The college sports landscape has undergone significant changes over the last few years. The primary reason for this change is the introduction of NIL, which enables college athletes to receive compensation thanks to the House Settlement. It has continued to evolve due to the transfer portal and how schools utilize NIL payments. Now, salary caps have been introduced, and the landscape is changing again due to the introduction of revenue sharing. Now, President Donald Trump wants to help address the issue.
President Donald Trump appeared on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Tuesday, the day before Veterans' Day, and discussed a wide range of topics during his appearance. The main one making headlines is what he discussed regarding college sports, specifically warning that schools risk running out of money if they do not rein in some of their spending.
“They’re going to have to do something,” President Trump said when talking about how to fix college sports. “Colleges can’t afford it. And what they’re doing, I don’t want to use any particular sport, because it’s degrading, but they’re really terminating a lot of sports. Sports that you would call lesser sports. But big sports, good sports, and sports where you have tremendous interest, they’re getting rid of them.”
President Trump continued, “Frankly the college football, it’s very big, but as big as it is, if they don’t do some very powerful cap, these colleges are going to go out of business no matter how rich they are.”
There are two separate bills in Congress waiting for approval from either side of the aisle. The Democrats have sponsored a bill called the SAFE Act, a far-reaching bill that requires the Federal Trade Commission to oversee college sports.
In comparison, the Republicans have a separate bill called the SCORE Act, which seeks antitrust exemptions from the federal government to make and enforce rules on NIL, player movement, and eligibility.
The SAFE Act also provides for the expansion of the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961 to college sports, allowing conferences to pool media rights in an effort to increase revenue and provide funding for all sports. The SAFE Act ensures that all sports will be funded and not eliminated due to a lack of funding.
