College athletics just hit a crossroads that nobody saw coming. On Thursday, July 24, U.S. President Donald Trump signed his “Save College Sports” executive order, taking direct aim at the NIL chaos that’s been tearing through campuses nationwide.
The order bans third-party pay-for-play deals and forces the government to classify student-athletes as non-employees, not workers. But here’s the problem: Trump’s order raises more questions than it answers. Two critical gaps could make or break everything he’s trying to accomplish.
Who Will Actually Enforce Donald Trump’s ‘Pay-for-Play’ Ban?
The first massive question comes straight from On3 college sports insider Pete Nakos, who tweeted the obvious problem everyone’s thinking about, writing, “Who enforces the prohibition on pay-for-play?”
Two key questions that need to be answered:
+ Who enforces the prohibition on pay-for-play
+ What will the penalty be for violating the order https://t.co/rCYT1gkqxu— Pete Nakos (@PeteNakos_) July 24, 2025
Here’s where things get messy. NIL collectives have been running wild for years now, basically turning recruiting into bidding wars. Trump’s order wants to stop deals that are really just payment-for-performance dressed up as legitimate sponsorships. The problem? Nobody can agree on where that line actually is.
The College Sports Commission (CSC), which is supposed to come from the House v. NCAA settlement, might handle oversight. But that’s still up in the air.
Will the CSC get the job, or will some other federal agency step in? Without knowing who’s actually going to investigate violations and monitor NIL deals, schools and conferences will handle this completely differently.
That’s a recipe for the same fragmented mess we’ve been dealing with since NIL started.
What Happens When Schools and Collectives Break the Rules?
Nakos also nailed the second big problem, writing, “What will the penalty be for violating the order?”
Think about it. Even if someone figures out who’s supposed to enforce this thing, what actually happens when a school or collective gets caught? The executive order doesn’t spell out any consequences. Are we talking about athletes losing eligibility? Schools getting hit with fines? NIL deals getting canceled?
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Without clear penalties, this order might not change anything at all.
The NCAA and Power Four conferences have been begging for exactly this kind of uniform enforcement for years. They’re tired of watching schools and states play by completely different NIL rules.
Trump’s executive order sounds like it addresses those concerns, but insiders say the same thing: if you don’t define the punishment, nobody will take the rules seriously.
How Does Trump’s Order Fit With the House Settlement?
The timing here is wild. This executive order drops just weeks after the House v. NCAA settlement got approved.
Trump’s order doesn’t kill that settlement, but it’s clearly trying to walk a tightrope. Schools can pay athletes directly through revenue sharing, but third-party collectives can’t just hand out cash for recruiting. It’s an attempt to control the Wild West atmosphere while still letting athletes get paid.
That settlement lets schools share up to $20 million annually with their athletes, which is a lot of money.
College coaches, administrators, and athletes are all waiting to see how this plays out. The real test isn’t what Trump’s order says on paper. It’s whether those two key questions about enforcement and penalties get answered in the next few weeks.
College sports needed some kind of structure after years of NIL chaos. Whether Trump’s approach actually works depends on filling in the blanks he left behind. Right now, though, everyone’s still guessing about who’s in charge and what happens when someone breaks the rules.
