Trump holds college sports roundtable with Saban, Meyer in attendance

President Donald Trump hosted a college sports roundtable on Friday to examine solutions to key challenges, including NCAA authority; name, image and likeness (NIL) issues; collective bargaining; and governance concerns.

Athletic officials in attendance included NCAA President Charlie Baker, former Alabama head football coach Nick Saban, OutKick founder Clay Travis, New York Yankees President Randy Levine and each of the Power Four commissioners.

“This is the future beyond college sports. This is the future of universities,” Trump said as he kicked off the roundtable. “The amount of money spent and lost by otherwise very successful schools is staggering in a short period of time. The situation will only get worse. We must save college sports and, I believe, universities.

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“Crazy things are happening. … We have a seven-year freshman class. We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before. College players don’t want to go pro because they make more money in college,” he added.

Trump said different states have different NIL laws, saying there is a “lack of rulemaking,” leading to another challenge for college sports.

“If Congress doesn’t act quickly, it could destroy college sports,” Trump said.

“A judge who knew nothing about sports, who knew nothing about football, who knew nothing about the Olympics, who knew nothing just decided the whole thing was unconstitutional,” Trump said.

He was probably referring to Judge Claudia Wilken, who ruled in 2019 that the NCAA’s limits on education-related benefits violated antitrust law.

“This is crazy. Only Congress can provide a permanent solution,” Trump said.

Trump stated that he does not aim to return to the situation where athletes are not paid.

“It’s not such a bad idea, though,” he admitted. “But I think a lot of people would invalidate me on that.”

Trump then said, “to go back to what you had, let the judges tell you you can’t do it, appeal and at some point you win. Because what you have, what a great system. Everybody was happy.”

Helping athletes be more successful on a personal level has become “impossible” in today’s age, Saban said.

“Instead of making decisions about creating value for their future, people were making decisions about which school they could attend or how much money they could make at the school they might transfer to,” Saban said.

“I think we need to come up with a system, and frankly we need to do that with the leadership of the president and probably the Congress…to allow student-athletes in all sports to improve their quality of life as they go to college, but still provide the opportunity to advance themselves beyond their athletic careers, that’s always been the philosophy of college athletes and getting a college education.”

Former Alabama head coach Nick Saban is seen before a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

Trump has been very determined to “save college sports.” sign an administrative order New restrictions will be placed on payments to college athletes in July.

The president’s order prohibits athletes from receiving pay-for-play payments from third-party sources. However, the order did not impose any restrictions on NIL payments to college athletes from third-party sources. It also calls for schools’ responsibility to preserve resources for non-revenue sports.

The SCORE Act was at the forefront of the roundtable. It was scheduled to be voted on in December, but the vote was recently canceled. The White House approved the legislation, but three Republicans — Byron Donalds of Florida, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Chip Roy of Texas — voted with Democrats to keep it from coming to the floor. Democrats largely opposed the bill and urged House members to vote against it.

The SCORE Act would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption and ban athletes from being employees of their schools, in hopes of protecting the NCAA from potential lawsuits over its eligibility rules. It prohibits schools from using student fees to fund NIL payments.

President Donald Trump greets House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, as he arrives for a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said the law “hurts” women’s sports and that strengthening Title IX “should be part of the SCORE Act.” He also said the SCORE Act “represents a consolidation of what we have today, the SEC and the Big Ten, which raise a boatload of money from college athletics.”

Trahan agreed that “perhaps the SCORE Act is the right tool that we continue to develop,” showing some confidence in it and expressing a desire to work with those at the roundtable to make it successful. U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., said women’s sports “will be protected,” while ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said 56% of the ACC’s athletic scholarships have gone to women since the House case.

American Conference commissioner Tim Pernetti said the SCORE Act does not solve the “economic crisis” of college athletics. Meyer admitted that he did not like that collectives were still included in the SCORE Act, calling it a “gimmick.”

“I think if the collective was eliminated, college sports would immediately improve,” Meyer said.

After the debates, Trump said he would write an executive order “based on great common sense.”

“This will allow colleges to survive, players to survive, and a lot of people to be very, very happy,” Trump said.

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable on college sports in the East Room of the White House on March 6, 2026 in Washington, DC. The Trump administration held a roundtable titled “Saving College Sports” with leaders from the Power Four conferences, media executives and former coaches. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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A month before Trump’s order, Wilken approved a settlement between the NCAA, its most powerful conferences and lawyers representing all Division I athletes. The agreement means the NCAA will pay close to $2.8 billion in back injuries over the next 10 years to college athletes who competed from 2016 to 2025. The agreement also allows college programs to pay athletes directly.

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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