College football has recently been going through a lot, thanks to the NIL issue creating chaos with player recruitment. It’s got everybody talking, including the who’s who of the sport. President Donald Trump, with a keen interest in the welfare of college sports, held a roundtable at the White House that addressed the current ground reality. Urban Meyer, who was in attendance, highlighted an important problem.

One of the key discussions at the roundtable was the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act. The bill aimed at regulating college sports, specifically Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation. But it failed to pass the final vote in Congress. When Trump asked for Meyer’s thoughts on it, he sounded off on the key entity that influences the NIL culture.

“The only thing I dislike about the SCORE Act, get rid of the collectives. That’s cheating,” said Meyer. “Donors put money in a pot and it’s distributed to players through the coach and players. That’s not allowed, that’s called pay for play.”

According to the former OSU head coach, collectives have created an “arms race” of getting funding from donors. The SCORE Act pushed to refrain from labelling student-athletes as employees, which would, in turn, prevent labor laws from entering the picture. Today, when a recruit signs a contract with his college, it is very similar to someone forging a business contract. Meyer revealed in 2024 that collectives will often send players to do some charity as part of their contract, which defeats the whole purpose of NIL.

The former head coach’s “cheating” claims are backed by instances that happened only in the recent past. In January 2026, the College Sports Commission (CSC) hit 20 Division I schools with formal notices over third-party NIL deals that encouraged athletes to transfer, putting programs and players alike in the spotlight. 

After entering the transfer portal, former Duke quarterback Darian Mensah found himself in legal crosshairs as the university sued on Jan. 20.  The player reportedly was bound by an $8 million, two-year deal with the program. Mensah is now at Miami after the two came to a settlement. The most dramatic transfer was pulled off by Ole Miss head coach Pete Golding, who reportedly tried to use tampering tactics to sway linebacker Luke Ferrelli away from Clemson.

Urban Meyer isn’t against athletes making money off their name. He believes athletes should absolutely be able to profit from their own brand. If the deal makes sense for both sides, he believes they should go for it.

“Jeremiah Smith can be a Nike athlete,” Meyer told SiriusXM. “Get paid absolutely. That’s called the American way. But they have donors throw millions of dollars into a pot and distribute per Instagram post. That’s called cheating. We’ve got to get a handle on that.”

Meyer insisted schools must mind their own business and stay out of the deal-making. The focus should be on the revenue-sharing model, which allows them to directly pay players. To address this concerning situation in college sports. Donald Trump is planning quite a solution.

Donald Trump is gearing up to launch yet another solution to fix college football

The President seems to have made college sports and NIL regulation a priority. He already signed an executive order last July, that prevented athletes from signing third-party, pay-for-play contracts. At the roundtable conference, Trump vowed to issue another executive order to fix the existing loopholes. He promised it would be “more comprehensive than the first” and “will be based on common sense and let colleges and players survive.”

Trump hinted at a push to steer college sports back toward a structure resembling the pre-NIL era. Back then, college football players ran after developmental opportunities. However, with the NIL taking over, it’s more about the school that puts the fattest cheque on the table. 

“Is there any way we can go back to the old system, which I thought was fantastic?” Trump said, pointing to how NIL has shifted the culture in college football. “Compensation for the players and simplify things. Back to a scholarship system, with some compensation. More minimal, but a lot for a player. Whether it was $75K or $50K.”

The shift toward direct revenue sharing and the SCORE Act has also created a legal “powder keg” regarding Title IX, which mandates equal opportunity and benefits based on gender in education. The core of the problem is a math equation: if a school pays out $20.5 million to athletes, does that money have to be split 50/50 between men and women, or can it be distributed based on the “market value” of the sport.

Under current Title IX rules, “financial assistance” must be substantially proportional to participation rates. But the problem arises when we see that in most Power 4 schools, about 75-80% of athletic revenue is generated by football and men’s basketball. Then if a school gives $15 million of its $20.5 million pool to football players to stay competitive in recruiting, they likely violate Title IX’s proportionality requirement. Some schools argue that NIL and revenue sharing are based on market demand, not “financial aid,” and therefore shouldn’t be subject to 50/50 splits.

But President Trump and Congressional Republicans have designed the SCORE Act in a way that it specifically bypasses these Title IX hurdles. By codifying that athletes are not employees, the Act prevents them from using certain labor laws to demand even higher pay, which would further skew gender spending. The administration recently rescinded guidance that required NIL collectives to be Title IX compliant. The SCORE Act aims to make this permanent, allowing boosters to funnel unlimited money to football players without schools having to match that spending for women’s sports.

Other than Urban Meyer, Donald Trump invited college football commissioners like the SEC’s Greg Sankey, the Big 12’s Brett Yormark, along with other legends like Nick Saban. It’s now time to see whether the roundtable’s decisions will actually bear fruit and make the system sustainable.