[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"transcript-792694ac-b241-4dbf-b46d-9f4ad56b84b9":3,"transcript-neighbors-792694ac-b241-4dbf-b46d-9f4ad56b84b9":16},{"id":4,"youtube_url":5,"transcript":6,"created_at":7,"folder_id":8,"name":9,"upload_date":10,"is_public":11,"is_premium":12,"speakers":8,"persona":13},"792694ac-b241-4dbf-b46d-9f4ad56b84b9","https:\u002F\u002Fwww.youtube.com\u002Fwatch?v=NvY1m8Le1zk","Announcer:\nLadies and gentlemen, the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you everyone, coach. Thank you very much, everybody. Please. This is a very important meeting. We had a lot of important meetings today, but this is a big one because this is really the future of, I think, beyond college sports, this is the future of colleges because we're looking at numbers that are coming in and the amount of money being spent and lost by otherwise very successful schools is astounding. Just in a short period of time, it's only going to get worse. So we have to save college sports and save, I believe, colleges. We have to save our Olympic team because so many sports that are in the Olympics will no longer be represented by people that went through college and became competitive, became great at the sport. And we won't be anywhere near what we were. I think it's just a very, very important meeting. We have the most important people in college sports and really beyond, beyond. And what I'd like to do is I'll say a few words. I'm going to ask Marco and a few to also say a few words. And I'd like to take your suggestions and we have the Speaker, we have John Thune is here or represented. We have some of the big politicians, senators, congress people, people that can make it get approved. Because we ultimately, we have to go through, I guess we have to go through Congress. I'll do an executive order. I'd love to do that. I'll probably do it anyway. We'll do an executive order. We'll see how it works because it would be a really nice, I have a really nice simple idea. But we'll go through this process and maybe, I think, we'll get it through Congress. We have a good chance. I think it'll be very bipartisan. And I just want to thank you all for being here as we stand up for one of America's greatest and most beloved institutions, it's called college athletics, which is true. Means so much. I want to thank Secretaries Marco Rubio, Scott Bessent, Doug Burgum, Howard Lutnick, Linda McMahon for being here. And also Speaker of the House Mike Johnson doing a great job. Governor Ron DeSantis. Senators Ted Cruz, Eric Schmitt. Leader Steve Scalise. Representatives Lisa McClain, Jim Jordan, Brett Guthrie, and Lori Trahan. Thank you all for being here. We have some great people. Condoleezza, thank you very much. I see you over there. Great to have you, great to be with you. Very special welcome to New York Yankees president Randy Levine, friend of mine for a long time. I used to sit with George Steinbrenner in the box, which was one of the most difficult days of my life. He would always be, he liked me, I liked him, but we both liked very few other people. And we had a good time and we won a lot, a lot of games, right Randy? We never lost. We never lost, exactly. And a great champion of college athletics, former as I just said, Secretary of State, a woman who's really respected, Condoleezza Rice. Thank you very much again, Condoleezza. And Ron DeSantis has been working very hard with us and wherever you may be, Ron, hi Ron, and has some great ideas and some great coaches that gave him some great ideas. We're gathered today to discuss an important threat to the integrity and culture of college sports, the inability to set rules on eligibility, transfers, name, image, and likeness, and more, much more than that, in the face of endless lawsuits. It's what's going on with the legal community is incredible. We had a lawsuit a couple of years ago by a radical-left judge from California who decided, knowing nothing about football or college sports, that everything was illegal that was taking place. And I don't think it was ever appealed. Nobody can find out if it was appealed or not. But you can win on appeal. I think I win more cases on appeal than I do in front of some judges that are not very good. But the, it was a horrible, incredible ruling and it threw the sports world and the athletic, college athletic world into tithers and it's, that's where we are right now. It's crazy things are happening. Young people are being signed, 17-year-old quarterbacks for $12 million, $13 million, $14 million. We have a seven-year freshman. You know, we have people, we're seeing things that we've never seen before. We have college players that don't want to go to the NFL because they're making more money in college, right Jim Jordan? And a lot of really bad things are happening. But basic questions like who is eligible to play are now virtually unregulated and decided randomly by judges rather than by reasonable agreed-upon rules that could be very simple and very simply drawn. So this has grown into a major challenge. We actually have some of the best sports agents here because I think they'd like to see it solved. But maybe not, I'm not a hundred percent sure about that. But they're represented. We have everybody represented today, just about every group you can think of. But it's grown into a major challenge that threatens the future of college sports and really colleges themselves, because many are going to go, many are going to go down the tubes. It was announced that Penn State, their athletic division lost $535 million this last year. Florida State, Ron and I spoke about it, $440 million loss. It was just announced that Rutgers lost $95 million and they're doing all sorts of things to try and save, save the ship. And I think those numbers are nothing compared to what, what's going to happen. This is new. This just happened. Those numbers are going to go to levels that nobody's ever seen before. If you had no salary cap in the NFL, you'd see staggering losses. We have no salary cap in colleges. Colleges are going to have, unless something's done, unless we solve this problem, and I think probably today, and we're going to ask for ideas that you know, not that we don't have to take, we don't have to take months. We'd like to see if we could do it for next season. But we have, and we certainly have the brain power, we have tremendous knowledge, far more knowledge than I have about the subject. But it also poses special dangers for women's sports and our Olympic pipeline. Women's sports are being canceled all over the country just so we understand. Women's sports are in deep trouble. Other than one particular women's team, that's Miami, where I have my granddaughter on the team. They canceled men's golf, but women's golf is doing just fine. I'm only kidding, I'm only kidding. But they are canceling golf, they're canceling wrestling, they're canceling fencing, they're canceling, even basketball I thought that would be maybe immune, but it's in trouble. And it's all going to football. But ultimately football's going to be the worst laggard of all. It's not going to be affordable and it's going to take down practically every college, in my opinion, it's going to take down virtually every college or every college that wants to be, they think they want to be competitive. Under the current system, educational institutions find themselves in a financial arms race for athletes in sports like football and basketball, and both, I mean both of them, but basketball's being hurt very badly. It's really, it's being dominated by football. Last July, I signed an executive order to stop destructive pay-for-play schemes that are all over the place and keep college athletics rooted in the traditions that made it great. I thought we had a great system, frankly, I thought we had a system that should have been appealed and it could have been maybe perfected a little bit. But it took close to a hundred years. It was developed over a hundred years and one judge that knew nothing about sports, knew nothing about football, knew nothing about Olympics, knew nothing about anything, just decided everything was unconstitutional. It's crazy. But only Congress now, it looks like, can deliver a permanent fix. So Speaker, you and John and everybody else, including Democrats that are represented very strongly, we can hopefully get it done. Federal legislation must allow college athletic programs to set common-sense rules, simple common-sense rules, without endless litigation and establish a fair name, image, and likeness standard that eliminates the patchwork of conflicting state laws. That's the other problem. All of these colleges, they're all in different states and all the laws are different. So you've got laws that are totally different. Some one way, some an entirely different way. Well, allowing the full spectrum of college athletic programs to thrive. It should thrive. If Congress does not take action fast, it could destroy college sports and destroy the colleges that play these sports. They'll be destroyed. They'll be going bankrupt. Every, every one, oh, so many of them. No other nation in the world has built a system that develops champions in classrooms and on the field, producing Olympic heroes, professional legends, and the leaders of tomorrow, all at once. I thought the system of scholarships was great. What do I know? But I thought it was great. And just one of those things, I was with Nick Saban the other day and you know, his timing is exquisite. He played and he won and won and won and when he saw this thing, he said I'm going to get out of, I'm not doing this anymore. He's around here someplace. Where's Nick? Where are you, Nick? Right? He, now he doesn't admit this. I said, how come you left just? He didn't want to go through one season. Because there's no better mind at this than that man and he looked and he said, what a shame, what a shame. And he's going to speak about it and I think you have some very constructive ideas, Nick, I think so. No other nation in the world has built a system like this that's so good and we've, we've thrown it right out the window. And I'd like to see you go back to something maybe resembling that and maybe, maybe pay for each player, not such crazy pay, but just pay for each player with every player, maybe the quarterback and the third-string linemen making the same, but you're going to tell us about it. We're going to try and get it passed. Our goal is not to go back to the days where student athletes were never allowed to receive any compensation, although not the worst idea, but I think a lot of people would overrule me on that. But we must pass reforms that protect the cherished American tradition of college athletics for future generations. So I look forward to hearing from a lot of you and I think a few of you are going to say a few words and then we'll get to some ideas. And I don't know, maybe by the end of a long session if we need it, I'm here as long as you need me. They came to me, they said you're the only one that can do it. I said, oh, thank you very much, that's, he said really because I'm President, okay, to be honest. But we have certain abilities and we'll see if we can get it done. So I'll ask in this order. Marco, you'll say a few words, and then Speaker Johnson, Randy Levine, Nick Saban, Charlie Baker, the Governor Ron DeSantis, and Greg Sankey, Sarah Hirshland, and Pete Bevacqua. And they'll go pretty quickly and then we'll hear from some of the people and we may have something come up that's somewhat of a miracle. There's an idea out there and somehow it's going to have to be arrived at because there's no way this system can, will allow colleges to, in my opinion, will allow schools to live financially. It's not going to happen. So if I could, I'll ask Marco, you can start, and then Speaker, and then we'll go through the list and then we'll take some ideas or questions. All right, thank you very much. Marco.\n\nMarco Rubio:\nThank you, Mr. President. And I'll be very brief. The first is, I think you've already touched on, and that is what a unique institution college athletics is to the United States. Very few countries in the world actually have something like what we have. And it's not just unique, it's really important. A lot of people don't see some of the aspects of it that are so positive. The first is the student athlete experience. There are literally thousands and thousands of young Americans who are going to graduate this year with not just degrees, but advanced degrees, and athletics made that possible. And the athletic support and the academic support that they're receiving from these schools is extraordinary. So there are kids that literally would not have gone to college, I mean not have considered it, and certainly not the advanced degrees without the help that this provides. Also the development of the individual that student athletics provides. I mean, look, if you can show up at 6:00 AM in the morning every day for lift, you're learning one of the most important lessons in life. 95% of life is showing up where you're supposed to be on time. These are extraordinary lessons that people are gaining. Two more things that people don't think about: unity. Few things in America unify us anymore and one of the things that does is college athletics. In particular, I, I can just, the experience of a Saturday in and, I was about to say a Saturday in the South, but I don't want to discriminate against the other conferences. I'm sure it's true there too, where communities get together, people don't, they don't agree on anything else except that they want that home team on the field to win. And it's one of the few unifying experiences we have as a country and it's so critical. And the last you touched on as well, Mr. President, this is the feeder program for our Olympic teams. Without it, there is no feeder program. Other countries have structured it differently, but the way we have it in our country is so unique in that way. We all know the challenges, and what this system now needs is a system of rules and regulations, of guardrails so that everyone is operating under the same rules. And it's difficult to do because it's moving very fast. But you've got the right people in the room here, Mr. President, and, and the right leadership. So thank you for caring about this, because it truly is important for the country and for millions of, of Americans who are fans and thousands and thousands of families who have student athletes in their family who have experienced this system or are going through it now. So thank you.\n\nDonald Trump:\nAnd Marco has a conflict of interest that he didn't reveal, which is a very serious charge, could be a criminal charge actually, because his son is a very good player for a very good college and makes money with NIL. So this is a serious conflict of interest. But we'll, we'll take him. We waive his conflict, okay? Please.\n\nMike Johnson:\nThank you, Mr. President. It's an honor to be here with so many of the all-time greats. It's a treat for us, members of Congress, there's many of them around the table and they're happy to be working on the issue with you and for you. Uh, I, I would say people often say that Speaker of the House is the most stressful job in the world, but then I think of SEC football coaches because they gotta win every Saturday night. And my friends who are in those positions, I have a lot of, uh, sympathy for. Uh, I want to commend President Trump for his extraordinary leadership and he leads on this important and complex issue as he does all others. He sees a problem, he wants us to solve it, and he assembles the right people to get that done. And I think he really is the only figure on the planet who could do that. So I thank you for that, Mr. President, getting everybody together, one more issue that we will tackle. I'm a double alum from LSU, undergrad and law school, so I bleed purple and gold and we talk a lot about college athletics down where I'm from. Um, it's a big thing, but the whole country cares deeply about it because it's part of Americana as, as Marco was saying. It's part of who we are as a country and it's so important and we have to navigate through these unprecedented waters together. I'm glad there's some really smart people uh who are working on that. Mr. President, Congress does need to act quickly, um, because it's getting out of hand and I think everybody here recognizes that. I want you to know the House has been working very deliberately and I think very effectively on this. Uh, we've done a lot of good work and many of you are familiar with the SCORE Act. We passed a, a important procedural hurdle in December. We're right on the verge of passage in the House and we now think we have the votes to do that. But that's why this meeting is so timely, because we want to have the conversation today and in the days that follow because we want to make sure that we get it right. Um, it's a bipartisan product. It has broad support in the House. We believe we'll have every Republican now, uh, and we have a double-digit support of at least Democrats. It is bipartisan. A lot of good work's gone into that to get it there, and we think it may be the vehicle to get us to the next phase of this and this essential conversation. But the next step is preparing that legislation for final passage. So was talking with Randy and many of you who are leading on this, um, this is a very, uh, important and timely conversation that we'll have today and I said in the days that follow. Uh, we're encouraged to see all of you, the experts who know this issue better than anybody in the country, willing to put your time and effort into it and provide feedback because we want the final product to be the best it can be. We want to accomplish uh the necessary ends and we think we're very close. Uh, everybody here wants to see this American institution succeed and we have that opportunity within our grasp. And we want to make sure that the solution we develop actually works for student athletes who are at the heart of this. And that's who we care about so much. And we know that the foundation of any good deal begins with getting the right people in the right room. And this is the right room and this is historic. And no one knows better than the man who literally wrote the book on it and that's President Trump. And so I want to thank you for assembling us, Mr. President, and we look forward to the discussion. I yield back.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you Mike.\n\nRandy Levine:\nThank you, Mr. President. for putting this group together. Uh, leading up to this, wherever I would go because I had a, an interest in this both uh professionally with what the Yankees have done and from my experience on board of directors of various colleges, everybody would say over and over again, this thing is failing, failing bad, and it's like a hamster on a wheel. Uh, it kept spinning on the wheel but never getting off, it was never done. And they told me please, talk to the President because he's the only person who will convene a group like this in order to reach a consensus to get it done. And he agreed to do it. But he said to me, if I'm going to do it, it has to be bipartisan. And he asked me and the Speaker and every, everybody else to make sure it is bipartisan and it is. We have people uh from both parties here and that's what has to happen. So we put this group together, why'd we put this group together? Because it's representative of the people who know the best on how to solve this issue. We have college presidents who've been living with this from all over the country. We have some of the finest athletic directors who uh have been pioneers in this area. We have professional sports executives. Why do we have them in the room? The answer is as Commissioner Silver would tell you or Hall of Fame Lou Lamoriello, these issues have been in professional sports for a long time. We have a lot of experience. I negotiated the first revenue sharing agreement in baseball. Caps, revenue sharing, distribution, all of those things are what we live with every single day. So maybe we can share our experience and transport it here as long as it's in the context of college sports. There's one group that is missing, but they won't be missing from the final product and that's the student athletes themselves. This group as we move on, you can be assured will be talking to the student athletes and all their representatives to make sure their, their voice is clearly heard. You know, time is of the essence. Uh, people have told me they've been to Congress 15, 16, 17 times. One group goes in, the other group goes in and nothing seems to get done. Time is of the essence besides the numbers the President talked about. I heard a story from one of the great professional athletes on the Yankees, one of our great players yesterday. And he went to a great university and he said to me, thank you for doing this because every day I got asked for more money for NILs. Every single day. And what happened is I gave money, uh for an NIL for a quarterback who left the next year. Meanwhile, a friend of mine, a friend of mine's daughter is on the rowing team and she lost her scholarship and she's an Olympic hopeful and now she has to pay her own way. That, that's just not right. It, it really not right and has to be fixed. So Mr. President, thank you for bringing this group together. I think they're really just for discussion, we'll hear from everybody. I think they're really two things to add on to what the Speaker said that have to be done. One, there has to be an anti-trust exemption because everyone in the room has to be able to talk to each other, all the conferences, the schools, the presidents, everybody without getting sued. That includes the kids, they have to be involved in these negotiations, the student athletes. And there has to be an entity that's set up by the people who are going to administer this, run this, that are empowered by the legislation to handle all the issues the President spoke about. And we're all here to support that, to help that. And to make sure that it's just not business as usual, just an idea I have is maybe that antitrust exemption lasts for two years to make sure that these rules and everything are really being enforced. And if they're not, we go back uh to square one. It'll give the Congress oversight, give the President oversight, but it's time to move. And Mr. President, I couldn't agree with you more. Thanks to your leadership, we gotta move this really, really fast. We have ESPN and Fox here, they're probably the biggest payor in this entire thing and the fact that they're here and their voice is heard is great. So, Mr. President, only you could pull this off and we're grateful. Thank you very much.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you very much Randy. And Nick Saban, please.\n\nNick Saban:\nThank you Mr. President for the chance and the opportunity to be here to speak with you today, but I just want everybody to know that I'm just a football coach. I spent my life when they had when we had the ball trying to get a first down, when they had the ball trying to get off the field on third down. So this is an unlikely position for me to be in to speak to such a distinguished group of people. Thank you. But I come here today with a question. What are the guiding principles for the future of college athletics? All athletics. I'm talking about football, basketball, Olympic sports, revenue, non-revenue, it doesn't matter. You know, my goal as a coach for my players, for our players, was to help them be more successful in life, that we would create an atmosphere and environment that would help them through personal development, academic support, 668 degrees in 17 years at Alabama, and help them develop careers as a football player, that was our goal. So that they were creating value in life and we were preparing them for their future past athletics. So what happened? You know, in this current system that we have, that became impossible to do because people, instead of making decisions about creating value for their future, they were making decisions about how much money could they make at whichever school they could go to or transfer to. So uh, I think we have a challenge here today uh about the ramifications of this current system on how it helps players be successful in their future and how it will how we can impact and create a system that will help and preserve the opportunity for student athletes to be able to have success in their future beyond athletics. So we need to develop an effective system of revenue sharing, authentic name image and likeness, authentic being you have marketing value, which now we have uh collectives, which just create opportunities, which has just become pay-for-play. Um eligibility issues where we have guys playing six, seven, and eight years, uh so you have 25 and 26 year old people playing against 18 and 19 year olds, which is not healthy. Uh transfer rules, we have over 4,000 people in the portal. Uh fans don't like it, support groups don't like it. Uh it's not really healthy for players in graduation to transfer several times in your career. You uh really put yourself in a pickle in terms of your ability to graduate. So um I think we need to come up with a system, and we obviously have to do it with the President's leadership and also with Congress probably, um whether it's anti-trust legislation or whatever it is, to allow student athletes in all sports including women's and Olympic sports to enhance their quality of life while going to college, but still provide opportunity to advance themselves beyond their athletic career, which is what the philosophy of college athletics and getting a college education has always been about. And how much does anybody talk about getting an education anymore? Nobody talks about it at all, which is the most important thing any of these student athletes can do in terms of enhancing their future. So thank you very much.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you very much, Nick. Charlie Baker.\n\nCharlie Baker:\nWell, thank you very much, Mr. President. I especially want to thank you for putting putting me in the lineup after the most legendary college football coach of all time. Um, and I really want to thank you for your interest in this issue and your commitment to it. And I also want to thank you, um, for the work that your administration has done in a number of different issues working with our team and with many members uh of the folks who are in this room today. Um, you know, today there are more kids playing college sports than at any time in our nation's history. There's 556,000 student athletes across all three divisions um playing uh on behalf of 1100 schools. And those 1100 schools are second only to the United States of America in terms of the amount of financial assistance they make available to those student athletes. It's over $4 billion. That's also the biggest number we've ever invested um as a community in the student athletes who attend our schools. Um, there is a lot that is right with college sports and and anybody who watched the women's Olympic championship game between Canada and the United States uh would know that among other things, all of the players on both of those teams were former college student athletes. All 46 of them from both teams that played in that championship final. Um, women's sports has grown dramatically, the visibility of women's sports, the viewership of women's sports, uh the attendance at women's sports, the investments in women's sports have all gone dramatically up over the course of the past 10 years or so. And if you talk to almost anybody who follows youth sports, they'll tell you that the growth in youth sports on the women's side um continues to be profound. Um, but that said, everything everybody has said about the challenges we face at this particular point in time um is true. And I want to give a special thanks to Speaker Johnson and to Leader Scalise for the work that they've done, you know, to use a sports analogy, carrying the ball on behalf of the SCORE Act uh in the House chamber over the course of this year. It deals with the rules issue, it deals with the agents issue, it deals with some of the financial issues, it deals with the equity question, it deals with a wide variety of the issues that are challenging for so many in the college sport space this this these days. And the the final thing I'll just say, um we have um, I talk to a lot of people who are connected in one way or another to college sports both in this country and around the world because they have children who attend college here in the US and over and over and over again, the thing I constantly hear is there's nothing like college sports anywhere else in the world. And you are so lucky to live in a country where you have a system that works for young people the way this one works for young people here. So, I am uh, I'm deeply grateful for your commitment to this issue. I'm thrilled by the folks you've managed to put around this table. I agree with others who said there's probably nobody else who could do that. And um, and college sports was a great thing for me and my kids and my wife and so many of the I know a lot of kids who wouldn't have graduated from high school much less gone to and graduated from college if it wasn't for college sports. It's a truly unique American jewel. Uh, and we should do all we possibly can to ensure its success for the next generation and the generations after that. So thank you again for having us all here today.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you, Charlie. And you're doing a great job. Appreciate it. Ron, please.\n\nRon DeSantis:\nWell, thank you, Mr. President, for doing this. I mean, you have uh pedaled to the metal on so many different issues, um from national security to border to energy, and you're not taking the pedal off any of that, and you could be forgiven to say college sports is important but your plate's full, and you've just added it to all the other things that you're doing. And I thank you for that because this would not get done without your leadership. You no one else could get this group together, no one else could work with Congress to be able to do it, uh and so I appreciate it because it is important to a lot of people. I mean, we know this is out of whack. Uh, we went from a system where you couldn't give a student athlete anything, they could sell your jersey, you get nothing, to now, quarterback throws for 300 yards and they go see the coach, hey, I need more money, give me more money from the club. Oh okay, I'll transfer, or they get money NIL, oh I don't want to play in that bowl game, sorry, I'm just going to sit out. And and I think that that's been bad uh certainly for for college football and college sports. But let's just be clear, and a lot of the uh speakers have said, and and I speak from being in the South, college football is king. It's not even close. University of Florida's the reigning NCAA basketball national champion. The football team, I think they won four games. So guess what? Are the fans happy being the NC... not really, they're mad, because football didn't do good. And football has been able to generate so much money over the years that it's subsidized a lot of the other programs, a lot of these non-revenue sports, people have had more and more opportunities. Well now, with the collectives and how much it's costing football, the the costs are going up dramatically and it is threatening these other sports. And you know, look, uh yes, being able to produce Olympians, being able to do that, I think it's really important. But 99% of Division I athletes are not going to make a living at it and they're not going to play in the Olympics. And I speak as somebody, you know, I was the baseball captain at Yale, like if we had NIL there, I probably wasn't going to get a lucrative NIL deal. That's fine, I get it. But you know what being a college athlete teaches you, there's a reason why the Naval Academy and at West Point you have to be an athlete when you go through there. Because it teaches you discipline, it teaches you about hard work, it teaches you about competitiveness, it teaches you how to cope with failure. And so a lot of the people, the students in these sports that may not be as glitzy but are going to be harmed by the current trajectory, these are going to be future leaders of our country in a variety of different endeavors. And so uh I'm thankful that this is going to get done under President Trump's leadership. This is a bipartisan issue. You know, we are at so division on all this different stuff, there is no partisanship about this. We all want our universities and the athletics to succeed. A lot of the speakers have talked about the issues of eligibility. I mean, how do you have there till you're like 25? 18 to 25 and you're still playing? How do you play in the NBA G League and then come back and play in college? Uh, how how do you get to transfer all these different things? Uh, we know those need to be addressed. And obviously the compensation with NIL, I signed one of the first NIL bills, but that was like if they're making money off you, you get, now they're doing like perpetual negotiations even more than pro athletes can do. So I'm confident this is the group to do it, this is the President to do it, and there's going to be a lot of people in our country that are going to be happy when this problem is fixed. Thank you, sir.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you, Ron. Very much. Very much. Greg.\n\nGreg Sankey:\nThank you, Mr. President. Thank you for convening this group. And I also think it's important to point out you've been to Tuscaloosa a few times for great football games, couple national championships, and I think the power of your presence around college sports is an important factor in this conversation. I had a knock on the door of my residence hall in 1983 by my baseball coach, I was a bad catcher at LeTourneau College. That's why I'm here today, because he taught me some lessons that had I not been in that situation, I never would have learned. I've spent two of the last three weeks with our student athlete leadership councils. And I ask them, what would you say in a room like this that people need to hear? And there were two things that they wanted me to communicate. One is when I line up at kickoff, at tip-off, or I put my cleats in the starting blocks at a track and field meet, I want to know the other people in other uniforms from other teams and other states and other campuses are held to the same standards and the same rules to which I am being held. They also want to know that they're being supported from a physical and a mental well-being standpoint. Part of that is their concerns about sports gambling and the pressures that are emerging upon them. I think the themes that have been communicated here, rather than go through my notes, are worth restating. This is a bipartisan, I would argue a non-partisan issue. This is a circumstance where among the four conferences, the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, and SEC, over $2.3 billion was spent in FY24 to support Olympic sports. And in Paris, 219 US medalists went through the college sports system, 89 of those being gold medalists. In college sports, we move young people from adolescence to adulthood through education, through becoming part of a community, which they otherwise not would not have experienced, and the opportunity to build a legacy. In the current environment, each of those elements is interrupted. Transferring four or five, I have a basketball player in my league on his sixth campus, does not provide educational achievement opportunities like we should demand. Being part of a community when you transfer that much doesn't happen. And building a legacy is overrun by the next name, image, and likeness opportunity. I appreciate what's been done in the House in the SCORE Act. Speaker Johnson, I once lived in Natchitoches, Louisiana, place you represent. Leader Scalise, your work. I know Congressman Roy has been part of those conversations and others in this room, and it is bipartisan, but we need to bring more people in. And we have work to accomplish in the Senate. We cannot go on longer in this circumstance. And this is not about revenue. This is about structures and national standards for eligibility, for transfers, for medical care and mental wellness care, for transparency and accountability around name, image, and likeness activity. We'll fracture more if we fail to act. That's why the appreciation, Mr. President, for the gathering is most sincere, because I want to see our women's sports thrive. In the Southeastern Conference, we currently have 10 national championships, two-thirds of those are in women's sports. We didn't achieve that mountaintop in football this year. We'll keep working on that. We want our Olympians to go through our pools and our track and fields and our volleyball courts. And we want young men who aspire to be in the NBA or the NFL to be educated, to mature and to grow as they seek that achievement. We ought to be focused on making college sports great yet again and I look forward to being a part of this conversation moving forward.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you, Greg. Very much. Sarah Hirshland, please.\n\nSarah Hirshland:\nThank you. Good afternoon, everyone. Uh, let me start by saying thank you, President Trump, and your whole administration for your continued support of both Team USA and the Olympic and Paralympic Games. I'm proud to be here today to represent Team USA and I will say it is no surprise to anyone in this room that we are the greatest sporting nation in the world. Team USA is the most successful team in history, with more Olympic medals than any other nation. One of our competitive advantages is the education-based sports system our country has embraced for more than a century. America's colleges and universities built a world-class athletic system that develops the whole athlete, academically and competitively. This system is the envy of the world, as we heard Charlie say. It has also been the backbone of Team USA for generations. The results speak for themselves. You heard Greg reference some, and I'll, I'll just expand. The athletes from just the Paris Games represented 231 different college institutions and 71 conferences. 90 different schools were represented by our medalists from just the Paris Games alone. This success does not happen by accident. It is directly impacted by the broad-based, sustained investment in sport on campus. You've heard that referenced. This is not something we can take for granted. To say that our country should be grateful to colleges and universities and their athletic programs is an understatement. And while the United States has topped the gold medal table in eight of the last 10 summer games, I am here to tell you the margin is narrowing. Around the world, nations are investing aggressively in sport, building centralized training systems, expanding funding, and prioritizing athlete development in new ways. That growing global competition comes at a moment when US colleges must increase their investments in football to stay competitive. The economic pressures are unsustainable. We've heard this several times. And we know that Olympic sport budgets inevitably rise to the top as the first to be cut. And in some cases, women's sport, but it's also men's sport may be eliminated. We must keep our eye on both. We know what happens when those investments are reduced or disappear. It hinders the future pipeline of Team USA, but frankly, it threatens the future of healthy, the future health of sport in our country. We cannot wait for the economic pressure to create this crisis. We stand here today, Team USA, in solidarity and partnership with the collegiate sports community to encourage Congress to pass legislation that stabilizes the foundation of sport on campus and ensures a healthy and robust ecosystem for student athletes across a wide array of Olympic sports and football, which is kind of coming to the Olympics. Let me conclude by assuring you that American athletes are ready for this global challenge, in fact, we welcome it. But the pursuit of excellence deserves a system that continues to invest in them. Thank you, Mr. President, and to our congressional leaders, to the college administrators, and to the many representatives across the sports industry who are here today. We value your commitment to sport and we welcome your partnership. Thank you, Mr. President.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you very much, Sarah. And we'll conclude with our little uh early speeches, but we'll hear everybody that wants to if you have an idea, if you don't have any ideas, maybe you don't bother, okay? But if you have something good and maybe what we're talking about with the SCORE Act, it uh seems to have a lot of support, but we'll talk about that. Uh, Pete Bevacqua, please.\n\nPete Bevacqua:\nMr. President, thank you, thank you for having us all here and a special thanks on behalf of Notre Dame for your kind words about Coach Holtz. I know he was a dear friend of yours, so we appreciate that. And this meeting is important, it's timely. I think everybody around this table knows that we need help to straighten this out. We need the help of Congress. In this post-House world of NIL and compensation, we're finding ourselves in a situation where college football particularly, men's basketball, women's basketball, but particularly college football, and I don't think it's any secret that people understand that so many of the decisions around college sports are driven almost solely by college football. And college football is certainly important to Notre Dame, we make no secret about that. But it's become a runaway financial train. And if it continues to be that way, even the healthiest of universities are going to have to make incredibly difficult decisions. Decisions that are going to impact women's sports and Olympic sports. There's simply no way around that. So we need regulations. We need regulations, we need financial transparency, and we need repercussions. People's feet need to be held to the fire. And I talked to Coach Saban before we entered into this room and we were talking about the transfer portal. And Greg mentioned it as well, but when you have young men and women going to three schools in three years, four schools in four years, the student athlete, and it they're student athletes. They're not just athletes, and we're forgetting the academic part, we're forgetting the student part. And if you're going to four schools in four years to make a few more hundred thousand dollars on each stop where when you're 21, 20 years old you think all your financial troubles have gone away, you're going to find at the end of that college experience, you're not going to have an academic degree. That money that you thought you could rely on for the rest of your life is going to be absent by the time you're 23 or 24 and you're going to have the rest of your life, you're going to find yourself in a very difficult position. So we have to talk about financial transparency and we have to restate the importance of the student athlete experience. We can't forget that. Because the percentage of people that can go on and play in the NBA, the WNBA, the NFL is extremely low and it's the importance of that academic degree that you get throughout your student athlete experience that's going to serve you so well for the rest of your life. And quite frankly, I think if we can't agree on regulations with real repercussions and we go down the road of a free market enterprise where college football continues to be a runaway train financially, I think there's got to be a commitment that if you're going to spend X on college football and Y on men's basketball and Z on on on women's basketball, you should be required to pay some sort of percentage of that to reinvest into your own Olympic movement within your universities. So I think this meeting, as I said, is important. I think we're coming to a point where we're going to be at no return if we don't get our act together and try to speak with one voice and solve this. So so thanks again, Mr. President.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you very much, Pete. So, maybe we have to start with a base because we you know, I'd like to say the base should be what we had before, which worked so well for so many years with scholarships. When I heard Charlie say the kind of uh numbers that was paid in the form mostly of scholarships, that was pretty impressive. But maybe we can't go back. Maybe we have to go forward. And what's happened uh is sitting here with Jim and some of the people that are talking about the SCORE Act, maybe that should be the base and maybe we should work off the base. But if anybody has any ideas uh, I mean I'm just noticing uh all of the uh divisions, all of the people that have supported it, including the NCAA, the 31 Division I conferences, 23 Division II, 22 Division III, uh all HBCU conferences, I mean a lot of and and a lot more than that. So maybe that can be a base, that's the SCORE Act, which I know it's been uh Mike has worked on it long and hard. Uh we have a great guy Jim Jordan right here, who's a great athlete. He was virtually undefeated in college wrestling, virtually. I don't know who was, there was probably one bad night, I think, Jim, right? But he was um, he was some uh great athlete, some great wrestler. And that sport is being you know, torn apart by what's happening right here.\n\nSpeaker:\nIt sure helped when you came last year, Mr. President. It sure helped when you were at the NCAA championship last year.\n\nDonald Trump:\nRight. Uh so if we could go and uh if somebody would have some suggestions, Mike, do you like the idea of using this as a base and we work off the base? Or would you like to start from ground zero?\n\nMike Johnson:\nWell, I, I think I speak on behalf of the legislators around the table that worked really hard on the SCORE Act and many who have been involved and and brought their ideas to the table. Our fear is that if we begin from scratch, I think everyone around the table understands we this could take a long, long time. A lot of the debate and discussion and deliberation has gone into this. I've got this one-page summary I'm happy to pass around, I assume most people around the table know the basic uh parameters of the bill and where we are. But the idea would be that if there are, you know, Randy and I were speaking earlier before we came in when we were in the Oval Office, there may be uh some ideas to enhance it or make it better. We want to have the best possible product. I mean, maybe Mr. President, uh I think that's a good suggestion we begin from that. Uh for lack of a better idea, if anyone has a better base that we should begin with, we're open to it. But I I'm looking at some of my chairmen of the committee's of jurisdiction and everybody's worked really hard on this. And and our majority leader's down at the end of the table Steve Scalise has kind of helped quarterback this, pun intended, uh to to get it through the process and and if you have specific questions about specific uh points or parts of that legislation, we're happy to answer them. But maybe that's part of the discussion, maybe we could maybe maybe the question is not a rhetorical one, but a question for all of you, does anyone have any big concern about what is currently on the table in the SCORE Act or have ideas on how to improve it?\n\nDonald Trump:\nWould anybody oppose I mean, most of you have studied the SCORE Act more so than I have. Would anybody feel strongly opposed to starting with the base of the SCORE Act which has gone through a lot? You would oppose it? Go ahead.\n\nLori Trahan:\nWell first, I'm Lori Trahan, I represent Massachusetts and uh appreciate being invited to this today. Um and I'm really happy to hear you talk about women's sports in particular. Um I played Division I volleyball at Georgetown, that's changed my life, uh and so um really have spent a lot of time on college sports and um I think I'm the only Democratic legislator in the room, uh I'm not going to pretend to speak for all of them, but I do think we want to solve college sports as much as everyone here. Uh I think one of the issues that we had with the SCORE Act, I look at this as we've got some revenue issues and governance issues. Um the SCORE Act in its uh codifying the House settlement really uh hurts women and Olympic sports, we've already seen a number of programs cut um across the country. Uh so I think we do need a revenue mechanism to save and protect, one, strengthening Title IX has to be part of the SCORE Act as well as um ensuring that we are funding those programs. I mean look, I'm also a mom, I've got a college athlete, uh you know son who played lacrosse, we've got another daughter who hopes to. Col... sports is the lifeblood right now, people are uh in they're playing sports at record levels at the youth league at this, if any time we should be expanding opportunities for sports, it's right now. And I think one thing that the SCORE Act represented was just a um a consolidation of what we have today, which is the SEC and the Big Ten, no offense Greg and uh Tony, but all the money really is going to those two conferences right now and we need to have we need to address the revenue issue. Um I know there's been some proposals as far as modernizing the Sports Broadcasting Act, that could be one, I'm open for discussion on that. And then certainly making sure that we have a strong federal standard for NIL, a patchwork of laws does not work, I couldn't imagine signing my letter of intent and having to study up on every single state law and who offers what. Um but making sure that we have uh athlete's voices mandated at the table. Um they're not here today, so I do feel a responsibility to represent those 560,000 athletes who are not here right now uh but making sure that um they've got recourse if their NIL rights are violated or not upheld. Uh so but let me just say again, um I would love to work uh and maybe the SCORE Act is the right vehicle that we continue to tweak so that it has a a path in the Senate as well. Uh I know that there's a lack of consensus on many of the governance issues um but we'd we'd like to solve that with uh with everyone here today. Thank you.\n\nMike Johnson:\nWell, there's some good points made there for sure. And I think everybody has the same intention as we want to protect women's sports as well and and I got two daughters I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge that. But um with regard to the patchwork of state laws, as many of you probably know, the SCORE Act addresses it because it creates a national NIL standard and then it allows the associations the authority to make rules on transfers and compensation caps and the things that are really uh burdening the system and then it protects those rules from being challenged under uh antitrust law, so we create an exemption there for that. So I think uh there's a lot of thoughts gone into how to address it but I mean, again, we have no pride of authorship here, we want to have the best possible product. So I mean the authors of the bill are open to uh good suggestions. So I yield back.\n\nSteve Scalise:\nThank you Mr. President and I appreciate you bringing everybody together because I think we're all here because we have a passion to protect college sports and we've recognized that with this wild wild west mentality it's it's not healthy for the future of college athletics. And so bringing structure back and really bringing the ability for the schools to govern themselves again is what our intention was from the very beginning. We started this a few years ago, I remember Coach Saban came to my office and others and we started listening to the people that are there at the schools dealing with the problem as as payment of students became legal, which which happened through legal arguments that Mr. President you talked about, some of these lawsuits that ultimately broke down the framework that Charlie Baker and others were able to use to police college athletics. That's gone now. And so how do we put that structure back? So we listened to the schools, we listened to the different different conferences, all the different conferences, we talked to a lot of student athletes. We have a number of student athletes in Congress uh who played different sports who are co-sponsors of the SCORE Act and came to this from that same approach saying as somebody who played athletics or somebody who just has a passion, I lived in Tiger Stadium my second year at LSU, um you know in case you're wondering where my leanings are but I I care about the future of college athletics. And when you see a student athlete as you talked about Pete, on their sixth school and they're 28 years old, number one, they're not going to have any college credits to be able to graduate. And the idea of being able to get a degree for the 99% who aren't going to play professional sports is just going to be lost. And how can you re-establish that? So we started putting some things together. We have the anti-trust protections in this bill. Uh we protect women's sports in this bill, we establish Mr. President that Title IX maintained so that however many men's sports you have you have to have an equal number of women's sports. Some schools have a lot of sports, some schools can only afford a few but whatever you have you have to have an equal number of women's sports and that's protected in this bill and obviously the Olympic sports are protected as well. Uh we also wanted to make sure you could put limits on the transfer portal because that is something that a lot of people get very frustrated when they see that you just have pure free agency, the professional sports don't even have that. And so you limit with and again, open to suggestions but what everybody seemed to come to an agreement on was five total years of playing with one ability to transfer within that. There's flexibility uh by the governing organization, so the NCAA can look at a case-by-case if your father's on life support and you want to transfer to a different school to be close to your family you can get an additional one but let the governing body be able to do that again. We put those in the bill and then we give the financial literacy requirements so that student athletes have more protections that they currently don't have today. You might be getting that $300,000 or $2 million contract, you might not even know you have to pay taxes on that and you might run into some real financial problems if you're a 17, 18-year-old kid. We make sure the schools educate the kids on financial literacy. So we put a lot of other things including health protections as Commissioner Sankey talked about. So we listen to students, we listen to schools, we listen to all the conferences, all the HBCUs support this bill and we built a framework and we built a coalition. We're right now at a point where we've got more than a majority in Congress supporting this bill including as the Speaker said double-digit number of Democrats who support this bill. So it's a bipartisan coalition. We absolutely will take more input but only input that grows the coalition, not detracts from the ability for student athletes to get that structure that they and the schools need. That's what the SCORE Act does. We want to move on it soon because I think we all recognize that we can't wait another year and have this wild wild west continue and it will take the Senate some time to start their own process. So I'm expecting we're going to be moving soon in hopefully the next few weeks on the SCORE Act in the House and then keep this conversation going, keep growing this coalition to solve this problem, Mr. President. Thank you.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThank you Steve but we have to move on it soon, otherwise uh you're going to have another season that's a disaster and it's not affordable by colleges. Uh next to you, Steve, you uh had something to say. Thank you.\n\nJim Phillips:\nI did, thank you President Trump. My name is Jim Phillips, I'm the commissioner of the ACC. We welcome Kai this fall, I'll be your commissioner so we look forward to seeing you out watching her play. I went on a college campus uh 30-some years ago and never left until I became commissioner and I will tell you we need your help. We need everybody's help in this room. There are six areas that the SCORE Act is the right piece of legislation. First, as been mentioned, there's a national law versus state legislation and patchwork. We have 37 disparate laws across the country, so what you can do in one state is different than what you can do in another state. That just doesn't work when you have inter and intrastate competition, as Greg mentioned so well, the student athletes want to know that they're lining up against somebody that's abiding by the same rules, NIL, rev share, and the rest. Second, it's a reaffirmation that these are student athletes. Not one of the commissioners in this room has had a student athlete come up to them and say, we would like to be an employee. They're smart enough to understand what that means. Third, limited liability protection, the lawsuits are killing us. They're absolutely crushing college sports. If you don't like a rule, you just go to the local judge and the local judge deems you eligible. Fourth, degree completion. It's never been better to be a student athlete. You can come back to school and get a degree. You have a chance to be a pro and you leave early, we want you to come back. Fifth, medical care. The medical care is as good as I've ever seen in my 30 years, ever. And it's mental health as well as physical health and well-being. Finally, the codification of the House case. And I heard the the the mention of hurting women's sports. I will say in the ACC, similar to the SEC, Big 12, and Big Ten, we have added 942 new scholarships because of the House case. 56% in the ACC of those scholarships have gone to women's sports. So the House case has not hurt women's sports. It has not. And the the the idea that we can sustain this is just not um as been expressed is just not feasible. So we need your help. We thank you for taking your time and assembling this crew and we look forward to working together.\n\nDonald Trump:\nSo the concept of what we're doing with your great experience is a pretty good start. Yeah. If you could pass that around would be great. This is a summary of the SCORE Act which I think people should see. So you like the concept of what we're doing. Very good. Yeah, it sounds. Yes sir. Good. Thank you very much. Please.\n\nTim Pernetti:\nTim Pernetti, the commissioner of the American Conference. Mr. President, uh thank you for putting this incredible meeting together and more personally, thank you for your support of the Army-Navy game, Army-Navy are members of the American Conference. Like a lot of people have said in this room, I had the same experience, college football changed my life, I couldn't afford college, I got a scholarship and it changed everything. And I won't reiterate all the reasons why SCORE makes sense because there's a lot about it that makes sense. But we have to remind ourselves, and there's a lot of business people in the room, we're not solving the economic crisis as part of it because we are in a real economic crisis in college sports, like we have complex challenges. The mission is completely out of focus. This thing was about education through sport. That's what it was supposed to be, to what Coach Saban said. It still is that as long as we put it back in focus, but we can get through SCORE, create more consistency because the industry has a lack of consistency from eligibility all the way down the line, but we have to examine other ways to solve the economic crisis. And these things shouldn't impede each other and I know it is a very hot-wired topic but looking at the opportunity for the industry to bring together valuable commercial resources in the future, such as unifying their media rights is something that should be examined. And we're not making that decision today. If the Sports Broadcasting Act can be amended to provide college football the anti-trust protection that the pro leagues have to be able to unify their media rights, that gives the industry an option, which is the important word in the future. And that's really what the industry will need. This is an expense problem but there are revenue paths that we haven't ventured down yet. The reality of all this is going to take bold steps. It's going to take guts. And this has become a transactional business where commitment is flying out the window but it's not everybody. The top 1%, which is how the industry's been designed to serve the top 1%, 99 out of 100 student athletes in our league don't want to be employees, to what Jim Phillips said, and they signed up for a great experience. Like our responsibility is to make sure we reinforce the mission and create resources around them to have the experience. But that conversation, whatever side you're on, should be had to see if there's an option in the future to dramatically improve the economics for the industry. Thank you so much, Mr. President.\n\nDonald Trump:\nWell thank you and thank you for mentioning the Army-Navy game because as you know we uh I signed an executive order to protect that time slot so that during that from like 3:00 to 6:00 or 6:30 I guess we we protect that space, that airspace, so nobody can play a football game and we have the Army-Navy game protected because the kind of money that's being thrown around they were a little bit concerned that the Army-Navy game as great as it is may not uh may not do so well. I think it would actually do pretty well but we protected the time spot anyway so that during that little period of time, uh it won't have any of this competition where uh lots of money's being thrown around. I think it was a worthwhile protection because it really is a special, it is a very special time and a special very special game. So thank you very much, great job. Uh anybody else around?\n\nMike Johnson:\nMr. President, could I just before we go, um you're being handed a you're given a handout that just has a quick summary bullet points of the composition of the SCORE Act for those that aren't familiar with it. And let me just apologize. I think NIL's been abused and my staff put my name and image on the top of it really big and I that was sort of ironic and not intended, sorry about that. You didn't get paid for it? I didn't get paid anything for it, yeah, I yield back.\n\nDonald Trump:\nCody, please.\n\nBrett Yormark:\nYes sir. Um, Mr. President, I I would like to express my gratitude for your involvement and interest in all of this and especially personally the opportunity to be um involved in the in helping to find the solution because college sports uh as many have said changed my life, uh you know made me a better businessman, a better husband, a better father, um and made me better at life in general. Um this is a complex issue, it's multi-faceted. Um there are a lot of different perspectives on how it should be solved. There are a lot of different agendas that are represented in this room. And um the SCORE Act is a good start. It it gives us a place that we can build on. But as we move into the Senate, the political dynamics are going to change and many of the agendas that are represented in this room and outside of this room are going to come into conflict with one another. Um the reality is nobody's going to get everything that they want, you know? Um if we're going to come to a solution on this, we have to find a place where we're all sort of equally unhappy, so to speak. Um that's just like any other business deal. And I think what's key is that we are all willing to come to the table and compromise and work together, um recognize that the small schools are important, the big schools are important, women's sports are important, Olympic sports are important, it's not just about big-time college football. And um so that may require you twisting some arms along the way to make sure that people work together and um are willing to give a little bit. And um I understand that this this whole ecosystem of college sports belongs to all of us. It's a national treasure, um it's a public trust as I've heard Clay Travis say before and I think it's very accurate. Um and so uh it belongs to all the American people and all the American people should share in it. And so I would just encourage everyone here and I think that might even be a commitment that you could ask everyone to make is that they will work together, they will compromise, come to the table, and be constructive.\n\nDonald Trump:\nSo, Cody, I I know you have worked very hard on this and frankly uh you know you've been working on it long and hard, maybe harder than anybody else, I've heard your name mentioned more than anybody else. Uh could you use this as a base and we all get together maybe as a smaller group and ultimately report back to the larger group and come up with something, do you think this is a good base?\n\nBrett Yormark:\nYes sir, I think it's certainly a good base and it's a great starting point. Um again, the dynamics will be different in the Senate and we'll have to build on it from there. And again, a lot of these tougher issues are going to come to the surface um once we get there, but absolutely we we should convene in a smaller group that can work on those things and work on the compromises that need to be made um to be able to have a bill that can get 60 votes in the Senate.\n\nDonald Trump:\nIs there any way we could go back to the old system which I thought was fantastic and uh do something with some compensation for the players and simplify things? So that you'd go back to a scholarship system plus some compensation, uh more minimal but you know a lot for a player. I mean for the most part they would consider it to be a lot, uh whether it was $75,000 or $50,000 or maybe more than that. But uh you go back to that wonderful system that I thought we had until this judge decided to just throw everything out the window and it it's been worked out for years and years and it was finally uh honed and then all of a sudden we're sitting in this crazy never-never land where colleges are losing hundreds of millions of dollars and in many cases not even putting out competitive teams. It's incredible. Uh is there any way that can work? Coach, we were together and you had some pretty strong ideas. How would you feel about that?\n\nNick Saban:\nYou know as a coach, well first of all thanks for having us and and thank you coach. I speak on behalf of so many of my former colleagues that I visit them now and they're a mess. You know, I don't see coaches sticking around longer and you know, the coaches are getting paid very well, so they leave and enjoy their life because what they're dealing with is the loss of a locker room. You you take away team and our country's in trouble. You know, I my two girls played college volleyball and one of the greatest interviews I've ever witnessed, she she's at Georgia Tech and said, I learned so much more on the volleyball court than I ever learned in any classroom, which I agree with. So I I actually think it's a simple fix. And it's not simple unless we get anti-trust protection because the NCAA when I was growing up into the profession, if you violated a rule, that was a problem. You'd lose your job. And that was made very clear. Throughout litigation and other issues, the NCAA has become they don't have subpoena power and every time they make a decision, they get litigated. And I understand it. I mean, I see I witness it and as a result, and we know this from some of the policies you put in place, rules without enforcement equals chaos. You don't need new rules, we got plenty of rules. Enforce them. So if we get anti-trust then you now will not get litigated. And I would eliminate the only thing I dislike about the SCORE Act is that and Coach Saban and I have visited about this, Mack Brown and I have visited and I have visited about this, get rid of the collectives. Those that's cheating. When donors, so everyone understands what a collective is, donors put money in a pot, it's distributed to players through the coach and the general manager according to your talent level. That's not allowed. Not supposed to do that. That's called pay for play. So there's a revenue share that the uh universities uh get through their television contracts, and I know it goes up every year, that's their only financial, that's the only thing they're allowed to do for their student athletes. They can distribute that however they want, that's still pay for play. But any NIL conversations, which NIL, I think we all gotta quit calling it that. It's not name and likeness. These players getting paid millions of dollars in some of the stories I hear and they're posting in Instagram for twice and then they're getting paid $1.5 million. So the NIL to me, NIL in its purest form is America. It's called capitalism. If you can if you can make money on your name, you should have a right to do that. If you're a gymnast, a volleyball player, a swimmer, a football player, and a car dealership wants to work with you legally in a business world, do it. That's what NIL should be. That's not what it is. So you get rid of the collective becomes an illegal um entity. You there is no such thing. The collective I I even to this day, it makes my skin crawl when I hear a collective. Get the donors out of it. If a business owner wants to hire Jeremiah Smith and pay him a certain amount of money, he's certainly allowed to do that, that's called capitalism. But the universities cannot arrange that and set that up. The universities can simply make sure their kids go to school, make sure they graduate, uh treat them fairly, make sure the women's sports uh Title IX I'm all in favor of all that, but they cannot get involved in the financial uh marketing of your players. That's let the market take care of itself. That's called the market, that's called capitalism. And the collective I I think if the collective goes away, college sports gets better better immediately when you say that if we have anti-trust exemption.\n\nDonald Trump:\nYou know it's just sitting around and having watched college sports for so long with no problems, no problems. What this incompetent judge did to this game knowing nothing at all about sports, about anything that we're talking about today, is a disgrace. And it's going to be a very hard thing to put back together, we'll get it done. But what this person did to college sports is a disgrace, I say it, and we've seen plenty of those type of opinions, I had one recently and it's gross incompetence in my opinion, and everybody suffers including student athletes, including women, women are really taking the brunt of it as what you were saying before, it was so perfect for women, it was so great for women the way it was and now we have to come up with a whole new scheme to satisfy people and they're going to be some unhappy people. And it was working before. A person that knew absolutely nothing about sports made a ruling and she turned the whole thing upside down and it's really a disgrace, you want to know the truth, a damn disgrace. But we are where we are and we'll figure something out and it won't be easy and it won't be as good in my opinion, it won't be as good as what you had before including for the students that were getting great scholarships and you know, some went onto professional sports and most of them didn't but they got great education, they got it for free and they had a lot of fun going to college, they learned a lot and they had great coaches, many of whom are around the table and they learned more from those coaches in many cases than they learned in the classroom. So yeah, I appreciate what you say. Don't forget when these donors or collectors or whatever you want to call different names for different people but as that money comes in, that's also money colleges aren't going to get, you know? They're they're giving money to players as opposed to giving maybe to the college to keep a lot of colleges going. And that's pretty tough also. But it's it's just a shame because I hear I got involved just recently and I looked at what what's happened to colleges and to college sports and it is colleges because colleges are going to go out of business many of these colleges. When I look at what a person that's a judge was able to do to destroy colleges and college sports that was so good, no problems. It's very, very sad. And in some ways I'd like to just go exactly back to what we had and ram it through a court if we have to, because I'm not sure you're ever going to come up with a system that's comparable to what you had. And you know, in life you like to get better, not worse. You like to go forward, not backward. No matter what you come up with, you've gone backward, a long way backward in many cases. Mr. President. Yeah, please.\n\nTed Cruz:\nI want to thank you and echo the thanks for bringing this group together and I want to in particular underscore the urgency that we have heard around this this table. College sports is in absolute crisis. Every single week we're seeing another program being canceled. We're seeing another women's team being canceled. We're seeing Olympic teams being canceled. And the current chaos if if Congress doesn't act, we are very quickly going to be in a world of 30 to 50 college football teams that are basically a mini-NFL and the Division II and Division III schools are going to be left behind and the millions of college athletes who right now scholarships provide an avenue for them to get an education that they never would have had, that'll go away. And that would be an absolute travesty if we let that happen. I will say several people around this table said this this is a bipartisan issue and we have bipartisan consensus. I agree it should be a bipartisan issue. Uh but it's worth speaking realistically. The challenge is simple. You asked about the SCORE Act. I think the SCORE Act has many good elements. I think it it is a very good first step. But the challenge is for this to be passed into law and put on your desk, we need 60 votes in the Senate, which means we need at least seven Senate Democrats. Right now there are zero Senate Democrats who support the SCORE Act. I've spent the last three years negotiating with Senate Democrats on this issue and I will say for some time we have been to use a football analogy at the two-yard line but not able to push. And and there are interest groups on the left, in particular trial lawyers and unions, that have resulted in Democrat senators that are actively lobbying against the SCORE Act and don't want to see legislation passed. And so my hope, there are a lot of people around this table who care desperately about college sports, my hope is that you speak out to Democrat senators and urge them let's come together and solve this together. And and I think part of a solution, part of a solution needs to be on the cost side and I think part of a solution should be discussing and looking at the revenue side. I think both of those are important parts of a solution. There are a number of Senate Democrats who care about this but have not quite gotten to the point of getting to yes. That's the single biggest challenge and I think the collective voices around this table adding to the urgency that if we wait another year, if we wait another two years, the programs in your state are going to go away and the students in your state are losing their scholarships and and it would be an absolute travesty if we let that happen.\n\nDonald Trump:\nDo we need 60 votes?\n\nTed Cruz:\nWhat we we need at least seven who will get to yes, because that's how we get to 60. Right now the SCORE Act has zero. Um so I'm glad the House is moving it and they've got some Democrats in the House, that's beneficial and I think when the House passes it that momentum is helpful. And there are a number of Senate Democrats, I mean I've spent literally thousands of hours negotiating with my Democrat colleagues and and there are a number who want to address it but it it is their political leadership that is telling them to stop and so what has got to happen is the folks in each of the states need to say to your elected Democrats, if you don't act we're going to lose what is so extraordinary about college sports.\n\nDonald Trump:\nAnd you've already lost, Ted, you've already lost it. Colleges are losing $4-500 million and they haven't even started yet. So you've already lost it in the true sense. And you've lost something else. It's it's ugly what's happened to sports in college. Before it was beautiful, it was a beautiful thing and now it's very ugly. It's become very ugly. And I think you're right. You're going to have people that will never vote for anything no matter what you agree. You could agree to everything that's perfect and they will never vote. And and I'm not I'm not doing this as a practical person. No matter what you agree to, you have people in the Senate and in the House that will never vote for it even if it's good for our country, even if it's great for the player, great for the college, and great for our country and they will still vote no. Because they're cuckoo. They've got problems. Maybe it's problems at home, Cody, but they have problems. So that gives us problems. And I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit down with some of the people in this room, like Urban, like a coach a very fine coach Nick who won a lot. You won a lot. How many 6 national championships? 7. 7. All right so I think he qualifies right? But I I'd like to sit down with some of the very talented people in this room and we'll pick them out, if you'd like to volunteer, volunteer, and I'd like to design an executive order that I'll write myself based on common sense. And it'll be something that people will be sort of happy about. Some will be sort of happy, others will be sort of happy and maybe that's a good thing. There'll be a few people that won't like anything. But I'd like to write an executive order based on some of the very great talent in this room and we will be sued and we'll go before a court and maybe maybe we'll have a judge that's realistic, reasonable, and wants to do a favor for the country. Because that's the only way this is going to be solved. So I'm going to sit down and I'm going to write an executive order based on many of the statements made today, many of the statements I've been hearing over the last year about what a disaster this is for colleges, for the players, for the families, ruining families, ruining everything. And we're going to do a very well-thought-out executive order. A lot of you are going to be involved in that, all of you, anybody that would like to just let me know. And that'll be placed before the courts and hopefully a judge who's a real judge, a compassionate judge, and a judge with common sense will get it approved. And maybe it won't, and maybe it won't hold up. Maybe they'll say you you can't do an executive order. In which case, you say welcome to the court system of this country, which has gone totally out of control. Totally out of control. And maybe not. But that's the only way you're going to get this done. So I'm going to write an executive order and the executive order is going to be based on great common sense and it's going to let colleges survive and players survive and let a lot of people be very, very happy. And let's see if we can get it through the court system, which we might not be able to do. In which case, I guess we'll have to meet again and we'll probably be through the same system. Look, if this doesn't work, colleges are going to be destroyed. Women's sports are going to be destroyed first before anything, before anybody, before anything. Women's sports are already being cut in every college. The first thing they're cutting, which is very unfair, is women's sports. And then they're cutting lesser sports. Sports that are very good sports, great sports are being cut. And you're going to be left with football and the football is going to lose so much money that the colleges are all going to go bankrupt. All because of a bad number of decisions made by courts, including I guess the Supreme Court. If you say it was a bad decision in the Supreme Court. I think the Supreme Court ought to be ashamed of itself for a lot of reasons, okay? A lot of reasons. I got to live with these people and I say this and they'll only vote bad and I could care less at this point. They have hurt this country so badly because they haven't had the guts to do what's right. So and I can tell you about other things too, not just this. So we're going to do an executive order and I think it's going to be an executive order that the people in this room and the students and the colleges will be proud of. Whether or not it holds up in court I can't tell you that. But you're not going to get it through the Senate and you're probably not going to get anything through the House because you have a bunch of lunatics that you have to deal with, Mike, and better you than me. Go ahead. Charlie Baker. Charlie, do you think we could come back to a solution or get a solution that was as good as what we had before or almost as good as what we had before? Or maybe better? I don't think better, but maybe. Would you say that's possible, Charlie? You're in the position to be able to tell maybe better than anybody else.\n\nCharlie Baker:\nWell, I certainly, first of all, um I appreciate the the question because it's at the end of the day the one we all care about the most, which is can we create a system going forward that's better than the one we have now? And um, and I think the focus people the thing about the SCORE Act that everybody needs to remember here is it's a it's a comprehensive piece of legislation that deals with a whole series of things that I think everybody would agree are a problem. Um the discussion the place where the discussion gets a little more complicated is the issue about the cost and the revenue side and the implications of those two issues. And if I were to say to this group, where's the where's the place to go, it would probably be there. And do I think if you could get that resolved you could create something that most people would view as better than better than what we had before? Um I think you'd certainly be headed in that direction. The big the big thing we all have to remember here is that um the way it was before, and I'm I'm I'm almost 70, so I I remember those days um quite well. Um sports and media played a completely different role in our society than the one they play now. And and the money piece in particular is got to be part of the conversation, and that's got to involve the student athletes. And your point, Mr. President, about coming up with a more structured way of dealing with that, I think is a good one, but that's got to be part of the dialogue for the same reason that the revenue piece has to be part of the dialogue as well.\n\nDonald Trump:\nSo much money was paid to students in the form of scholarships. Um what was the exact number that you said, Charlie, before? 4.1 billion last year. 4.1 billion was paid to the students in the form of scholarships and everybody was happy. Everybody was happy. And now you got yourself a mess and I think you should just go back to where you had and let some judge tell you you can't do it and you appeal it up and you win at some point because I think what you had was a great system. 4.1 billion dollars. Everybody was happy. Now you have a thing that you're never going to you have a jigsaw puzzle that's not going to be put back together and colleges are going to go out of business and I think you go back and the the players that got the 12 million a 17-year-old quarterback they got 12 million, one got 14 million, I hear they're negotiating one at 18 million who's they don't know if he's got an accurate arm, but he's got a strong arm, coach. Accuracy counts too. They have no idea, they're going to give him 18 million dollars. And you know what, those guys that already signed contracts you know what call that the lotto. They hit the jackpot, let them have their money you can't do anything about it. But I'd like to see and and I tell you, I just don't think it's right that a judge is allowed that knows nothing is allowed to destroy college sports and colleges. And I'd like to see you go back to where you were, enhance it a little bit through some compensation and let them take you to court because no matter what you do you're going to be sued. You could do a hundred you could give everybody everything and you're going to end up back in court and you'll probably have a judge that doesn't know a damn thing and it's a mess. It's a mess. And I don't know whether or not that decision was appealed. Was that decision ever appealed? Does anyone know? Because I heard it was not appealed.\n\nSarah Hirshland:\nI believe the House settlement is being um litigated now because it violates Title IX.\n\nDonald Trump:\nNo, but was it appealed the decision? The original decision by the judge from California, was that appealed?\n\nMike Johnson:\nOh, okay, I misunderstood. Yeah, the answer is no, it was settled because it was I think the third case. Um the prior case, which was Alston versus the NCAA was appealed to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court found 9-0 against the college position to defend the the the old system. So that's I think the answer is the antitrust piece is the inherent problem in trying to create caps and limits. That's it.\n\nDonald Trump:\nSo the Supreme Court was responsible for this? Gee, that surprises me. I'm not the one who's going to say that. I'm not bold enough to say that. But at least I'll acknowledge what the score was. 9-0. 9-0. 9-0. And Kavanaugh supported. It's a shame. It's a shame. Yes, sir, please.\n\nBrett Yormark:\nMr. President, thank you for bringing this esteemed group together. Um I have a bit of a unique perspective because for most of my career I was in professional sports. I became the commissioner three and a half years ago. I found a system that quickly was defined by unlimited free agency and no salary cap in complete chaos. Uh I am and representing the Big 12, we are very much in favor of the SCORE Act. I like to say it's progress over perfection and it provides no different than what Commissioner Phillips said the core principles of what we need to move this thing forward. One thing that we didn't discuss so far today was athlete protection rights which is obviously part of the SCORE Act. And there's a component there about regulating sports agents that we need to really look at. And I know we have some agents in the room and I have a lot of respect for that industry but right now they are taking full advantage of our student athletes. Usually in the NBA or the NFL it's a 3 to 4, maybe 5% commission, in some cases they're charging over 20. We talked about the portal, most agents are pushing our student athletes into the portal and the recent numbers show that over 40% don't even find a home once they get into the portal. And because they're being pushed into the portal, and Mr. Sankey said it earlier, they're losing credits towards their degrees. So we have a problem on our hands obviously and I don't believe in perfection, I do believe in progress and I think the the SCORE Act is a great first step for us to move forward. And on behalf of the Big 12 Conference, we are all in favor of it and we'd like to see a sense of urgency. We need something done soon. Um because if not, you know our university's going to suffer, our student athletes will suffer and and we need help. So we appreciate you bringing us together today.\n\nDonald Trump:\nWell it's an honor to do it. I just hate to see what you're going through, I hate to see what's happening to our great to our country essentially, because this is our country, this is the youth of our country and it's a terrible thing that's happening because you know uh these crazy payments that are being thrown around you're not colleges are not going to be able to help themselves. Just like the NFL owners would not be able to help themselves if they didn't have a cap. But you have a much bigger problem than a cap and you have a complexity problem and you have a problem where women are being thrown out of sports like at levels never seen before. And you're going to have other things that come up that nobody's even thinking about right now and you're not going to be able to solve these problems. You're just not going to be able to solve these problems. You know, Ted said something before that the Democrats, I think Eric was alluding to it, but you have a lot of Democrats in the Senate that I hear are opposed to almost anything. So if you do and I have to deal with these people all the time, okay? You saw them the other night, they wouldn't stand up for a soldier that was a great hero and got the Congressional Medal of Honor. They sat there, they wouldn't stand up, they wouldn't even smile, they wouldn't clap. For a woman that lost her daughter whose throat was slashed they wouldn't stand up, they sat and they didn't stand up, they didn't do anything. And we have to deal with these people. But Ted, you said that there are seven Democrats that will not vote yes. Eric, you know the situation better than almost anybody in the room except maybe me, I have to deal with it even more than you but you know if you've got all these hardline Democrats that want to see everything fail, it's a problem. You know for a fact these people would vote no? Then what we we need at least seven who will get to yes, because that's how we get to 60. Right now the SCORE Act has zero. Uh so I'm glad the House is moving it and they've got some Democrats in the House, that's beneficial and I think when the House passes it that momentum is helpful. And there are a number of Senate Democrats, I mean I've spent literally thousands of hours negotiating with my Democrat colleagues and and there are a number who want to address it but it it is their political leadership that is telling them to stop and so what has got to happen is the folks in each of the states need to say to your elected Democrats, if you don't act we're going to lose what is so extraordinary about college sports and and you've already lost it. Ted, you've already lost it. Colleges are losing 4-500 million dollars and they haven't even started yet. So you've already lost it in the true sense. And you've lost something else. It's it's ugly what's happened to sports in college. Before it was beautiful, it was a beautiful thing and now it's very ugly, it's become very ugly. And I think you're right. You're going to have people that will never vote for anything no matter what you agree. You could agree to everything that's perfect and they will never vote and and I'm not I'm not doing this as a practical person. No matter what you agree to, you have people in the Senate and in the House that will never vote for it even if it's good for our country, even if it's great for the player, great for the college, and great for our country and they will still vote no. Because they're cuckoo, they've got problems. Maybe it's problems at home, Cody, but they have problems. So that gives us problems. And I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to sit down with some of the people in this room, like Urban, like a coach a very fine coach Nick who won a lot. You won a lot. How many 6 national championships? 7. 7. All right so I think he qualifies right? But I I'd like to sit down with some of the very talented people in this room and we'll pick them out, if you'd like to volunteer, volunteer, and I'd like to design an executive order that I'll write myself based on common sense. And it'll be something that people will be sort of happy about. Some will be sort of happy, others will be sort of happy and maybe that's a good thing. There'll be a few people that won't like anything. But I'd like to write an executive order based on some of the very great talent in this room and we will be sued and we'll go before a court and maybe maybe we'll have a judge that's realistic, reasonable, and wants to do a favor for the country. Because that's the only way this is going to be solved. So I'm going to sit down and I'm going to write an executive order based on many of the statements made today, many of the statements I've been hearing over the last year about what a disaster this is for colleges, for the players, for the families, ruining families, ruining everything. And we're going to do a very well-thought-out executive order. A lot of you are going to be involved in that, all of you, anybody that would like to just let me know. And that'll be placed before the courts and hopefully a judge who's a real judge, a compassionate judge, and a judge with common sense will get it approved. And maybe it won't, and maybe it won't hold up. Maybe they'll say you you can't do an executive order. In which case, you say welcome to the court system of this country, which has gone totally out of control, totally out of control. And maybe not. But that's the only way you're going to get this done. So I'm going to write an executive order and the executive order is going to be based on great common sense and it's going to let colleges survive and players survive and let a lot of people be very, very happy. And let's see if we can get it through the court system, which we might not be able to do. In which case, I guess we'll have to meet again and we'll probably be through the same system. Look, if this doesn't work, colleges are going to be destroyed. Women's sports are going to be destroyed first before anything, before anybody, before anything. Women's sports are already being cut in every college. The first thing they're cutting, which is very unfair, is women's sports. And then they're cutting lesser sports. Sports that are very good sports, great sports are being cut. And you're going to be left with football and the football is going to lose so much money that the colleges are all going to go bankrupt. All because of a bad number of decisions made by courts, including I guess the Supreme Court. If you say it was a bad decision in the Supreme Court. I think the Supreme Court ought to be ashamed of itself for a lot of reasons, okay? A lot of reasons. I got to live with these people and I say this and they'll only vote bad and I could care less at this point. They have hurt this country so badly because they haven't had the guts to do what's right. So and I can tell you about other things too, not just this. So we're going to do an executive order and I think it's going to be an executive order that the people in this room and the students and the colleges will be proud of. Whether or not it holds up in court I can't tell you that. But you're not going to get it through the Senate and you're probably not going to get anything through the House because you have a bunch of lunatics that you have to deal with, Mike, and better you than me. Go ahead. Well, I, I I applaud the effort for an executive order and I think everybody around the table is grateful for that. Might I suggest, Mr. President, that while you're using the Article 2 authority, that we still work in the lane of Article 1. Um the playbook has to be wider than that I think and so what what I would suggest and humbly before everyone here is that we take I think almost everyone around the table we've heard today believes that at least the the SCORE Act is a is a base to work from. Might we still continue to try to work through that? We do have some Democrat support and as was said we've we've got some fine points to get to. Would love to work with you on it. Okay. And and and what I think is and what I was hopeful for is that the leaders around this table representing such a broad array of interests and groups around the country and both parties that the influence, collective influence of the people I hate the word collective, Coach Meyer, I'm sorry, I keep saying but but the influence of all the people around this table could help us get some of those critical, you know Democrat votes in the Senate. And I don't think we should or could abandon that effort, we should try it. I'm an optimist, you know. I think you go both ways. Yes. Let me do an executive order. You go ahead and play games with these people. Okay. Okay? We'll give it the quarterback death. We'll give it a shot. And maybe the fact that we do the one helps you get the votes in the other, okay? Right. Does that sound okay, Randy? Yeah, I think so, and I think at the end of the day, Mr. President, as you've heard here, we need an anti-trust exemption. And the only people who can do it are the Congress uh and I I heard from all the senators and the representatives and I agree the SCORE Act is a start, but with your leadership, I really do believe we can move the ball. I have ideas, brilliant people here have ideas where we can add on it. And based on my conversations with uh Democrats, I think they want to do this. I think the Congresswoman said that, and I think that there's a way to do this. And your executive order, again showing leadership, stepping out, is good, but I think we go on both paths. Don't forget, the executive order can then be put before Congress and Congress can vote on it, change it a little bit, vote on it. But I'm looking to do it straight and let Congress go a different path and you know, you may get a judge that understands what's happening and you may get some very good opinions coming out of a very smart judge who will be beloved all over our country as opposed to hated and disrespected. So that's it. So Randy, could I ask you to do the following uh either a sampling of it or get everybody, in some form uh come up with a proposal uh play with the SCORE Act or do something different than the SCORE Act, but maybe you use the SCORE Act as a base. I separately will get some of the people in this room and we're going to do a really good executive order and maybe Jim will put that executive order in front of the Senate and the House and who knows, maybe we get a vote and maybe we don't. But uh I'm talking about not even going before the Senate and the House, just having an executive order where we'll be sued and we'll go before the courts and here we go again. But I think at the same time you go down a separate track. Is that all right? Okay. Is that okay? Good. Uh other than that we've had a great time. Mr. President. Uh the press uh will take one or two questions. Uh please.\n\nPress:\nUm, I think President Trump, it sounds like the Russians are helping Iran target and attack Americans now.\n\nDonald Trump:\nThat's an easy problem compared to what we're doing here. I mean, but can I be honest? It's just you I have a lot of respect for you, you've always been very nice to me. What a stupid question that is to be asking at this time. We're talking about something else. Can we keep this maybe a little bit go ahead please.\n\nPress:\nThank you, Mr. President. My question is for on eligibility. As you know my son Joe is a high-level D1 athlete, third-year relief pitcher, University of Maryland.\n\nDonald Trump:\nHow would I know that? He said as you know, I don't even know who the guy is. That's all right.\n\nPress:\nAs you know, the eligibility thing is a disaster in the NCAA. You have Division II, D2 is passing a blanket five-year eligibility without medical, without ratio, just a five-year eligibility. That can be solved in D1 with the commissioners in this room right now. Why don't we solve that?\n\nDonald Trump:\nOkay. Thank you very much. I'd like to know the same thing. You know why you're not going to solve it? Because we've had some very, very bad incompetent decisions. Things that were routine before, that were solved long before. Now you're into a brand new system. Yes ma'am.\n\nPress:\nHi, Mr. President, thank you. Could you tell us what went into your decision to replace Secretary Noem with Senator Markwayne Mullin?\n\nDonald Trump:\nOh, is it possible to stay on this subject just for once? You know, just for once. Boy, oh boy. Anybody have any questions on this subject?\n\nPress:\nThank you, Mr. President. Uh what is your timeline for either the executive order that you just mentioned or the legislation that the members of Congress...?\n\nDonald Trump:\nI will have an executive order within one week. Well and it'll be very it'll be very all-encompassing. And we're going to put it forward and we're going to get sued and we're going to see how it does, okay? But I'll have an executive order which will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem within one week. And we'll put it forward. We will get sued, that's the only thing I know for sure in life, and we'll see how we do in the court system.\n\nPress:\nWould it take effect, sir? But the courts have destroyed yes, sir. Think about it. The courts a bad court system has destroyed college sports and colleges in this country. And a lot of lives. Mr. President. Yeah please. Mr. President, how how will your executive order be different from the one that you released in July?\n\nDonald Trump:\nYou mean the Score Act? Well it'll be a lot different because I don't necessarily agree with the Score Act. I don't know it as well as some people in this room, but I disagree with some of the things in the Score Act. Uh no, the executive order you released in July. How will this one that you're writing this week be different? It'll be more comprehensive. That was put out as a test as a you know, feeler. This will be much more comprehensive because we've all learned a lot in the last pretty long period of time, six months or so period of time. I think uh I think we can do a very good document, I think we can do a document that works from a common sense standpoint whether or not it's going to hold up in court who knows. It honestly it will depend on the judge. Maybe we'll get a wise judge, there are wise judges too. We got some very brilliant wise judges, maybe we'll get lucky.\n\nPress:\nMr. President, why why aren't there any student athletes in the room? Why aren't there any student athletes in the room?\n\nRandy Levine:\nUm, we've made it clear and I thought I said it before that uh we have agents here. Um there are a lot of student athlete groups. Uh there's a limited room here and after this meeting we intend to talk to all of the interested student athlete groups to get their input because this can't be done without them. But uh at the end of the day, we had to kick this off and start it. This is the beginning, this isn't the end. Uh I've talked to a lot of people who represent uh student athletes uh and you know, there are certain interest groups that I'm sure would have liked to be here, but they'll have their opportunity.\n\nDonald Trump:\nAnd they're very well represented. You know why? Because people like Nick Saban and Urban Meyer and some of the people, all the people that I know in the room and the people probably that I don't know, they all care very much about the student athlete, more so than they care about themselves. So I think they're really here in that sense, they're represented very well. Pete, I'll give you one more chance because that was a bad question you asked before. Go ahead.\n\nPress:\nWe've already got a lot of sound bites about this sport. Uh can I ask one off-topic? On-topic. On-topic, okay. Which is unusual for you. Go ahead. Thank you. Uh what is motivating you to do this right now? Because there is a lot of other stuff going on in the world.\n\nDonald Trump:\nRight. That's right. It there a lot. We're doing very by the way in Iran we're doing very well. Uh somebody said how would you score it from zero to ten? I said I'd give it a 12 to a 15. Uh their army is gone, their navy is gone, their communications are gone, their leaders are gone, two sets of their leaders are gone, they're down to their third set. Uh their air force is wiped out entirely. Think of it, they have 32 ships, all 32 are at the bottom of the ocean. Other than that they're doing very well, coach. Very well. We're doing uh our military is doing phenomenally. Uh that's the big thing for this week. We seem to have a new thing every week but the uh the situation with a very bad and very sick group of leaders who were killing a lot of people, a lot of our people were being killed, they were being maimed, they were being destroyed with their uh bombs all over the place planted in roads, we call them the roadside bombs. Walking around without legs, without arms, face blasted. Uh killed many, many people. And we had a choice, we could take it and go on like that for years or do something about it. And we did something about it and people are very impressed with our military and they admire our military with what happened in Venezuela and what's happening now, what's happened with the B-2 bombers before this where they took out the nuclear capability or potential of Iran. Uh I think uh I think we're right now we're a country that's more respected than we've ever been respected before. Uh I saw what was happening with college sports and it doesn't sound very important compared to what's happening in Iran and other places, but it is very important to me and if I can get it done I'll get it done. Uh through bad uh through a bad system, it's a bad system, through a bad legal system, you want to know the truth. We have a situation that is almost unsolvable and we'll see if we can solve it. And you know Pete, the fact is we're talking about colleges that are going to go out of business by many, many colleges are going to be out of business. This isn't just about student athletes. This is about our whole educational system is going to go out of business because of this. So I understand what you're saying in terms of the level of importance but to me this is very important. Very, very important. Thank you. Okay. Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President.","2026-09-04T15:16:48.56813+00:00",null,"President Trump Participates in a Saving College Sports Roundtable","20260306",true,false,{"name":14,"slug":15,"image_url":8},"Donald Trump","donald-trump",{"prev":17,"next":20},{"id":18,"name":19},"a40033c3-d2af-4215-ab16-4525371a2de7","President Trump Delivers Remarks to the Shield of Americas Summit",{"id":21,"name":22},"c6c23312-eeed-4c64-82f8-58450494f3ff","President Trump Participates in the Visit of the 2025 Major League Soccer Champions - Inter Miami CF"]