on the bedrock of decisions from the Supreme Court and other major courtrooms, and trying to reverse any of that would further escalate Trump's attempts to subvert the authorities of courtrooms in the United States.

The Trump administration has also not been shy about threatening to pull federal funding from schools if they don't comply with its wishes, most notably its restrictions on diversity programs and transgender policies.

Advertisement

Advertisement Advertisement

Nick Saban has railed against NIL for years

It's not a surprise Trump and Tuberville found a notable anti-NIL voice in Saban.

Even by the standards of college football coaches, Saban has been withering in his disapproval of the system that shaped his final years at Alabama, though he has denied it was the reason for his retirement. He called for federal legislation to address the matter in 2022, among many comments that year pleading for something to change.

That outlook roped Saban into feuds with both Jimbo Fisher, then the head coach of Texas A&M, and Deion Sanders, then of Jackson State.

Click here to read article