Less than a month after Donald Trump hosted a roundtable meeting on college sports, he signed the executive order that was touted to be a major step in regulating the current landscape. But whether or not it will actually benefit athletes is currently being debated.

The executive order now allows the NCAA to enforce a five-year eligibility cap on college athletes and limits them to just one unrestricted transfer as an undergraduate. Schools that still enroll players who might have forfeited these rules will lose federal funding. There are many more provisions in the order.

But according to prominent sports lawyer Darren Heitner, there are problems in the order's fine print.

"[The] order does not create any rules," he shared on X. "It does not grant the NCAA an antitrust exemption. It does not and cannot declare that NCAA rules are immune from legal challenge.

"The executive order's enforcement mechanism is federal funding. That's a real threat. However, conditioning federal funding on compliance with an executive order is something that courts are willing to scrutinize and reject when the legal foundation is insufficient."

These rules will still have to meet the existing law and pass judicial scrutiny. During the roundtable itself, Donald Trump admitted that his order can very likely be challenged in court. His executive orders refusing federal funds to media houses NPR and PBS failed in court, so there is precedent.

The NCAA has long been lobbying for federal support to regulate issues regarding the NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) chaos. And, of late, it has been burdened by a host of eligibility lawsuits. Donald Trump is giving the NCAA some support in this case with the order. But when it comes to athletes, the rules might come off as arbitrary.

Donald Trump is restricting athletes from availing their rights, according to Heitner

Heitner expects more cases to be brought to court from college athletes after the executive order was signed, and even thanked Donald Trump for this reason. There are some strict rules in the order, like restricting them to five years of eligibility without any exception.

Many players have taken the NCAA to court for an extra year of eligibility, but only after they were limited in their existing eligibility for some reason. Ole Miss quarterback Trinidad Chambliss got a preliminary injunction for another season on medical grounds.

Because the rule has little benefit to athletes, Heitner is not very appreciative of the order.

“No statute gives the President power to rewrite them or deprive athletes of their rights. An EO would be aspirational only and a waste of time.” 

Moreover, the rule still does not protect the NCAA from antitrust laws. The organization tried to do that in the Capitol by seeking the ratification of the SCORE Act, but the bill failed to pass the final vote. It's still going to take a long time for the NCAA to firmly control the wildly changing world of college athletics.

What do you think of Donald Trump taking this step? Let us know in the comments.

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Written by

Samvruth Raj

Edited by

Afreen Kabir