Having pushed forward the “Big Beautiful Bill”, President Donald Trump might be about to pivot his efforts towards college sports now. Despite the ground rules set out in House v. NCAA, there’s still much to regulate about this new era of college athletics in which schools will be able to directly compensate student athletes, and NIL deals and the transfer portal are only set to become more important.
It seems like President Trump might be interested in stepping in to regulate the industry through an executive order. This was reported by CBS News Senior White House Correspondent Ed O’Keefe this Tuesday night.
According to O’Keefe, Trump is interested in setting national standards for NIL deals.
NEW TONIGHT: President Trump intends to sign an executive order in the coming days establishing national standards for the @NCAA‘S Name, Image, and Likeness program that had reaped millions of dollars in revenue for top college athletes, multiple people familiar with his plans…
— Ed O’Keefe (@edokeefe) July 16, 2025
On Wednesday on “SEC This Morning”, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey reacted to the report:
“I don’t think that’s a terribly articulate tweet,” Sankey said on SEC This Morning, referencing the originally tweeted report by CBS News. “The NCAA doesn’t have a name, image, and likeness plan specifically. I mean, in college athletics, we have something, so the attribution is an error. The President clearly has an interest in sports, big picture, has an interest in college sports. (He) has been at our games. The notion of an executive order has been mentioned before. There were some reports of a commission or an executive order back to like, April, I think, is when that started to bubble. So we’ll wait and see.”
Sankey also said that he played golf with Donald Trump and that they had discussed the state of college athletics. Nonetheless, he also reiterated that efforts in Congress to push forward a bill that would regulate the economics of college athletics remained the main focus of the SEC.
A House of Representatives subcommittee approved a bipartisan bill on Tuesday, which aims to replace and supersede a series of state laws regulating NIL deals. The legislation is called the “SCORE Act”.
President Donald Trump’s granddaughter Kai Trump signs NIL deal
President Donald Trump’s granddaughter, Kai Trump, is set to join the Miami Hurricanes to play golf in 2026. She seems to have hit the ground running even before starting her collegiate career, signing an NIL deal this week with Accelerator Active Energy.
“It’s pretty cool, especially being partners with such great athletes and being up there with him (Travis Kelce),” Kai Trump said of joining a roster of sponsors stacked with talent.
The announcement of the 18-year-old’s joining the roster of sponsors for Accelerator Active Energy was presidential-themed, as if there was any doubt about it. The sponsors of the company already include highly successful athletes like Super Bowl champion Travis Kelce.
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