Florida College Sports Task Force To Meet

By The News Service of Florida

A new Task Force on Intercollegiate Athletics’ from the State University System’s Board of Governors will go over its goals and review potential pending action from the federal government on Monday.

The agenda for the task force includes a review of President Donald Trump’s “Saving College Sports” meeting on March 6.

“The discussion was centered around Name-Image-and-Likeness (NIL) deals, the transfer portal, antitrust issues, and the financial stability of college athletic programs,” the agenda states. “President Trump stated he plans to issue a new executive order related to the discussion topics within the coming weeks.”

Near the end of the two-hour discussion, Trump said he would write an executive order that would be “very all-encompassing.”

“We’re going to put it forward, and we’re going to get sued, and we’re going to see how it plays. OK,” Trump said. “But I’ll have an executive order, which will solve every problem in this room, every conceivable problem, within one week, and we’ll put it forward. We will get sued. That’s the only thing I know for sure.”

Trump’s meeting, with Gov. Ron DeSantis and Secretary of State Marco Rubio among the co-chairmen, included about 50 government, college and sports officials and leaders. The state Board of Governors’ agenda also noted that Florida A&M University basketball head coach Charlie Ward, a football and basketball star at Florida State University, and New College of Florida Trustee Urban Meyer, a former football coach at the University of Florida, were in attendance.

Last June, Florida university system leaders made up to $22.5 million available as a loan or transfer for the next three years for each state university to share revenues with athletes.

The money was intended to help carry out a new revenue-sharing model with athletes under a national legal settlement in a case known as House v. NCAA.

The settlement, approved June 6 by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken of the Northern District of California, in part established a 10-year model for NCAA Division I schools to expand rosters and directly pay athletes for NIL.