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The current wild, wild west nature of college athletics may be coming to an end. But is it a good thing?
President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that calls for the NCAA to establish clear rules regarding transfers and is set to go into effect Aug. 1.
The order seeks to limit college athletes to complete their careers in a five-year period. It also seeks to allow athletes to transfer without having to sit out only once.
The penalty for a school that does not abide by these criteria and pays an athlete whom doesn’t fall into these categories risks losing federal funding.
“College sports cannot function without clear, agreed-upon rules concerning pay-for-play and player eligibility that can’t be endlessly challenged in court, as is the case now,” the executive order said. “The resulting chaos is creating financial pressures that threaten to drain resources from all sports except football and basketball, and from many universities altogether.”
The order also seeks to expand protection and opportunities for women’s and Olympic sports. It hopes to establish a revenue-sharing model that would protect these sports and athletes.
However, the executive order may face a steep legal challenge. According to ESPN, several lawyers believe judges will rule the mandate unconstitutional.
The entire college sports landscape changed in 2021 when the Supreme Court ruled the NCAA was not exempt from antitrust laws. That paved the way for athletes to transfer as many times as they like. We’ve also seen the implementation of NIL. Plus, some players have sought additional eligibility even after their initial college playing days were over (i.e. Charles Bediako).
There are currently more than 1,000 players in the transfer portal for each of men’s and women’s basketball.
NCAA president Charlie Baker and other college officials have been working with Congress to establish parameters, but no progress has been made.
“We need congressional action to sort of seal the deal on a number of these things, which is good because we do, and getting a bipartisan agreement on a number of those issues would be a really big thing,” Baker said, according to ESPN. “Based on my own conversations with a lot of Democrats and Republicans in Washington over the course of the past month or two, I do think there’s a lot of common ground there.”
So, where do we go from here? Who knows.
