President Donald Trump reiterated his position that the NIL (name, image, likeness) decision is "a disaster for college sports" and the Olympics.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday during a ceremony honoring the 1980 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team, Trump was asked about NIL and the impact it could have on amateur sports development.
"I think it's a disaster for college sports. I think it's a disaster for the Olympics," Trump said.
"We're losing a lot of teams. Colleges are cutting a lot of the -- people would call them the lesser sports -- and we're losing them like no one can believe. And they were training grounds, beautiful training grounds, beautiful young people, and they were training grounds for the Olympics," Trump said.
The 1980 squad, known as the "Miracle on Ice" team and made up largely of amateur and college players, defeated the heavily favored Soviets 4–3 in the semifinals before clinching gold days later against Finland, victories long framed as a cultural touchstone during Cold War tensions.
Team captain Mike Eruzione nodded in the background as Trump spoke.
"And a lot of these sports that were training so well would win gold medals because of it. Those sports don't exist because they're putting all their money into football. By the way, they're putting too much money into football," Trump added.
Following the Supreme Court's 2021 decision allowing athletes to benefit financially from their name, image and likeness, universities and sponsors have invested millions in attracting elite players.
In July, Judge Claudia Wilken approved a deal between the NCAA and lawyers for Division I athletes under which the NCAA will pay nearly $2.8 billion in back damages over the next 10 years to players who competed between 2016 and the present.
Trump signed an executive order in July seeking to ban so-called "pay-for-play" payments to college athletes, what critics describe as de facto salaries, arguing that college sports in the United States are "under unprecedented threat."
James Morley III ✉
James Morley III is a writer with more than two decades of experience in entertainment, travel, technology, and science and nature.
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