President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that looks to limit how long NCAA athletes can play and how many times they can transfer.
The order encourages the NCAA to create rules that say athletes can play for no more than five years and can only transfer schools one time before graduation without sitting for a season.
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Trump acknowledged that the order is likely to be challenged in court, but NCAA president Charlie Baker says he thinks government intervention is necessary.
“We need congressional action to sort of seal the deal on a number of these things, which is good because we do, and getting a bipartisan agreement on a number of those issues would be a really big thing,” Baker said. “Based on my own conversations with a lot of Democrats and Republicans in Washington over the course of the past month or two, I do think there’s a lot of common ground there.”
Starting on Aug. 1, if schools continue to pay athletes that don’t meet the criteria in the 10-page order, they will risk losing federal funding.
Friday’s executive order comes just one day before the Final Four round of the men’s NCAA Tournament.
James Parker contributed to this story.
