Trump Says He'll 'Solve Every Problem' With College Sports

President Trump says he's about to jump into the chaos surrounding college sports—and he's promising a fix that covers everything, ESPN reports. At a White House "Saving College Sports" roundtable Friday, the president said he plans to issue an executive order within a week aimed at reshaping the college athletics landscape, particularly around name, image and likeness (NIL) money and whether players are considered employees. "I will have an executive order within one week, and it will be very all-encompassing," he told the room, adding that he fully expects it to be challenged in court. But, he promised, it "will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we'll put it forward. We will get sued. That's the only thing I know for sure."

Roughly 50 attendees—including conference commissioners, university leaders, media executives, former star coaches, politicians, and more—pressed for federal action, saying the current NIL system and escalating economics are unsustainable. NCAA president Charlie Baker, SEC's Greg Sankey, ACC's Jim Phillips, Big Ten's Tony Petitti and others argued for national rules and warned the sport could "fracture" without swift intervention. Former Alabama coach Nick Saban said the current setup makes it "impossible" to focus on education and player development, while former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer called for eliminating booster-funded NIL "collectives," describing them as thinly veiled pay-for-play.

Republican lawmakers promoted the SCORE Act, their main proposal to create a national NIL and regulatory framework, though Sen. Ted Cruz said no Democrats have signed on and 60 Senate votes would be needed. Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell cautioned that any final deal will leave all sides "equally unhappy." Olympic and Paralympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland warned that cuts or instability in college sports could undercut Team USA's talent pipeline as other countries invest heavily in centralized training systems. At one point, Trump said the situation with Iran was "an easy problem compared to what we're doing here," the AP reports, though he later seemed to backtrack on that. But he did justify what he was doing there, when seemingly more pressing world issues also beckoned, CNN reports: "The whole educational system is going to go out of business because of this," he warned.