Report: President Trump considers executive order limiting NIL payments

NBC Sports

03-05-2025

President Trump signed 141 executive orders in the first 100 days of his second term. There's another one in the pipeline that could provide a boost for most if not all of the NCAA's 134 FBS schools.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the President is considering an executive order 'that could increase scrutiny of the explosion in payments to college athletes since 2021.'
The seed apparently was planted during a Thursday meeting between the President and former Alabama coach Nick Saban, who quit coaching after the 2023 season due to his frustrations over (let's call it what it is) his inability to continue stacking the deck with all the top players.
Per the report, Trump said he agreed with Saban and would look at crafting an executive order,' and 'Trump told aides to begin studying what an order could say.'
While it has been popular for folks like Saban to whine about the impact of college football players finally getting real value for their skills, efforts, and sacrifices (and if you don't think they make sacrifices, talk to Jordan Travis), why should any branch of government infringe on the ability of anyone to get paid?
Will there be an executive order limiting the amount of money CEOs can make? Actors? Musicians?
Will there be an executive order restricting the ability of the wealthy and connected to navigate the investment markets in a way that generates massive financial windfalls?
For anyone who believes in free enterprise, this is as free as enterprise gets. Businesses compete for the non-employee employees who will help them achieve their objectives. Those businesses that consistently make bad decisions will fail. Those businesses that consistently make good decisions will thrive. It's the essence of the American way.
The current chaos in college football flows directly from decades of the various schools using the phony umbrella of the NCAA to limit what the players can receive. The legislative branch spoke on this matter more than 130 years ago, in creating the first antitrust laws. The judicial branch, spurred by long-overdue litigation challenging the entire system, has finally applied those laws to a set of artificial rules that has been an antitrust violation hiding in plain sight.
The moment arrived four years ago. Players, who were long denied the ability to get paid for what they bring to the college-football table, are feasting. The schools, which were able for far too long to exploit those players, are reeling.
Now, the executive branch is going to undo the work of the other two branches? For what purpose? Who wins, and who loses?
If Congress chooses to give college football a partial or full antitrust exemption, so be it. If the schools decide (as they should) to regard the non-employee employees as employees and embrace a nationwide union that would result in a labor deal that would result in bargaining on a wide range of rules aimed at striking a proper balance, so be it.
Regardless of whether the President is a Democrat, Republican, Independent, Libertarian, or Whig, the notion that any executive should or could restrict the ability of college football players to earn whatever someone will pay them would defy the three-branch system of government — and, until it is applied to others who (many are saying) are 'making too much money,' would create a horrible double standard.