President Trump Inviting Major Sports Names To White House For Roundtable Talk On Saving College Athletics

President Donald Trump is looking to continue his push towards helping college athletics navigate the future in these chaotic times, and he's looking for help from a number of major figures in the sports world. 

On Thursday, OutKick confirmed that Trump is preparing to host a number of leaders from college athletics and professional sports at the White House next Friday in hopes of hearing different ideas on what can be done to fix the current trajectory that has seen NIL and eligibility lawsuits piling up across the country. 

The news was first reported by Ross Dellenger.

Over the past year, President Trump has relied on Texas Tech billionaire Cody Campbell and Nick Saban to lend their advice on ways to fix current problems plaguing college athletics. Right now, there are a plethora of lawsuits sitting in different courtrooms pertaining to antitrust claims and student-athlete eligibility issues. 

According to multiple sources, the current list of invitees includes Power-4 commissioners like Greg Sankey and Tony Petitti, along with Tom Pernetti from the American Conference and Mountain West commissioner Gloria Nevarez. 

In terms of coaches, Tony Dungy, Nick Saban, Urban Meyer and Mack Brown are set to receive an invitation. Also, former athlete Tim Tebow, along with Tiger Woods have been linked to the invite list. There will also be Chancellors/Presidents from a number of schools. 

It has also been reported that NBA commissioner Adam Silver is on the invite list, along with New England Patriots president Jonathan Kraft. 

Now, it should be noted that the list of invitees is subject to change, and even having the roundtable slated for next Friday could potentially be moved due to the President's schedule. But, invites have been, and will continue to be, sent out. 

Are some of these names a bit outlandish when you think of trying to find solutions to the current problems in college athletics? Absolutely, though at this point you might as well invite every smart business mind in sports that can offer ideas. 

It would probably help if current student athletes were on the list of invitees, at least to give an opinion of their stance on ongoing problems, but as of now there haven’t been any currently invited. 

There Is A Lot That Needs Fixing In College Sports

One of the current problems is the current lack of enforcement, in large part due to lawsuits being filed in federal and state courts, which has forced the NCAA to engage in litigation just about every week. 

There's also the continuing repercussions from the House Settlement rolling out across athletic departments, with each school being allowed to spend just over $21 million per year on their rev-share budgets for athletes. But, what we've seen in the aftermath are the third-party NIL deals that have some schools spending over $40 million on their football rosters, thanks in large part to outside donors picking up the tab. 

Last summer, President Trump signed an executive order that was positioned as an attempt to rry to ‘Save College Sports’, which was met with plenty of skepticism even though there was at least something to build on. The problem is that Congress has had a very hard time getting any type of legislation passed, even through the bipartisan route. 

The latest, and ongoing, legislation called the ‘SCORE ACT,’ has been rewritten numerous times. It was also taken off the floor recently before a vote. Leaders are hoping to gain at least enough support that it's not voted down in quick order. 

President Trump Signs Executive Order To 'Save College Sports' With NIL Guidelines, Protect Women's Sports

What comes next is still to be determined, or discussed. There are midterm elections on the way, while the NCAA has pleaded numerous times over the past few months that in order to stop fighting inside courtrooms, they will need the help of Congress. 

This latest gathering of the minds will be an attempt to have numerous ideas gathered so that some type of movement can be made in the future. 

Sure, getting some of these names together for a discussion on saving college sports is a smart move, at least from a prominent figure standpoint. 

But, gaining some type of traction towards actual legislation being passed is the bigger hurdle moving forward.