The four most powerful conference commissioners in college athletics lined up Friday evening to publicly thank President Donald Trump for his latest executive order, a directive that puts federal grant money on the table as leverage to enforce tighter transfer rules, eligibility limits, and a crackdown on pay-for-play booster schemes that have turned college sports into an unregulated marketplace.
Big Ten Commissioner Tony Petitti, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, Big 12 Commissioner Brett Yormark, and ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips each posted statements on social media within hours of the order's release, as Fox News Digital reported. The rare show of unity across all four Power 4 conferences carried a single, unmistakable message: Congress needs to act, and fast.
The executive order directs federal agencies to evaluate whether universities that violate rules on transferring, eligibility, and pay-for-play arrangements should be deemed "unfit for Federal grants and contracts." It enforces a five-year participation window, structured transfer rules, and a ban on "improper financial arrangements including pay-for-play agreements facilitated by collectives and similar entities."
That last provision strikes at the heart of the problem. Since the name, image, and likeness era began, booster collectives have operated as shadow payroll systems, funneling money to recruits through arrangements that look nothing like the endorsement deals NIL was supposed to enable. The order does not restrict legitimate NIL payments from third-party sources. It targets the pay-to-play pipeline that has made a mockery of competitive balance.
Every one of the four commissioners pointed to the same piece of legislation: the bipartisan SCORE Act, which the White House has endorsed. The act would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption, prohibit athletes from becoming employees of their schools, and bar schools from using student fees to fund NIL payments.
Petitti framed the order and the legislation as a package deal. In his statement, the Big Ten commissioner said:
"The Big Ten Conference would like to thank President Trump for his leadership and continuing efforts to protect college athletics and joins him in urging Congress to quickly pass legislation addressing the critical issues undermining its long-term stability."
He added that the SCORE Act "thoughtfully addresses name, image, and likeness for student-athletes, protecting academic and athletic opportunities provided through women's and Olympic sports programs, and expands resources to support student-athletes on and off the field."
Trump has made protecting women's sports a consistent priority across multiple executive actions. Earlier, he signed a separate order using Title IX to bar biological males from competing in women's sports categories, threatening federal funding for noncompliant schools, a move National Review detailed in its reporting on the February 5, 2025 directive.
Sankey, the SEC's top executive, zeroed in on the need for uniform national standards, a problem that has plagued college athletics as state-level NIL laws created a patchwork of conflicting rules.
"The establishment and enforcement of consistent national standards for college athletics remains a top priority, and President Trump's executive order provides important clarity to help ensure all programs operate under comparable policies."
He also praised "the continued, bipartisan engagement of members of the House and Senate on these key issues" and called for House approval of the SCORE Act along with "meaningful Senate consideration of similar legislation."
The broader fight over executive power has drawn attention across policy areas. Trump's willingness to use the executive order pen has prompted legal challenges on other fronts, including a Supreme Court case testing his birthright citizenship order. But on college sports, the reception from stakeholders has been far warmer.
Yormark, the Big 12 commissioner, was blunt about the stakes. He called federal action "essential to protect the future of college athletics" and said Congress must move now to build on the executive order's momentum.
"The bipartisan SCORE Act offers a comprehensive framework for many of the issues facing our industry, and I look forward to continue working with President Trump and Congress to enact meaningful reforms."
Phillips, leading the ACC, tied the order directly to a White House roundtable Trump hosted roughly a month earlier, where notable sports figures and officials gathered to address the chaos in college athletics.
"We deeply thank President Trump and his administration's ongoing commitment to protecting college athletics by issuing today's executive order. Following the White House's college sports roundtable, there continues to be significant momentum to preserve the athletic and academic opportunities for the next generation of student-athletes, and we appreciate the efforts."
Phillips said he remains "optimistic that the SCORE Act, which would provide stability to college sports, will pass the House of Representatives in the near future."
That optimism may be tested. The SCORE Act was scheduled for a vote in December, but the effort collapsed when three House Republicans, Byron Donalds of Florida, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Chip Roy of Texas, voted with Democrats to block the bill from reaching the floor. The breakdown left conference leaders and reform advocates without the legislative vehicle they had been counting on.
Trump's executive orders have routinely drawn heated reactions from media figures and political opponents. Some of the loudest criticism has come from entertainment and sports commentators who objected to his previous orders touching the sports world, often missing the substance entirely in favor of outrage.
The executive order lands against a financial backdrop that makes the case for federal intervention hard to dismiss. About a month before the order, a judge approved a settlement between the NCAA, its most powerful conferences, and lawyers representing all Division I athletes. Under that deal, the NCAA will pay close to $2.8 billion in back damages over the next ten years, covering athletes who competed from 2016 to 2025.
The settlement also allows college programs to pay athletes directly, a seismic shift that further blurs the line between amateur and professional sports. Without clear federal rules, schools face wildly different legal and financial obligations depending on which state they sit in and which court has jurisdiction.
The order also demands that schools account for preserving resources for non-revenue sports. That provision matters for the hundreds of programs, track and field, swimming, wrestling, tennis, that survive on institutional funding and would be the first casualties if football and basketball money gets redirected into athlete payrolls without guardrails.
The pressure Trump has applied extends beyond college campuses. His administration's executive actions on women's sports contributed to the IOC's decision to bar biological males from women's Olympic events, a policy shift that would have been unthinkable just a few years ago.
Trump's July order, which preceded the latest directive, had already prohibited athletes from receiving pay-to-play payments from third-party sources while leaving legitimate NIL deals untouched. The new order builds on that framework by tying federal funding to compliance, a mechanism that gives the rules actual teeth.
The president's use of executive authority has drawn legal scrutiny on other fronts, including his executive order on mail-in ballot rules. But the college sports order has a structural advantage: it aligns the White House with the very institutions, the Power 4 conferences, that run the sport and have the most to lose from continued chaos.
The SCORE Act remains the commissioners' preferred path. All four statements pointed to it by name. The White House has endorsed it. The bipartisan framework exists. What does not yet exist is the political will in Congress to get it across the finish line, particularly after the December collapse.
Three House Republicans helped sink the vote last time. Whether they come around, or whether new pressure from the executive branch and the conferences changes the math, will determine whether college sports gets the federal guardrails it needs or continues drifting toward a system where the richest programs buy the best players and everyone else scrambles to survive.
The commissioners asked for leadership. They got an executive order. Now the ball sits with Congress, and the clock is running on whether lawmakers will treat college athletics like the multi-billion-dollar industry it has become, or keep pretending the old amateur model still exists.
