It’s not clear to me what can save college athletics from becoming on-campus professional sports, as it largely has in Happy Valley and across the nation, but it’s certain the silver bullet soul solution is not an executive order from the White House.
The problems of college athletics are largely self-inflicted and more nuanced.
While there are thousands of NCAA rules, there’s a larger body of people who are not rule followers. Or rogues. Or simply folks seeking a competitive advantage.
So, a rule gets bent, some logic or rationalization gets applied and a slippery slope of activity eventually broadens from one perpetrator or school to its conference brethren, and then other programs it competes against.
In relatively short time, everyone is doing whatever was supposedly illegal and it becomes an accepted practice.
In the long, rich history of such things, the barely year-old legal settlement that set a $20.5 million cap on revenue sharing for NCAA member programs provides the latest example of good intentions for college athletics gone bad. As always, thanks in large part to NCAA members themselves.
Remember, that $20.5 million cap was intended for all athletic programs at a school each year. Many speculated football and basketball would get most of the money. Beyond that, dividing the income would prompt a good bit of creative financial stewardship for the other teams on a given campus to get a little bit of what remained.
That was a troubling template from the start. It ensured the rich would get richer, that Title IX disparities would continue and that someone would find a way to use the ruling to their advantage or challenge the outcome in court.
Something else happened, though. Big schools and powerful programs displayed their lack of respect from the ruling almost immediately. With their abundant resources, many of the top schools looked at the intent of the settlement and ignored it.
Bolstered by closely related fundraising collectives, those big schools (including Penn State) generally spent more than the $20.5 million on football alone in the past year. Many (including Pat Kraft) boasted about it, too.
Everyone knew the rule that resulted from the settlement, but nobody cared.
That’s always been the NCAA’s problem — and its overreach on many issues in the past (not the least of which was the overly officious stance it took with Penn State’s punishment during the Sandusky situation) — did not help the organization in terms of public perception. Not only were rules ignored by members who initially clamored for them, but the NCAA lacked the personnel and resources to capably enforce or stop rule breakers.
So, with a sports-loving president in the White House, one always looking for attention and an easy victory (both politically and in terms of public relations), an executive order was trotted out as the solution. It’s one of many such orders (255 of them through April 3, 2026) that have been issued in the president’s second term.
The order related to college athletics takes a swing at many issues — including the length of a student-athlete’s career, transfer rules, compensation guidelines and more. Most experts agree the order is illegal and will be overruled once it gets challenged in court.
It’s supposed to go into effect Aug. 1, 2026. It might have some impact with the threat of cutting federal financial aid for institutions that do not comply, but it feels more performative than practical.
It’s both not enough and unnecessary.
Many of the issues are things NCAA members have been trying to address for years. They’ve recently been brought to the attention of Congress as well — but that’s not the place for self-inflicted problems, either.
College athletics needs to look in the mirror. Until NCAA members agree to follow the rules they enact, the fatal flaws will remain.
At this point, college sports as people of my age once knew it is largely dead. Pay for play is here to stay. But unless the NCAA members figure out a way to collaborate and agree on consequences themselves, the future of college athletics as high-end professional minor leagues could be in jeopardy too.
The unwillingness of those involved to do things for the greater good, even just at least a little bit, will make congressional action and executive orders irrelevant.
If you’ve enjoyed this content, please subscribe to Stuff Somers Says With Steve on YouTube. Or join our newsletter by entering your email below.
