Alright, everyone, let’s calm down. No, Trump did not save college sports with his executive order, even if it looks that way to the average college football fan. Yes, while I know this is old news, let me get you caught up. Trump just banned “third-party” payments for players, basically, NIL collectives with no legitimate business purpose but to help players like Nico Iamaleava bag chase. Front Porch’s Keaton Hargett wrote a piece explaining the executive order in July, linked below.
This EO has a good half of the internet screaming, “College sports are saved!” Yeah, no. This, like every other attempt at NIL regulation, it will end up in the trash. Sure, it’s a net good in theory, but players and big programs are going to raise hell, especially schools like Texas Tech and SMU, who are just finding their program’s stride with NIL. Especially seen with Tech, who signed a kid to a 3-year, $5.1 million deal… and he’s not even committed for four.
Here’s the truth: college sports blew past the NIL point of no return a long time ago. This isn’t toothpaste-out-of-the-tube anymore. The tube is gone. The cap’s in the junk drawer, and the dog ate half of it. Every collective and billionaire booster has a team of lawyers ready to find a loophole before lunch. They’ll just rebrand the payout: “consulting fee,” “marketing stipend,” “lawn care contract” for $250K. And they’ll do it shamelessly, because they’ve been paying players under the table since before NIL existed.
Whether this ban stands, gets overturned, or gets laughed out of court, nothing changes. Players will still get paid. Schools will still cash TV checks. Games will still be decided by 19-year-olds risking their ACLs while 60-year-old men in suits decide their futures in a hotel ballroom. Banning pay-to-play will just end up with most of the third party collectives et cetera being incorporated into the University itself, or into other “legitimate” third party businesses, which athletes can still sign contracts with IF it is a “legitimate partnership.” The legitimate partnership is still a very ambiguous definition, so ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the days of SMU giving out washing machines illegally, this time it’ll be more like $2 million given illegally.
Everyone, chill the hell out. We’ve seen this before, and we’ll see it again. Just like sports betting in Texas is technically “illegal,” half the population still does it. NIL isn’t going anywhere. The only thing this ban might stop is the occasional headline about a 17-year-old signing a 3-year contract before he even picks a dorm. And even that’s a maybe.
