Sports Illustrated: Everybody Wants to Save College Sports. But From What, Exactly?

This is extraordinary.  Apparently there is a problem in college sports that may ruin some schools. 

Like him or hate him, how does President Trump have the time and effort to host a conference to address the issue?  Along with President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Education Secretary Linda McMahon, are attending.

That is a lot of firepower for a two hour meeting about college sports, while there is a hot war going on in Iran, restructuring of Venezuela, a new Homeland Security secretary, and a ‘Shield of Americas’ summit with the leaders of a dozen Latin American countries.

Trump’s work ethic and willingness to address problems in the US are incredible.  He could have passed this on to a subordinate, but he is a skilled negotiator and having any president at the meeting brings in the highest level people in any field.  For those reasons, Trump was asked to attend.

Amongst the attendees, there are governors, senators, congressmen, college presidents, college coaches, president of the NCAA, owners and coaches of pro teams.  And Condoleezza Rice.  Here is a list of the attendees.  They acknowledge that no current college athletes are represented, and that they will be brought in to the process later on.

I don’t much care about college sports, but Trump rightly points out that college sports plays a big part in our success at the Olympics and other international competitions.  I do like all the winning.

On Youtube, I stumbled on this video of the conference and was curious.

I wasn’t aware of the problem in college sports, and not about to do deep research.  Apparently a judge in California decreed that the NCAA system that worked in the past, was illegal.  That changed everything.  There is also something about exorbitant salaries for coaches, and money coming to student athletes for commercial use of their names, images and likeness.  It’s abbreviated as NIL.

Trump has tried to address this issue with executive orders, but that was insufficient.  Congress is working on bipartisan legislation to address the issue.

It’s hoped that Trump Derangement Syndrome doesn’t keep the Democrats from voting for the legislation just because Trump is for it.