President Donald Trump plans to convene a panel next week focused on the future of college athletics, sources briefed on the event confirmed Thursday.
The roundtable, scheduled for March 6, includes an invite list with dozens of important figures and sports celebrities aimed at exploring the many challenges facing the industry. The list of invitees, which, like the event itself, is subject to change according to those familiar with the planning, features college sports commissioners, university administrators and other industry leaders, along with business executives, professional sports figures and political officials.
Trump is expected to chair the discussion, which will likely touch on some of the big-picture issues facing college athletics, such as governance, athlete employment status, collective bargaining, legal battles and federal involvement.
The meeting comes amid continued uncertainty in college sports governance, and industry leaders remain divided over how to address those pressures.
The NCAA’s authority has been weakened in recent years by various court rulings and a rapidly changing name, image and likeness (NIL) marketplace that has all but undone a longstanding model of amateurism at the highest levels. The top college programs are actively seeking ways to spend above the new revenue-sharing cap, while many other schools are struggling to generate enough revenue to keep pace. Power conferences are negotiating television contracts that dwarf those of their peers. And Congress has either been unable or unwilling to institute a national framework to stabilize things.
The White House could be positioning itself as a convening table for that chaos.
Yahoo Sports first reported details of the roundtable and listed invitees such as NBA commissioner Adam Silver; golf legend Tiger Woods; Notre Dame AD Pete Bevacqua; Texas Tech board member and prominent businessman Cody Campbell; Heisman winners Tim Tebow and Charlie Ward; as well as national championship coaches Mack Brown, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer. It is unclear which of those invited will ultimately attend.
Trump has shown an interest in college sports and attended numerous college football games during his two terms in office, including the Army-Navy game in December. He signed an executive order last July titled “Saving College Sports,” directing federal agencies to scrutinize athlete employment classification, antitrust protections for the NCAA and conferences, and enforcement standards surrounding third-party NIL payments. The order produced no binding changes, underscoring that lasting reform would likely require Congressional action. Trump also explored a presidential commission that would have been co-chaired by Saban and Campbell, but it was ultimately paused.
Earlier this week, Trump appeared on “Josh Pate’s College Football Show,” a national college football podcast. Next week’s roundtable appears to be his next endeavor on the topic.
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