Trump holds college sports roundtable with Saban, Meyer in attendance

president Donald Trump hosted a college sports roundtable on Friday to examine solutions to key challenges, including NCAA authority; Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) issues; Collective bargaining; and governance concerns.

The audience was attended by sports officials National Collegiate Athletic Association President Charlie Baker, former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, OutKick founder Clay Travis, New York Yankees president Randy Levine and each of the Power Four commissioners, among others.

“I think this is the future of college sports,” Trump said at the start of the roundtable. “This is the future of colleges.” “The amount of money that highly successful schools spend and lose is staggering in a short period of time. And it’s only going to get worse. We have to save college sports and, I believe, colleges.”

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President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nickinson/AP Photo)

“Crazy things are happening. We have a seven-year-old freshman. We’re seeing things we’ve never seen before. College players don’t want to go pro because they make more money in college,” he added.

Trump said there was an “inability to make rules,” noting that different states have different no-risk laws, creating another challenge for college sports.

“If Congress does not act quickly, it could destroy college sports,” Trump said.

Trump criticized “a judge who knows nothing about sports, knows nothing about football, knows nothing about the Olympics, knows nothing about anything, just decided the whole thing was unconstitutional.”

He was likely referring to Judge Claudia Wilken, who ruled in 2019 that the NCAA’s limits on education-related benefits violated antitrust law.

“It’s crazy. Congress only “It can achieve a lasting solution,” Trump said.

Trump indicated that he does not aim to return to athletes not receiving their salaries.

“Although that’s not the worst idea,” he admitted. “But I think a lot of people would reject me on that.”

Later, Trump said he wanted to “go back to what you had, let some judge tell you you can’t do it, and then you appeal, and you win at some point. Because what you had — what a great system. Everybody was happy.”

Saban said that helping athletes achieve greater personal success has become “impossible” in our time.

“People, instead of making decisions about creating value for their future, were making decisions about how much money they could earn at what school they could go to or transfer to,” Saban said.

“I think we need to come up with a system, and obviously we have to do that with the leadership of the president and also probably with Congress … to allow student-athletes in all sports to improve their quality of life while going to college but still provide the opportunity to develop themselves beyond their athletic career, which is what the philosophy of college athletes and getting a college education has always been about.”

Former Alabama coach Nick Saban is seen before a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nickinson/AP Photo)

Trump was even adamant about “saving college sports.” Sign an executive order New restrictions on payments to college athletes were put in place in July.

The President’s order prohibits athletes from receiving pay-for-play payments from outside sources. However, the order did not impose any restrictions on NIL payments to college athletes by outside sources. It also requires schools to take responsibility for conserving resources allocated to non-revenue sports.

The SCORE Act was at the forefront of the roundtable. It was scheduled to be voted on in December But the vote was cancelled A short time ago. The White House supported the law, but three Republicans — Byron Donalds of Florida, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, and Chip Roy of Texas — voted with Democrats not to introduce the law. Democrats largely opposed the bill, urging House members to vote against it.

The SCORE Act would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption in hopes of protecting the NCAA from potential lawsuits over eligibility rules and would prevent athletes from becoming employees of their schools. Schools are prohibited from using student fees to fund nil payments.

President Donald Trump welcomes House Speaker Mike Johnson, left, as he arrives for a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 6, 2026. (Julia Demaree Nickinson/AP Photo)

Rep. Lori Trahan, D-Mass., said the law “harms” women’s sports, and strengthening Title IX “should be part of the SCORE Act.” She also said the SCORE Act “represents a consolidation of what we have today, which is the SEC and the Big Ten” who get a boatload of money from college athletics collectors.

Trahan agreed that “the SCORE Act is probably the right vehicle for us to continue to amend,” showed some confidence in it and expressed a desire to work with those at the roundtable to make it work. US Rep Steve ScaliseThe Los Angeles Republican said women’s sports would be “protected,” while ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips said 56% of ACC sports grants have gone to women since the House case.

Conference USA Commissioner Tim Pernetti said the SCORE Act does not solve the “economic crisis” of college athletics. Meyer admitted that he didn’t like how group groups were still included in the SCORE Act, calling it “cheating.”

“I think if the clique goes away, college sports immediately improves,” Mayer said.

After deliberations, Trump said he would write an executive order “based on common sense.”

“It will allow the universities to survive and the players to survive and it will make a lot of people very happy,” Trump said.

US President Donald Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion on college sports in the East Room of the White House on March 6, 2026, in Washington, DC. The Trump administration held a “Saving College Sports” roundtable with leaders from the Power Four conferences, media executives and former coaches. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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A month before Trump’s order, Wilken agreed to a settlement between the NCAA, its most powerful conference and the lawyers who represent all Division I athletes. The deal means the NCAA will pay nearly $2.8 billion in compensation over the next 10 years to college athletes who competed from 2016 to 2025. The settlement also allows college programs to pay athletes directly.

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson contributed to this report.

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