College football leaders react to Donald Trump's NIL order plans

President Donald Trump is reportedly looking to establish a single NIL standard across college football and other sports and has plans to sign an executive order to that effect.

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell are two of the sport’s biggest voices pushing for changes to the NIL market.

“It’s not a secret. I had a chance to visit with the President, along with Pete Bevacqua, the athletics director at Notre Dame,” Sankey said, via ESPN.

“We met and played golf at Bedminster, and his interest is real. My takeaway: he wants to be supportive of college athletics, make sure that it’s sustainable, the Olympic program, and the Olympic development.”

He added: “Work that’s done on college campuses was on his mind. The support of women’s athletics was on his mind, but having some kind of real boundaries, and we’ve been in active conversations.”

Sankey has also spoken with Congress on the matter.

“I talked to members of Congress yesterday as they look at a bill in the House of Representatives, went through a subcommittee markup. This is all the gobbledygook. I think those Congressional activities are still a real priority for us,” he said.

News of President Trump’s interest in signing an executive order on NIL comes amid the White House appearing to scrap, or at least pause, plans to create a college sports commission, as Mr. Trump and members of the House of Representatives instead moved forward to introduce the SCORE Act.

That piece of legislation, known as Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements, aims to “protect the name, image, and likeness rights of student-athletes to promote fair compensation with respect to intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.”

The bill would overrule the current standard of various state laws and offer guidance on how players are paid through NIL mechanisms and aims to create a single federal standard.

Campbell, a Texas Tech booster and member of the school’s Board of Regents, was thought to be one of the people earmarked to run President Trump’s planned commission, with former Alabama head coach Nick Saban being the other.

“I haven’t heard anything,” Campbell said, via USA Today, about imminent plans by Mr. Trump to sign an executive order.

Though he added: “It wouldn’t be surprising.”

College football coaches and decision makers have not been shy about expressing their opinions, whether positive or negative, on the current NIL landscape and potential legislation regarding revenue-sharing with players.

But what happens on that front is still anyone’s guess.

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