How New Executive Orders Could Affect Collegiate Athletes and the NCAA

Since taking office in January 2025, President Trump and his administration have introduced a series of sweeping executive orders that are beginning to reshape the landscape of US higher education and collegiate athletics. These directives, aimed at eliminating federal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, redefining gender-based policies, and tightening immigration controls, carry significant implications for the NCAA, student-athletes, and the institutions that support them. While the administration frames these policy shifts as efforts to restore fairness and merit-based opportunity, critics warn that they could erode longstanding protections under Title IX, deepen existing disparities in athletic compensation and participation, and limit international engagement in collegiate sports. As the higher education community grapples with these changes, universities and athletic departments must navigate a rapidly evolving policy environment that could fundamentally alter the future of college athletics.

Implications for Title IX

In January 2025, the Trump administration issued an executive order titled Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. The order directed all executive departments and agencies to terminate existing DEI programs, enforcement actions, and guidance. It also directed the attorney general and the secretary of education to jointly provide guidance for all state and local educational agencies that receive federal funding, including institutions of higher education, discouraging the implementation of DEI principles.

This order directly impacts public universities that receive and rely on various forms of federal funding.

While the order does not explicitly dismantle Title IX, it indirectly undermines its gender equity protections. Title IX, enacted in 1972, prohibits sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs and activities, including collegiate athletics. It was designed to complement and expand upon Title VII, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by directly addressing gender equity. Now that universities are being pressured to eliminate DEI based on Title VII programming, Title IX policies may be caught in the crossfire.

The executive order could reduce federal oversight regarding the equitable distribution of athletic opportunities, scholarships, and resources between male and female sports. Historically, female sports have received less institutional support and funding, and this trend may worsen under the new order. Consequently, the rollback has already begun to manifest in how Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) compensation is distributed.

In February 2025, the US Department of Education rescinded Biden-era guidance that linked NIL compensation with Title IX compliance. Under the Biden administration, the Department of Education opined that Title IX applied to institutional NIL payments, meaning that such allocations had to be “proportionally available” to male and female student-athletes. However, the Trump administration has stated that the guidance lacked a credible legal basis and concluded that Title IX should not regulate how revenue-generating athletic programs allocate compensation among student-athletes. This decision will likely further the existing pay disparities between male and female athletes, potentially allowing most NIL funds to flow toward revenue-heavy sports such as football and men’s basketball. University of Missouri Athletics, among other Division 1 institutions, has already shared that they will allocate 65 percent of their funding to football, 23 percent to basketball, while the remaining sports share the residual funding.

Another concern is the potential for universities to cut female sports programs to reallocate resources to male programs. To comply with Title IX’s athletic regulations, universities must meet one of the following criteria:

1. provide athletic opportunities for male and female students in numbers that are substantially proportionate to their respective enrollment rates;
2. show a history and continuing practice of expanding athletic programs for the underrepresented sex (typically women), in response to their demonstrated interest and ability; or
3. demonstrate that they are fully meeting the athletic interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex by offering adequate opportunities, even if participation is not proportionate and no recent expansion has occurred.

However, this order could weaken such enforcement and may lead schools to deprioritize this obligation. Compounding the issue, the NCAA is currently considering a proposed settlement that would implement a $20.5 million “salary cap” on athlete compensation at Division 1 universities. To remain competitive in recruiting and retaining top talent for men’s basketball and football programs, schools may eliminate lower-revenue sports, which often include women’s teams, to reallocate those funds.

LGBTQ+ Student-Athletes at Risk

In January 2025, the Trump administration issued another executive order titled Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. Then, a follow-up order in February 2025, Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports, reinforced the administration’s stance by asserting that an individual’s gender is determined solely by their biological sex at conception.

In response, the NCAA announced a ban on transgender women (those assigned male at conception) from competing in NCAA female sports. However, they may still participate in team practices and receive benefits afforded to other student-athletes. This move upended the NCAA’s prior policy that permitted transgender women to compete in female sports, provided they submitted documentation of “gender affirming treatment” by a medical professional and met the sport-specific standards for testosterone levels. Following Trump’s Executive Order, the NCAA swiftly revised its policy to align with the administration’s policy position. The administration argues that this move promotes and protects fairness and integrity in female athletics.

International Players and Travel Bans

Another Trump administration initiative has been a renewed crackdown on immigration. A new travel ban now applies to 43 countries, including Afghanistan, North Korea, Haiti, and South Sudan. The administration has directed the State Department to identify nations with “deficient vetting and screening processes,” which it argues justifies the need for the ban.

This policy has had immediate consequences for international student-athletes who practice and compete on university teams in the United States. One example is Duke University freshman center, Khamah Maluch, who faces possible deportation following a directive from the State Department to revoke all existing visas issued to South Sudanese nationals.

Recruiting international players has been a growing trend in collegiate and professional sports. Currently, approximately 25,000 international student-athletes compete across all NCAA divisions. In Division I alone, nearly 80 percent of the teams have at least one international player on their roster. These measures could make recruiting and retaining international players harder, affecting team competitiveness and diversity.

A Transformative Era in College Athletics

These executive orders are not yet finalized and must still undergo the appropriate review processes, but they are already impacting various sectors. Collegiate athletics, which is still navigating the whirlwind brought on by the introduction of NIL policies, now faces additional challenges and uncertainties stemming from the new directives of the current administration. This appears to be only the beginning of what may become a fast-moving and transformative era in policy and governance.