Trump said players’ name, image and likeness contracts were a costly burden on universities and forced some of them to abandon sports activities, such as fencing.
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“We have to save college sports,” Trump said at a meeting of sports leaders in the East Room of the White House.
Until five years ago, the NCAA prohibited college athletes from accepting compensation for the use of their NIL. A Supreme Court allowed college athletes to receive money in a 2021 ruling.
Trump said Congress “needed to pass legislation to modify the use of NIL contracts.”
“The amount of money that is spent and wasted on otherwise very successful schools is staggering,” he said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said at the event that legislation was being prepared to address the issue and he believed it had bipartisan support.
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“We want to achieve the necessary ends and we believe we are very close,” Johnson said.
Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban called for an effective revenue-sharing system and a way to address the problem of some football athletes being eligible to play for six or seven years when they are in their 20s.
(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk and Steve HollandEditing by David Ljunggren)