NCAA to address eligibility rules after Donald Trump’s executive order ‘protecting the future of college sports’

The NCAA has reportedly scheduled a panel on eligibility rules for college athletes after President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ‘protecting the future of college sports.’

The people spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the NCAA hasn’t publicly discussed the proposal. They said the matter was scheduled to be reviewed and discussed by the Division I Cabinet next week, but not voted on for implementation.

Yahoo Sports was first to report the proposal. 

The proposal, which mirrors last week’s executive order, would give athletes five years of eligibility with the clock starting at the earliest of two dates: either when they turn 19 or graduate high school. There would be limited exceptions but they would not involve injuries, which has been a common reason for players to ask for extra eligibility.

Still unknown is whether the rule would shield the NCAA from lawsuits over eligibility. Dozens of players have sued for extra years, claiming injuries and other circumstances made them candidates for extra eligibility. 

The NCAA is seeking a limited antitrust exemption from Congress to prevent these lawsuits.

Speaking at the Final Four over the weekend, NCAA President Charlie Baker said Trump wanted to figure out a way to ‘get something on the books that works and represents what most people are looking for at this point, which is a much simpler eligibility process, which we’ve been talking to our committees about.’

Last week, the White House revealed its EO hours before the women’s Final Four tipped off one of the biggest weekends in college sports. The directive went after eligibility rules, transfers and the spiraling costs associated with an industry that now pays its players millions of dollars per year.

In one of the more clear-cut demands in this order, Trump called for ‘clear, consistent and fair eligibility limits, including a five-year participation window,’ that limits athletes to one transfer with one more available once they get a four-year degree.

‘I’m extremely supportive of the President’s order,’ said Cody Campbell, the Texas Tech regent and billionaire who is helping shape policy. ‘I’m very excited that we’re making progress and look forward to continued work in the (Congress) to permanently preserve a system that’s done so much for America.’

At a college sports roundtable he hosted last month, Trump said he anticipated any order he signed would trigger litigation. Athletes have largely won the freedom to transfer almost at will via the portal along with the ability to be paid by schools that are now doling out more than $20 million a year to their athletes.

Some of those players have also been suing the NCAA about eligibility limits, and their right to do that has been a major sticking point in the Congressional deliberations.

Trump also raised the need to fix revenue-sharing in a way that protects Olympic sports, which are most in peril if the college funding model spirals out of control.

But not everyone is pleased with the EO. ESPN analyst, attorney and former Duke power forward Jay Bilas has long criticized the NCAA for its refusal to see student athletes as employees.

‘If we want players to stay, then sign them to long-term contracts and put buyouts in them,’ Bilas told his ESPN colleagues and Arkansas basketball coach John Calipari over the weekend. ‘But the NCAA doesn’t want to do that. They don’t want them to be employees. They want to beg Congress for an antitrust exemption, and they’re not going to get it.’

To those complaining that player contracts would kill amateurism, Bilas had an answer ready: ‘There is nothing about this that has ever been amateur.’