President Donald Trump to sign executive order establishing national NIL standards amid evolving legislation

President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order establishing national standards for name, image and likeness initiatives, CBS News reports. Last week, members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced an amended bill called the SCORE Act (Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements), aiming to “protect the name, image, and likeness rights of student-athletes to promote fair compensation concerning intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes.” 

The bill could open the door for federal standards for NIL legislation, superseding the current state laws that provide guidance on player compensation. 

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said Wednesday during an appearance on “SEC This Morning” that he had no knowledge of a pending executive order. 

“The President clearly has an interest in sports, big picture, has an interest in college sports,” Sankey said. “He has been at our games. The notion of an executive order has been mentioned before. There were some reports of a commission or an executive order back to like, April, I think, is when that started to bubble. So we’ll wait and see … I don’t have any inside information about what generated those reports late last evening.”

Trump has shown a keen interest in college athletics in the early months of his second term. In May, reports emerged that Trump intended to create a college sports commission, headed by prominent Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell and legendary former coach Nick Saban, that would investigate pressing issues such as NIL reform; however, the White House put those plans on hiatus. A completely unrelated College Sports Commission (CSC) was created in the wake of the House v. NCAA settlement, which opened the door for athletes to profit off of revenue sharing. 

The CSC, in partnership with consulting firm Deloitte, launched an online portal called “NIL Go,” where athletes can report third-party NIL deals to ensure that they match “fair market value” and include a valid business purpose based on an actual endorsement.

College football leaders haven’t heard about order 

College sports leaders, including SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell, are some of the leading voices behind NIL change, but didn’t expect the announcement this week.

Campbell has spoken at length with Trump this summer about ways to stabilize the rapidly changing landscape of college sports. Campbell told USA Today he “hadn’t heard anything” about Trump’s order, but was not caught off guard by the news.