KEY POINTS:
- President Trump is considering an executive order directing federal authorities to clarify college athletes’ employment status, according to ESPN
- The draft order calls on the Secretary of Labor and NLRB to determine appropriate measures regarding collegiate athletes’ status, as reported by ESPN
- College sports leaders have been seeking to prevent athletes from being classified as employees due to financial concerns, Yahoo Sports reported
President Donald Trump is considering an executive order that would require federal authorities to clarify whether college athletes can be considered employees of their schools, according to a draft copy of the order obtained this week by ESPN.
The draft calls on the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to “determine and implement the appropriate measures with respect to clarifying the status of collegiate athletes,” ESPN reported on January 17, 2025. The draft states the employment status of college athletes should “maximize the educational benefits and opportunities” schools can provide through their athletic departments, according to ESPN.
While Trump’s potential order would not explicitly ban employment (the president does not have the authority to make that decision in an executive order), it does echo concerns from college sports leaders while demanding that the NLRB and Secretary of Labor clarify employee status for college athletes, ESPN reported.
The news of a potential executive order was met with surprise around college sports earlier this week, after a CBS News story late Tuesday, according to ESPN. Sources cautioned to ESPN that Trump might not go through with the executive order, which appears to be more supportive of college athletics rather than prescribing any specific transformational changes.
Yahoo Sports reported that the draft, seven pages long and titled “SAVING COLLEGE SPORTS,” outlines directives from Trump to members of his Cabinet to create policy related to various aspects of college athletics. According to Yahoo Sports, those aspects primarily include directing the attorney general and Federal Trade Commission to: (1) provide college leaders with protection from antitrust law around the “long-term availability” of scholarships and opportunities for athletes; (2) prevent “unqualified and unscrupulous agents” from representing athletes; and (3) support uniformity by, presumably, preempting the varying name, image and likeness state laws.
In its introduction, the order purports that such directives are necessary to preserve an industry in chaos and on the brink of destruction, Yahoo Sports reported. “It is no exaggeration to say that America’s system of collegiate athletics plays an integral role in forging the leaders that drive our Nation’s success,” the order says, according to Yahoo Sports. “Yet the future of college sports is under unprecedented threat.”
Congressional Action and Industry Response
Trump’s office expressed interest months ago in an executive order that would help address some of the current turmoil in the college sports industry but has not yet acted, ESPN reported.
Administrators have been asking Congress for several years to create a new federal law to help schools regain some of the power that has been eroded by antitrust lawsuits in the past decade, according to ESPN. Those leaders have asked for a law that prevents athletes from becoming employees and provides the NCAA with an antitrust exemption that would allow them to make its own rules — many of which would limit players’ earning potential, ESPN reported.
Earlier this week, members of the House Commerce Committee voted to move forward with the legislative process on a bill that would grant the NCAA and college leaders the type of protection they are seeking, ESPN reported on January 17, 2025.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, told ESPN on Thursday that an executive order would not change plans to continue pushing forward with a bill in Congress. “Our staff has had discussions with the White House about it,” Jordan told ESPN. “If and when it comes, it will be in no way contradicting the goals and intents of our legislation.”
Financial Implications and Coaching Perspectives
Athletes began receiving payments directly from their schools on July 1, a major change to the business of college sports that arrived as a result of a recent antitrust settlement, ESPN reported. Each school is allowed to pay up to $20.5 million to its athletes in the coming academic year, according to the terms of the settlement reported by ESPN.
Several football coaches and athletic directors have recently said they believe it would make more sense — and provide more stability — if their players were considered employees and were able to collectively bargain, according to ESPN.
“The best way to do it is to make it where players are employees and you have a salary cap,” Louisville coach Jeff Brohm told ESPN earlier this month. “If players are getting paid, why don’t we just do it the correct way? The amateurism isn’t there anymore. Let’s not pretend that it is.”
Opposition and Legal Challenges
Steve Berman, one of the co-lead plaintiff attorneys in the House settlement, released a statement to Yahoo Sports calling a potential executive order as “unwarranted” and describing it as flouting the president’s “own philosophy on the supposed ‘art of the deal.'”
“Plain and simple, college athletes don’t need Trump’s help, and he shouldn’t be aiding the NCAA at the expense of athletes,” Berman, managing partner and co-founder of Hagens Berman, said in a statement to Yahoo Sports.
ESPN reported that there is one ongoing federal case (Johnson v. NCAA) that argues athletes should be considered employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The plaintiff’s attorney in that case, Paul McDonald, has previously argued that any action that blocks college athletes from being employees would be unconstitutional because it would treat the work athletes do as different than the work of other students who hold campus jobs, according to ESPN.
Executive Order Provisions
According to Yahoo Sports, the draft also requests the assistant to the president for domestic policy work with the U.S. Olympic team to provide “safeguards” for NCAA Olympic sports; and directs the secretary of education and National Labor Relations Board to implement policy “clarifying that status” of athletes, presumably as students and not employees.
The order gives the attorney general and Federal Trade Commission 60 days to make necessary revisions to new policy and gives the secretary of education and secretary of the treasury 120 days to develop financial education for athletes, Yahoo Sports reported.
CBS News reported on January 14, 2025, that President Trump intends to sign an executive order in the coming days establishing national standards for the NCAA’s Name, Image and Likeness program, which has reaped millions of dollars in revenue for top college athletes, according to multiple people familiar with his plans.
