Donald Trump Considering An Executive Order On NIL After Meeting With Nick Saban. Would It Work?

Is President Donald Trump going to tip his toes into the college athletics landscape by signing an executive order regarding NIL? After meeting with Nick Saban on Thursday night, one report says that the President has asked his aides to start piecing together what this might look like. 

Former Alabama coach Nick Saban was the ‘warm up’ act for Donal Trump on Thursday during the opening night of graduation weekend in Tuscaloosa. 

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Donald Trump met with Nick Saban before leaving for Mar A Largo, where the two sides discussed the ongoing situation around college athletics, most importantly ‘NIL', which allows players to profit off their name, image and likeness. 

We are still waiting for Judge Claudia Wilken to approve the House settlement, as both the plaintiffs and the NCAA had to come up with a solution on how to ‘grandfather’ in the roster limits that will come from the resolution to the lawsuit. 

Right now, schools across the country are using this time period to spend money on players, front-loading NIL contracts so that they will be off the books once a revenue-share cap goes into place on what is scheduled to be July 1. 

The Wall Street Journal reported that Donald Trump and Nick Saban discussed ‘NIL Deals’, with Saban reportedly telling the President how he believed the influx of money had damaged college sports during this era of name, image and likeness. 

Until 2021, it was illegal for athletes to be paid. When the NCAA decided to roll out the rules for NIL, they pretty much left it to the schools to enforce these rules, while also not putting up many guardrails regarding the matter. 

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - President Donald Trump shakes hands with former Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban as Trump takes the stage to address graduating students at Coleman Coliseum at the University of Alabama on May 1, 2025. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Athletic Directors, Commissioners Have Been Lobbying Congress For Help

Now, conferences, schools and commissioners are seemingly begging congress to step in, and issue some type of legislation on how to move forward in this new era. The WSJ reports that Nick Saban was pushing Trump to reform NIL, which he and plenty of other leaders hope would create a more even playing field. 

The problem with this potential ‘executive order’ is that it will most certainly lead to more lawsuits filed by players who feel they are being held back by the government on what they could possibly make in revenue off their name. If Donald Trump decided to sign some type of order that could provide guardrails around the House settlement, along with starting some type of oversight on how these payments would be made, then I could see something from DC coming together. 

But, congressional leaders, along with the President, would be walking a very thin line if they tried to institute some type of government order pertaining to NIL, especially when there are plenty of lawyers ready to file lawsuits if the House settlement starts to impact athletes in manners that have not been previously discussed. 

Obviously, athletic directors and commissioners across the country have come up short in their lobbying of Congress when it comes to putting rules together to guard the potential antitrust lawsuits and provide the enforcement arm with some type of power. 

Right now, athletic directors are scrambling to figure out how all of this will play out moving forward, when the settlement is approved. Many leaders across college campuses are going to make adjustments as they go, with no specific rule structure setup at the moment. 

It will be interesting to see if Nick Saban, along with others, can come up with a plan alongside President Trump and his cabinet members to solve this problem in college athletics.