President Trump set to sign executive order aimed at college sports, targeting transfers and eligibility

The Commander-in-Chief is advocating for limiting transfers, capping eligibility and NIL reform

President Donald Trump is expected to sign an executive order in an effort to "save college sports," an intervention at the highest level aimed at federally regulating NIL collectives, limiting transfer movement, capping player eligibility, and enacting funding requirements for the Olympics and women's sports, sources confirmed to CBS Sports' Brandon Marcello.

Trump's recommendation includes strict guardrails on player transfers and even mentions the return of NCAA's "one-time" transfer rule, which was previously deemed unlawful. Under the revised transfer rules, athletes would be allowed to transfer once without penalty, but a second transfer would trigger an automatic redshirt season. The order also redefines eligibility, with a 5-for-5 model: athletes have five years to play five seasons.

Per CBS News, Trump's order threatens to review federal government grants and contracts for schools and potentially cut funding if they fail to comply with NCAA rules. 

Trump said last month he was fast-tracking an "all-encompassing" executive order to put the onus on Congress to initiate NIL changes to fix the current college athletics landscape. 

"The whole educational system is going to go out of business because of this," Trump said.

Trump first considered an executive order targeting NIL reform after meeting last May with former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who's been a vocal critic of NIL's impact on college athletics. The pair reconvened on March 6 with more than two dozen others during a meeting at the White House to opine on the future of college athletics.

NCAA president Charlie Baker, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, Texas Tech billionaire booster Cody Campbell and Sarah Hirshland, the chief executive of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee, were among those in attendance.

Coming out of that "Saving College Sports" symposium, Trump formed five committees on college sports covering legislation, rules, NCAA reform, media and player issues. The President's Oversight Committee is tasked with gathering the groups' recommendations before making final decisions.

The athletic department at the University of Louisville is one of dozens nationally operating in a recurring deficit and wrote in a statement entitled 'College Athletics Is Running Out of Time' last month that "the math no longer works" across college sports.

Louisville revealed that it took out a $25 million "line of credit" before this season to assist with paying athletes and requested congressional action to fix a broken system. The statement, released on behalf of Louisville President Gerry Bradley, AD Josh Heird and Trustees Chair Laurence Benz, was wide in scope and put numbers to what most knew was already happening in the NIL and revenue-sharing era of college sports.

Proposed eligibility, transfer changes

Thanks to the recent influx of student-athletes challenging NCAA eligibility norms in court since current requirements are unclear, Trump's order includes the five-year plan. Virginia quarterback Chandler Morris was denied his seventh year of eligibility Thursday by a Virginia judge who deemed his injunction was based on insufficient information.

Morris is the third Power Four quarterback to request an injunction this offseason, joining Trinidad Chambliss at Ole Miss and Tennessee's Joey Aguilar. A Mississippi judge granted Chambliss a temporary injunction that will allow him to spend another season with the Rebels, while Aguilar was denied injunctive relief in a ruling that served as a major victory for the NCAA and was similar to former Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia's JUCO-driven pleas ahead of the 2025 season.

In college football specifically, the transfer portal has spun out of control in recent years, leading to unintended free agency across the sport. Immediate eligibility resulted in roughly 25% of FBS players entering the portal during the 2026 cycle, which was highlighted by a singular window from Jan. 2-16 ahead of the spring semester.

What happens next?

Trump's order is considered "comprehensive and direct" compared to his last attempt directed at cabinet members, per Yahoo Sports. Courts have struck down many of Trump's others orders involving college sports, deeming them unenforceable.

Executive orders are heavily scrutinized legally and lawsuits against Trump's calls for reform are expected.

Many of those in attendance at Trump's gathering last month favored the SCORE Act, first introduced in July 2025 by members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Backed by the NCAA and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee, the SCORE Act aims at regulating payments made to collegiate athletes, but has not passed.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) believes passing the SCORE Act is a necessity in the fight against current NIL issues and would help establish federal standards in payments to players and regulations for agents representing college athletes, according to The Hill.

The bill intends to "protect the name, image, and likeness rights of students-athletes to promote fair compensation with respect to intercollegiate athletics, and for other purposes." 

"If we don't act, we are very quickly going to be in a world of 30 to 50 college football teams that are basically a mini NFL. And the rest of the schools are going to be left behind," Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said last month. "For some time, to use a football analogy, we have been on the 2-yard line and are unable to push. And there are interest groups, particularly trial lawyers and unions that are resulting in Democrat senators actively lobbying against the SCORE Act and don't want to see legislation passed."

Cruz said 60 Senate votes -- which includes seven Democrats -- are needed for the SCORE Act to pass. Democrats Janelle Bynum (Ore.) and Shomari Figures (Ala.) introduced the legislation with Republicans last summer to try to curtail the big business of college sports, but the SCORE Act has largely been opposed by the Democratic party. 

Former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer previously vouched for "pay-for-play" to end while Saban stressed the importance of academic support and athletes advancing themselves beyond a career in sports.

"How much does anybody talk about getting an education anymore? Nobody talks about it at all, which is the most important thing any of these student-athletes can do in terms of enhancing the future," Saban said during Trump's college sports panel.

Expensive rosters the norm for contenders

While some coaches have dispelled "irresponsible reports" of $40 million rosters in college football, others have acknowledged their authenticity after the House v. NCAA settlement last summer paved the way for revenue sharing.

Before winning a national championship to close out the 2024 season, athletic director Ross Bjork said the football program spent $20 million on its elite-level roster, which included a couple of pricey transfers and No. 1 overall recruit Jeremiah Smith. CBS Sports previously reported the top spending programs that same season paid upwards of $30 million for talent, a record that was immediately broken the following roster cycle.

A report earlier this week through LSU donors indicated the Tigers made a $40 million investment in Lane Kiffin's first-year roster through NIL and revenue sharing, a number that was initially allocated in the $25 to $30 million range. That's a different ballpark than most other SEC programs outside of Texas and Texas A&M.

One SEC head coach recently told The Athletic he expects the 2027 baseline to be around $45 million for those expecting to be in the conference championship and College Football Playoff discussion.

Without federal NIL regulations, the gap between the haves and have-nots in the Power conference ranks will widen, not to mention the low success rate for programs outside of that scope as it relates to winning.

Based on data for the 2026 transfer portal cycle, only 29.5% of the Group of Six players who earned first- or second-team all-conference honors last season remain with the team they played for in 2025. In comparison, 74.6% of Power Four all-conference players who returned in 2026 opted to stay with their previous team.

There's even a sizable retention gap within the Power Four. Thanks to monstrous TV contracts for the SEC and Big Ten, those two conferences retained 97.4% of their eligible returning players, compared to just 56.8% in the ACC and Big 12.

With the revenue sharing "cap" for the 2025-26 academic year hovering around $20.5 million per school according to the College Sports Commission, most athletic departments allocated at least 75% of that total to its biggest revenue-driver — football — which left the majority of other sports struggling to keep up. That cap is expected to increase by at least 4% annually in the coming seasons.