President Donald Trump yesterday signed a second executive order aimed at regulating college sports. It lays out specific transfer and eligibility rules, limits how athletes can be compensated for their name, image and likeness, and threatens schools that violate rules with financial penalties. The EO comes less than a month after the President attended a roundtable of college sports and business leaders convened by the White House collegiate sports-related issue and potential federal legislation.
Yesterday’s executive order is flat-out unconstitutional. It directs the NCAA to create rules that mandate college athletes can play for “no more than a five-year period” and allows them to transfer schools only once before they graduate without having to sit out a season. A school that plays an athlete who doesn’t meet these new limits could risk losing its federal funding. The NCAA is also commanded to update its rules to create a national registry for player agents while establishing policies that prevent schools from cutting scholarships or other opportunities for women’s and Olympic sports in order to pay their athletes.
The rule changes are scheduled to go into effect August 1. Fat chance.
The EO will be challenged in court and can’t possible survive constitutional scrutiny. The theory is that Trump, who has always been a big sports fan, is trying to spur legislative action or push (bully?) the NCAA into making changes he thinks are prudent. But this is none of his business, or any President’s. It is also an abuse of the Executive Order. Is he just trolling? Trying to kill Trump Deranged Americans by making their heads explode?
The “No Kings” nonsense is spectacularly silly, but Trump deciding to act like a king by sending out toothless and illegal edicts is no way to respond to it. The President should use his power, influence, position and “bully pulpit” on matters of state, not matters that reside firmly and undeniably within the discretion of private bodies and organizations, like the NCAA.
The EO on college sports isn’t just obnoxious, stupid, illegal and politically obtuse, but obviously so. Even the President has to know that: he’s remarkably constitutionally obtuse, but he can’t be that ignorant, can he? And he’s surrounded by lawyers: surely all of them can’t be incompetent. Can they?
What’s next? An EO declaring that everyone should wear their underwear on the outside? A declaration that pineapple doesn’t belong on pizzaa? An order that people should stop saying, “No worries?”
Ethics Alarms 
I think he just tosses EO’s out there and sees what sticks. He sees a problem and he probably does know that his EO won’t work but it puts a focus on this particular issue in a big way and I bet something will happen with their rules even after the courts throw out the EO.
An order that people should stop saying, “No worries?”
Yes, please. And one that people should stop saying “No problem.”
Whatever happened to, “You’re welcome?”
“No problem” or Arnold’s “No problemo!” seems to have been superseded by “No worries.”
It’s the faux Aussie cool thing.
of course there should be an executive ban on pineapple pizza.
But back topic at hand. The NCAA should be disbanned becasue we essentialy no longer have “college sports.”
What is touted as college sports is professional sports. It’s participants are generously paid. The player’s dont care what color jersey they wear or sell as long as they get compensated.
Yes. The sports teams affiliated with colleges and universities should be administered by a new organization. I like the current situation. I’ve long advocated for schools effectively licensing their name to professional teams that can use their stadiums and arenas and appease the schools’ fan bases. Keep the athletes out of classes and essentially off the campuses. Pay them, let the schools make huge amounts of money from the television rights and ticket sales. As far as I’m concerned, the current setup is much better. And banish forever the ridiculous notion of a student athlete.
I’m hopeful that the student athletes from years past – those that never made it to the professional levels of their sports – will start clamoring for reparations. THAT would be a saucy twist.
Just yesterday, I was thinking that would make a great class action lawsuit against all the colleges that didn’t pay/exploited all those guys. I’m sure there’s a letter from a mega-firm in the NCAA’s files saying they don’t have any real exposure on that front, with a number of qualifications.
Or, even more deserving, ones who didn’t have a chance to make it as professionals because of injuries they got when they were college athletes.
I think Trump is throwing everything at the kitchen sink to see what sticks. He knows he can’t get Congress to act, so he’s going unilateral to try to do what he can within the time has left.
However, I take the long view. I imagine a world where Gavin Newsom is president, and he uses the same executive order strategy that Trump has except on a bunch of liberal pet causes. It would be a great cause for concern.
Doesn’t Trump know it only counts if you announce it with “I’ve got a pen and a phone”?