There were two major developments on the NIL news front this week and how it impacts the state of college athletics today — something many have become disillusioned with.

Several months back, there were reports of President Donald Trump considering passing an executive order and/or forming a commission on college sports to address the growing problems within the NIL system and the pay-for-play chaos it has created in the areas of talent acquisition.

RELATED: As new Alabama-driven NIL bill gains traction, Congress moves to rein in ‘Wild West’ of college sports

On Thursday, Trump officially passed the executive order with a goal of preserving “student-athletes and collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities including in Olympic and non-revenue programs, and the unique American institution of college sports.”

According to a release from the White House, the order does the following:

• The Order requires the preservation and, where possible, expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports.
• 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.
• The Order provides that any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be implemented in a manner that protects women’s and non-revenue sports.
• The Order directs the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of student-athletes in order to preserve non-revenue sports and the irreplaceable educational and developmental opportunities that college sports provide.
• The Order directs the Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission to take appropriate actions to protect student-athletes’ rights and safeguard the long-term stability of college athletics from endless, debilitating antitrust and other legal challenges.
• The Order directs the Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and the Director of the White House Office of Public Liaison to consult with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams and other organizations to protect the role of college athletics in developing world-class American athletes.

The goal here of course is to prevent the dissolving of sports which do not necessarily create revenue, something which has been seen as an underrated consequence of the NIL era down the line.

Players have been moving towards an increasingly unionized model in which they are employees rather than students, and this certainly takes a step in the opposite direction.

On the same day Trump passed the order, Congress advanced the bipartisan SCORE Act through the U.S. House committee and looks to be on the fast track towards passing.

RELATED: Shomari Figures making bipartisan play to address NIL with support from GOP leaders, Alabama AD Greg Byrne

“The current college sports environment has drastically changed in the NIL era, and this bill provides a framework to where students can not only be compensated but also have access to resources like health care and financial literacy courses, to ensure they have a solid foundation for their lives after college and we can get back to just playing ball,” Rep. Shomari Figures, D-Mobile — one of the main sponsors of the bill — said last week.

University of Alabama Athletics Director was one of many to express public support for the SCORE Act.

“We sincerely thank Congressman Figures for leading a bipartisan solution for intercollegiate athletics that recognizes the importance of creating a long-term sustainable model that provides the best opportunity to preserve broad athletic opportunities for student-athletes for generations to come,” Byrne said last week.

With things moving quickly on this front, it remains to be seen if these efforts can produce actual results on the field, but it certainly seems like government officials are for the first time taking action on the topic rather than simply discussing taking action.