President Donald Trump made headlines in February when he signed an executive order aimed at preventing men from competing against female athletes.

Trump weighed in on athletics once again this week by signing another executive order that he says will save college sports. 

"Third party, pay-for-play payments" banned

According to Breitbart, the president's order was signed on Thursday and contains a number of significant provisions.

This includes requiring "the preservation and, where possible, expansion of opportunities for scholarships and collegiate athletic competition in women’s and non-revenue sports."

It also "prohibits third-party, pay-for-play payments to collegiate athletes" but does not bar "legitimate, fair-market-value compensation that a third party provides to an athlete, such as for a brand endorsement."

Trump argues that the changes are necessary as recent court decisions "have eliminated limits on athlete compensation, pay-for-play recruiting inducements, and transfers between universities, unleashing a sea change that threatens the viability of college sports."

Order seeks to stop "debilitating" antitrust challenges

The order further mandates "that any revenue-sharing permitted between universities and collegiate athletes should be implemented in a manner that protects women’s and non-revenue sports."

What's more, it "directs the secretary of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board to clarify the status of student-athletes."

Similarly, the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission are both told "to protect student-athletes’ rights and safeguard the long-term stability of college athletics from endless, debilitating antitrust and other legal challenges."

Finally, the order goes on to call for consultation "with the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Teams and other organizations to protect the role of college athletics in developing world-class American athletes."

Saban welcomes order

Trump's executive order was met with praise from former University of Alabama head football coach Nick Saban during an appearance on Fox & Friends.

Nick Saban praises Trump's executive order cracking down on pay-to-play in college sports https://t.co/KLIQFBMXtt

— Fox News (@FoxNews) July 25, 2025

"I think President Trump's executive order takes a huge step in providing the educational model, which is what we've always tried to promote to create opportunities for players, male and female, revenue and non-revenue, so they can have development as people, students, and develop careers and develop professionally if that's what they choose to do," Saban said.

"I think we sort of need to make a decision here relative to do we want to have an education-based model, which I think the president made a huge step toward doing that, or do we want to have universities sponsor professional teams?" he continued before adding, "And I think most people would choose the former."