Donald Trump Signs Executive Order Intended to ‘Save College Sports’

(By Nathan Breisinger, Pittsburgh Sports Now) – President Donald Trump signed an executive order in an effort to protect college sports, namely “protect student-athletes and collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities” on Thursday.

The executive order will prohibit third-party, pay-for-play payments to college athletes. It does not apply to legitimate, fair-market-value compensation that a third party provides to an athlete, which includes for a brand endorsement. The order aims to preserve student-athletes as amateurs and not employees.

BREAKING: President Donald Trump has signed a College Sports Executive Order that prohibits third-party, pay-for-play payments to collegiate athletes🤯

Titled: "President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports"https://t.co/86LKCEhLIF pic.twitter.com/xcc5X3sUAJ

— On3 (@On3sports) July 24, 2025

The White House published a release titled, “Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports,” that features various points of the executive order.

Another key principal of the order is the protection of women’s and non-revenue generating sports. In part, it intends to mandate revenue-sharing carried out in a manner that protects those sports.

Student-Athletes, Not Employees

In addition, “The Order directs the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of student-athletes in order to preserve non-revenue sports and the irreplaceable educational and developmental opportunities that college sports provide…The Order directs the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission to take appropriate actions to protect student-athletes’ rights and safeguard the long-term stability of college athletics from endless, debilitating antitrust and other legal challenges.”

The landscape of college athletics continues to change after the historic House v. NCAA settlement that was officially approved and took effect on July 1, 2025, allowing schools to share revenue directly with athletes and nearly $2.8 billion in backpay. Through the settlement, the NCAA and power conferences to create the newly-established enforcement arm, College Sports Commission.

Leaders from around college sports have been pushing for Congressional action and saw movement with the introduction of The SCORE Act, which is an “antitrust protection for the NCAA, power conferences and recently established enforcement arm, the College Sports Commission. The bill also features a preemption of state NIL laws, codifies the recently-approved House v. NCAA settlement and ensures that athletes are not employees,” per Pete Nakos of On3.

This story initially appeared on our partner site Pittsburgh Sports Now.