The White House committee tasked with reforming college athletics is circulating a draft of ideas for discussion that suggests capping coaches’ salaries, creating a Group of Six playoff and shielding the NCAA from antitrust litigation in what would be the most ambitious federal government intervention into college sports ever.
The preliminary recommendations, reviewed Friday by CBS Sports, were circulated this week within President Donald Trump’s College Sports Reform Committee. The committee marked the draft for “discussion purposes only” and wrote that it is actively seeking input from industry participants and athletes before moving toward formal policy.
The committee calls for a new entity to oversee a plan it believes should be implemented in three phases. A new College Sports Reform Task Force would be established within the existing NCAA structure, armed with limited antitrust exemptions and the authority to override state laws. The task force would operate for two years, and any rules it sets during that period would carry permanent antitrust protection, meaning they would remain in effect even after the body dissolves, unless a future governing body or Congress changes them.
Congress would also oversee the College Sports Reform Task Force.
But none of the ideas work without Congressional intervention. The plans all hinge on Congress passing legislation to shield the NCAA and its membership from antitrust lawsuits. The committee is pushing for legislation to be adopted before Congress’s summer recess, “even if such legislation is inconsistent with any recommendations made in this memo.”
The long-gestating SCORE Act is expected to be presented on the House floor the week of May 18, though leaders believe the bill is at least half a dozen votes short of passing the Senate and becoming law.
The committee’s document outlined a three-phased approach, with a focus on “decisive near-term action and long-term structural reforms aimed at permanent sustainability.”
The ideas: Salary caps, media rights reform, Group of Six playoff
The document outlines three phases: stabilization, media rights reform and permanent governance.
Phase 1 is where the most consequential ideas live.
The document calls for salary caps for coaches and administrators, the most direct intervention into athletic department spending ever proposed at the federal level. It’s aimed at addressing rising costs in college athletics, which have led some programs to cut non-revenue sports and shrink staff sizes in athletic departments. Coaches’ salaries have never been higher. At least 13 major football coaches are set to be paid at least $10 million next season.
Also outlined in the document is the prohibition on NIL-based salary cap circumvention, a growing concern as booster collectives and athletic departments redirect multimedia rights and apparel revenues to supplement the $20.5 million that schools are permitted to share with players under the terms of the House v. NCAA settlement.
The committee also wishes to modify the CFP’s revenue distribution and create a separate playoff for the Group of Six conferences. They also suggest possibly shaking up conference membership for non-revenue sports “to decrease travel costs and burden on schools and student athletes.”
The document outlines a solution to slow player movement in the transfer portal with a college version of the NBA’s Bird Rule. This would allow schools to provide financial incentives to players who stay at the same institution for consecutive seasons.
Phase 2 focuses on media rights. The committee proposes pooling models, including an opt-in structure where 75 or more schools combining rights at contract expiration would receive antitrust protection. Existing conference deals — the ACC’s contract is the last major agreement to expire in 2036 — make any near-term structural change gradual.
Combining media rights across conference lines was floated previously by billionaire Texas Tech booster Cody Campbell, who is among the leaders on the president’s committees. The proposal has since been publicly supported by American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti. The plan would require amending the Sports Broadcasting Act.
Phase 3 calls for a 15-member board to oversee a permanent governing body, born of the College Sports Reform Task Force. It would be made up of players, power conference commissioners, Notre Dame’s athletic director, two representatives from other conferences, one representative from Division II and III, an independent representative and an attorney.
The committee also floated the idea of appointing commissioners to oversee individual sports in its third phase.
The committee’s urgency reflects an ecosystem under sustained legal and financial stress. Multiple power programs have eliminated several non-revenue sports to combat rising costs associated with player revenue sharing, which began last fall with the implementation of the multi-billion-dollar House v. NCAA settlement.
President Trump formed five committees in March tasked to reform college athletics, following an unprecedented “Saving College Sports” roundtable with college and professional sports leaders in Washington D.C. Trump tapped New York Yankees president Randy Levine and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to lead the broader effort as vice chairs, with Trump serving as chair of an Oversight Committee, which includes Campbell and university presidents from Clemson, Georgia, Kansas, Nebraska, North Carolina, Tennessee and Utah.
Other committee members include power conference commissioners, former Alabama coach Nick Saban, NBA commissioner Adam Silver, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The committees have held multiple meetings since April.
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