Overview:
A month after the approval of the game-changing House settlement, which allows many colleges and universities to compensate student-athletes directly, President Trump signed an Executive Order on July 24, 2025, titled “Saving College Sports” (the EO). The EO sets forth several policy objectives and interventions that the Administration wishes to implement across multiple aspects of collegiate athletics, including regulation of name, image, and likeness (NIL) transactions, protection of women’s and non-revenue-generating sports, and clarification of student-athletes’ employment status. Although the EO itself does not have the force of law and actions to implement the EO’s provisions will be susceptible to challenge, colleges and universities should anticipate action from federal agencies to implement the EO’s objectives in the weeks and months ahead. In the meantime, colleges and universities may wish to consider proactively how they will respond and how they may be called upon to align their athletics programs and practices with the forthcoming changes, particularly with the 2025-2026 athletic season upon us and with the looming threat of federal funding revocation present in the EO.
What You Need to Know:
- Beginning with the 2025-2026 athletic season, the EO sets forth expectations for the numbers of scholarships and roster spots for non-revenue-generating sports according to classifications based on athletic department revenues. Although the EO contemplates driving compliance through Title IX enforcement and disbursement of federal funds, among other mechanisms, many questions around enforcement remain unanswered, and it is unclear how the EO or forthcoming administrative guidance can direct scholarships and roster numbers consistent with existing statutory authority based on athletic department revenues, particularly if an institution’s athletics programs are compliant with Title IX. Practical questions also exist around potentially modifying roster numbers mid-season.
- The EO provides that colleges and universities should not “permit” third-party, pay-for-play NIL payments to student-athletes that are not tied to fair market value for NIL services. Enforcement of this provision will be challenging in the absence of federal legislation, particularly in the current regulatory landscape with competing state laws and court rulings. The most recent proposed federal legislation – the SCORE Act – would provide one path for the EO to advance this provision by prohibiting pay-for-play arrangements.
- The EO explicitly defers to the DOL and the NLRB to clarify athletes’ status. President Trump recently nominated two individuals to serve as NLRB commissions, who, if confirmed, would provide a quorum and allow the NLRB to weigh in on the issue. The DOL currently does not classify student-athletes as employees under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) but could issue guidance solidifying or reversing this position.
- Expect the federal government to play an active role in antitrust and other litigation brought by current and former student-athletes that may alter the collegiate athletics landscape.
What the EO Provides:
The EO responds to concerns about the future of non-revenue sports in the wake of the House settlement, where pressure to stay competitive in revenue-generating sports may cause colleges and universities to divert significant resources to those sports at the expense of non-revenue-generating programs. The EO also responds to perennial concerns over “pay-for-play” NIL arrangements and seeks clarity as to the employment status of student-athletes, while previewing an increased federal role in antitrust and similar litigation affecting the collegiate athletics landscape.
1. Protecting and Expanding Women’s and Non-Revenue-Generating Sports
Beginning with the 2025-2026 athletic season, the EO sets forth a framework for preserving and expanding scholarships and competition in women’s and non-revenue-generating sports. The framework classifies institutions into three categories according to their athletic department revenues in the 2024-2025 athletic season and prescribes a relative number of scholarships and roster spots to be awarded to non-revenue-generating sports. Specifically:
(i) collegiate athletic departments with greater than $125,000,000 in revenue during the 2024-2025 athletic season should provide more scholarship opportunities in non-revenue sports than during the 2024-2025 athletic season and should provide the maximum number of roster spots for non-revenue sports permitted under the applicable collegiate athletic rules;
(ii) college athletic departments with greater than $50,000,000 in revenue during the 2024-2025 athletic season should provide at least as many scholarship opportunities in non-revenue sports as provided during the 2024-2025 athletic season and should provide the maximum number of roster spots for non-revenue sports permitted under the applicable collegiate athletic rules; and
(iii) college athletic departments with $50,000,000 or less in revenue during the 2024-2025 athletic season or that do not have any revenue-generating sports should not disproportionately reduce scholarship opportunities or roster spots for sports based on the revenue that the sport generates.
The EO also expresses the Administration’s policy that “any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be designed and implemented in a manner that preserves or expands scholarships and collegiate athletic opportunities in women’s and non-revenue sports.”
The EO tasks the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Attorney General, the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Education, and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, to develop a plan to advance these policies “through all available and appropriate regulatory, enforcement, and litigation mechanisms, including Federal funding decisions, enforcement of Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, prohibiting unconstitutional actions by States to regulate interstate commerce, and enforcement of other constitutional and statutory protections, and by working with the Congress and State governments, as appropriate.”
2. Prohibiting Third-Party, Pay-for-Play Payments
The EO sets forth the Administration’s view that “third-party, pay-for-play payments to collegiate athletes are improper and should not be permitted by universities,” while expressly carving out as acceptable “compensation provided to an athlete for the fair market value that the athlete provides to a third party, such as for a brand endorsement.”
As with the provisions addressing the protection and expansion of women’s and non-revenue-generating sports, the EO directs compliance with this prohibition through regulatory enforcement mechanisms (including Title IX), litigation, federal funding decisions, and legislative efforts.
3. Student-Athlete Status
In a further effort to preserve non-revenue-generating sports, the EO directs the Secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to determine and implement measures to clarify the employment status of collegiate athletes “through guidance, rules, or other appropriate actions, that will maximize the educational benefits and opportunities provided by higher education institutions through athletics.”
4. Legal Protections for College Athletics from Lawsuits
The EO directs the Attorney General and the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission to “work to stabilize and preserve college athletics through litigation, guidelines, policies, or other actions” to protect “the rights and interests of student-athletes and the long-term availability of collegiate athletic scholarships and opportunities when such elements are unreasonably challenged under antitrust or other legal theories.”
What’s Next:
Expect guidance in the coming weeks and months as federal agencies work to implement the EO’s objectives. The Higher Education Group at Saul Ewing will monitor developments related to the implementation of this EO. Please do not hesitate to contact the authors of this alert, or your regular Saul Ewing point(s) of contact, with any questions about the substance of this alert.
