President Trump eyes college football, sports commission: report

President Donald Trump apparently wants the U.S. Government to get directly involved in the college football and NCAA sports business.

Trump plans to create a presidential commission on college athletics to regulate the entire industry from a single federal body, according to Yahoo Sports.

The group is projected to include collegiate sports “stakeholders”, businessmen with “deep” connections to college football, and “perhaps, even a former coach and administrator,” per the report.

If it goes ahead, the commission would investigate the general college sports landscape, including transfer portal usage, booster payments to players, athletes’ employment status, and even the composition of conferences and their media contracts.

The mention of a former coach naturally suggests Nick Saban could be involved, especially after it was revealed the ex-Alabama head coach spoke with President Trump at the school’s commencement address recently.

It was purportedly after that meeting that President Trump entertained the idea of crafting an executive order relating to college athletes’ NIL payments.

Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama and a former college football coach, has also suggested that President Trump was considering an executive order on NIL payments.

That plan was met with anger from Steve Berman, one of the attorneys involved in the enormous pending House vs. NCAA case.

“Coach Saban and Trump’s eleventh-hour talks of executive orders and other meddling are just more unneeded self-involvement,” Berman said in a statement.

He added: “College athletes are spearheading historic changes and benefiting massively from NIL deals. They don’t need this unmerited interference from a coach only seeking to protect the system that made him tens of millions.”

(Yahoo)

--

Read