SEC commish Greg Sankey reacts to POTUS signing NIL executive order after $2.8 bn historic settlement

President Donald Trump is signing an NIL executive order ahead of the 2025 college football season. According to On3 Sports, this POTUS' order will be to establish national standards for NIL in college athletics.

Following the news, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey gave his reaction. Speaking on "SEC This Morning," Sankey said,

"The president clearly has an interest in sports and has an interest in college sports. He has been at our games. The notion of an executive order has been mentioned before. There were some reports of a commission or an executive order back to, like, April, I think, is when that started to bubble. So we’ll wait and see."

However, Sankey clarified the following tweet.

Ed O'Keefe's post discussed President Trump's executive order establishing national standards for the NCAA's NIL program, which has reaped millions of dollars in revenue for top college athletes.

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To that, Sankey responded by saying,

"I do not think that is a terribly articulate tweet. “The NCAA does not have a name, image, and likeness plan specifically. I mean, in college athletics, we have something, so the attribution is an error."

The report states that President Donald Trump and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey played golf together to discuss a myriad of topics. The executive order likely derived from the meeting. It remains to be seen how the executive order will alter the collegiate landscape moving forward.

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POTUS executive order comes after $2.8 billion historic settlement

In June, Judge Claudia Wilken approved a settlement agreement between the NCAA and legal practitioners representing all Division I athletes. The deal, valued at $2.8 billion, is known as the House v. NCAA settlement, and it resolves three separate federal antitrust lawsuits that all claimed the NCAA was unfairly limiting the earning power of collegiate athletes.

According to ESPN, colleges will pay around $2.8 billion in back damages over the next decade to sportspersons who competed in college at any time from 2016 to date. In the future, each school can pay its athletes up to a certain amount. It's reported that the annual salary cap would be in the region of $20.5 million per school in the 2025-26 campaign.

This marks a significant milestone in the fight for collegiate athletes to receive fair compensation. In 2021, college athletes were allowed to earn money via third parties via NIL deals. It has since closed the gap in football, basketball and other major collegiate sports.

About the author

Nick Uzochukwu Igbokwe is an NFL journalist at Sportskeeda. He loves the thrill and excitement that comes with the complex plays on the Gridiron. American football is an acquired taste, and he has been hooked on the game since discovering it in 2017 during his University days.

Furthermore, Nick has interviewed agents, medical personnel, and close family members of NFL stars, who have reached out to him after reading his stories.

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Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.