President Donald Trump issued an executive order on name, image and likeness (NIL) in college sports — the first major step toward placing regulations and guardrails on a system that has taken on a life of its own.
The order, according to a release directly from the White House is aimed to “protect student-athletes and collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities, including in Olympic and non-revenue programs, and the unique American institution of college sports.
Critics of NIL have argued for years now how it will be the end of non-revenue sports on college campuses, and the very first goal on the list for the order is preventing that.
RELATED: Trump issues NIL executive order on same day SCORE Act passes in U.S. House committee
Trump’s executive order has the stamp of approval from two of the most important people in the state of Alabama, former Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban and current Alabama athletics director Greg Byrne.
Byrne released a statement of support on his X account on Thursday night, while Saban also praised the decision during an appearance on Fox News on Friday:
— Greg Byrne (@Greg_Byrne) July 25, 2025
“The University of Alabama applauds this executive order from President Trump to help secure a long-term sustainable model of intercollegiate athletics,” Byrne said. “We are proud of our broad-based athletics programs and strongly support future regulatory and Congressional action that will preserve these opportunities for student-athletes.”
Nick Saban praises @POTUS‘ Executive Order protecting student-athletes & collegiate athletic scholarships:
“I think @POTUS‘ Executive Order takes a huge step in providing the educational model that has always been what we’ve tried to promote to create opportunities for players.” pic.twitter.com/kehXs6kGg5
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) July 25, 2025
“I think President Trump’s Executive Order takes a huge step in providing the educational model that has always been what we’ve tried to promote to create opportunities for players male and female, revenue and non-revenue,” Saban said. “I think we sort of need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education based model which the President made a huge step towards doing that, or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams? I think most people would choose the former.”
College athletics have been moving towards a model — especially in football and basketball — to where players are employees rather than students, and the constant hemming and hawing of which direction will be taken in that area has stalled anything definitive from happening.
With Trump’s Executive Order though, it sounds like that momentum is being halted, and as Saban mentions, preserving not only non-revenue sports, but an educational-based system.
One critic of the amount of impact this will actually have was one of the most prominent college football reporters on the topic in Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, who appeared on Paul Finebaum Thursday upon the news coming out and downplayed exactly what impact there is going to be:
Instant reaction from @RossDellenger :
“I wish I could tell you that (Trump’s executive order) was some groundbreaking thing and everything’s going to change in college sports after this…but I don’t think that’s the case.” pic.twitter.com/WxfjJIemE8
— Paul Finebaum (@finebaum) July 24, 2025
Dellenger pointed out that Congressional legislation is a much more permanent solution rather than any sort of Executive Order
“I wish I could tell you that (Trump’s executive order) was some groundbreaking thing and everything’s going to change in college sports after this…but I don’t think that’s the case.”
Ironically, U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures’ SCORE Act passed out of U.S. House committee on the same day and is moving towards passing as well, so perhaps actual change can be seen. The SCORE Act has similar goals as the Executive Order and could be even more critical than any sort of Executive Order.
Clearly, there is still a long road to go in order to get any sort of control on what college sports have become. Momentum though is moving in the right direction, and it certainly seems like those who make the every day decisions in college sports are in favor of action which has already been taken.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
