Trump College Sports Order Wins Conference Backing

President Donald Trump’s executive order on college sports drew immediate backing Friday from leaders of the Big Ten, SEC, ACC and Big 12, aligning the sport’s most powerful conferences behind a federal push to regulate athlete pay, transfers and eligibility.

It outlines a five-year eligibility window, limits most athletes to one transfer and targets pay-for-play arrangements tied to booster collectives. It also safeguards opportunities for women’s sports by reinforcing college funding protections and fairness across college athletics. In addition, it asks colleges to support sports programs represented in the Olympics.

Conference commissioners responded within hours, issuing statements that praised Trump’s involvement while pressing Congress to move forward with national legislation. The bipartisan SCORE Act was repeatedly cited as a path to stabilize rules around name, image and likeness payments, athlete status and recruiting.

The move lands at a time when college athletics is being reshaped by court rulings and a surge in athlete compensation, often reaching millions. A recent settlement approved by a federal judge requires the NCAA to pay nearly $2.8 billion in back damages to Division I athletes and allows schools to begin paying players directly.

NCAA President Charlie Baker said this week that parts of the order track with proposals already discussed with lawmakers. He has urged Congress to set a national framework, warning that state-by-state rules have created uneven standards across the country, according to reporting from Fox News and ESPN.

Still, the order is expected to face legal scrutiny. Sports attorney Mit Winter told AP that challenges from athletes or outside groups are likely, particularly around limits on compensation and transfers.

The order directs federal agencies to review whether schools that violate new standards could lose federal grants and contracts.

Trump signed the order weeks after hosting a White House roundtable with college sports leaders, where officials described what he called a “broken” system and pressed for federal action.

–Metro Voice and wire services