The advent of NIL deals significantly diminished the influence that college football recruiters have had over the past few years. But a new executive order from President Trump will aim to curtail that, much to the delight of former national champion Nick Saban.
The “Saving College Sports” executive order reins in NIL deals in several ways.
“The future of college sports is under unprecedented threat,” the order says. “A national solution is urgently needed to prevent this situation from deteriorating beyond repair and to protect non-revenue sports, including many women’s sports, that comprise the backbone of intercollegiate athletics, drive American superiority at the Olympics and other international competitions, and catalyze hundreds of thousands of student-athletes to fuel American success in myriad ways.”
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Saban has been a fan of the order from the get-go and is in favor of more guardrails moving forward. Appearing on Fox News, Saban praised the President for signing the order and believes that the nation is at a crossroads. He feels that the choice is now between “an education-based mode,” which Trump supports, and university-sponsored pro teams.
“I think President Trump’s Executive Order takes a huge step in providing the educational model that has always been what we’ve tried to promote to create opportunities for players,” Saban said. “I think we sort of need to make a decision here. Do we want an education-based model (which I think the President took a big step towards doing that) or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams? I think most people would choose the former.”
Nick Saban praises @POTUS' Executive Order protecting student-athletes & collegiate athletic scholarships:"I think @POTUS' Executive Order takes a huge step in providing the educational model that has always been what we've tried to promote to create opportunities for players." pic.twitter.com/kehXs6kGg5
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 25, 2025
There are a lot of things that the order does and a lot of things that the order doesn’t do.
What Trump signed doesn’t appear to be the framework for an “education-based model,” but rather an attempt to simply rein in the athletes getting paid directly. Everything else, from the billion-dollar media rights deals to the huge investments going directly into football infrastructure to the increasingly large coaching contracts, stays the same.
While Saban seems to believe that most people prefer the education-based model, it’s hard to tell if that’s what we’re likely to get moving forward.
More importantly, the pro-style model has become so ingrained in college football and football culture itself that it may be impossible to un-ring the bell in the first place.
Related: Trump Considers Executive Order on College Athlete Payments
