WASHINGTON, March 6 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said the soaring cost of paying for football at colleges was harming school sports in general and the problem would need to be addressed by legislation, adding he might sign an executive order about it.
Trump, said football name, image and likeness contracts for players were a costly burden for colleges and forcing some of them to abandon athletic pursuits such as fencing.
“We have to save college sports,” Trump told a White House East Room gathering of sports leaders.
Until five years ago, the NCAA prohibited college athletes from accepting compensation for the use of their NIL. A Supreme Court allowed college athletes to be paid in a 2021 ruling.
Trump said Congress needed to approve legislation to modify the use of NIL contracts.
“The amount of money being spent and lost by otherwise very successful schools is astounding,” he said.
House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson told the event that legislation was in the works to address the issue and he believed it had bipartisan support.
“We want to accomplish the necessary ends, and we think we’re very close,” Johnson said.
Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban called for an effective system of revenue sharing needs and a way to address the issue of some football athletes being eligible to play for six or seven years, when they are in their mid-twenties.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Steve HollandEditing by David Ljunggren)
