The last several years in College Football have been confusing times for fans as NIL, the transfer portal, and revenue sharing have changed the sport. The consequence of College Athletes being allowed to earn revenue off of their likeness has been the arrival of Pay for play in College sports as collectives have started to pay athletes above the fair market value just to play for their school.
The example for this would be when a collective ponies up a ton of money to an offensive or defensive lineman, is the work the player is doing for the collective really worth multi-million dollar deals, probably not. The changes to the sport have brought about calls for clear rules governing college football and the House Settlement was a massive step.
The waters however were muddied on Thursday as President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled "President Donald J. Trump Saves College Sports".
The White House announces that President Donald Trump has signed the executive order related to college sports https://t.co/hZojHLAOsS pic.twitter.com/nbE3XYbc1L
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) July 24, 2025
The most important part of the executive order pertains to third-party pay for play payments to athletes reading the following:
"The order prohibits third-party, pay for play payments to collegiate athletes. This does not apply to legitimate fair-market-value compensation that a third party provides to an athlete such as for a brand endorsement."
Trump's executive order reads a ton like the impact the NCAA is trying to have by establishing a clearing house for NIL deals. The players will be allowed to continue earning money on their Name, Image, and Likeness but, its supposed to be done through proper channels like Ryan Williams signing with Nike rather than a program paying an athlete large sums to play for their school.
A ton of questions still remain especially as Trump's executive order brings another set of potential hurdles into the picture. Who is going to enforce these rules? What are the penalties going to be for breaking the rules? What falls under being a third-party pay for play payment?
The biggest question to ask is whether or not this means anything as the NCAA currently prohibits players from receiving pay for play payments but, that has meant nothing in this NIL era.