President Donald Trump has invited a group of sports pros, coaches, and other notables to the White House for his roundtable meeting to hash out the state of college sports, addressing issues including the transfer portal and NIL now plaguing college athletics.
According to Yahoo Sports, the president has now officially invited former Alabama coach Nick Saban, former NFL player Tim Tebow, and Texas Tech’s Cody Campbell. And he is also set to invite the Big Ten’s Tony Petitti, the SEC’s Greg Sankey, the Big 12’s Brett Yormark, and the ACC’s Jim Phillips to attend.
Other invitees include Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, Notre Dame’s Pete Bevaqua, Tennessee’s Donde Plowman, Tiger Woods, Bryson DeChambeau, the NBA’s Adam Silver, and even former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, among others.
The president has made it clear: he feels the state of college sports is in poor shape these days, and he has set his mind to doing something about it.
“You’re going to have these colleges wipe themselves out, and something ought to be done,” Trump said in December of 2025. “And I’m willing to put the federal government behind it. But if it’s not done fast, you’re going to wipe out colleges. They’re going to get wiped out, including ones that do well in football.”
“They can’t pay $12 million, $14 million, $10 million, $6 million for players. They won’t be able to stop. There’ll always be that one player; they only have that player, they’re going to win the national championship. And they’ll have 100 colleges thinking the same thing. Colleges cannot afford to play this game. It’s a very bad thing that’s happening,” he added.
He has also taken action.
Last year, for instance, he signed an Executive Order aimed at addressing the issue of pay-to-play payments to college athletes.
Trump’s executive order, titled the President Trump Saves College Sports, prohibits third-party pay-for-play payments because it “does not apply to legitimate, fair-market-value compensation that a third party provides to an athlete, such as for a brand endorsement.”
Trump also came to the aid of female athletes again with this executive order, requiring the “the preservation and, where possible, expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports.”
More recently, Trump even said he would sign an Executive Order banning the broadcast of any other college football game during the Army-Navy game, making game day an exclusive for the historic match-up.
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