On April 3rd, the White House issued an executive order titled "Urgent National Action to Save College Sports." Read the executive order here.

The name sounds decisive. The reality is more complicated.

In this post, I’d like to expand more about what the order actually does — and why people working in and around higher education should be paying close attention.

The order targets what the administration calls a "financial arms race" in college football and basketball. It points to real data: one major athletic program ended 2025 with $535 million in athletics-related debt. Another carried $437 million. These aren't trivial numbers. They represent genuine structural pressure on institutions that serve hundreds of thousands of students.

The order directs federal agencies to evaluate whether universities are following governing body rules around eligibility, transfers, and NIL — and ties that compliance to federal contracts and grants. In plain terms: if your institution is out of compliance, your federal funding relationship could be at risk.

The effective date is August 1, 2026. That gives governing bodies and institutions months to update their rules.

A few things worth noting as we watch this unfold:

1. The order is broad and, in places, deliberately vague. Much of the real policy work is still ahead.

2. The threat to federal funding applies to the entire institution — not just athletics. Research contracts, medical grants, scientific funding. All of it.

3. Athletes are referenced throughout, but they are not the primary architects of the framework being built around them.

This is a significant moment in the ongoing story of how college sports intersects with American law, money, and governance.

We've seen this dynamic before, on a smaller scale. When USC was sanctioned following the Reggie Bush case, 30 scholarships were lost. Players who had no connection to the violations lost opportunities. Imagine that logic applied at the federal level, to entire institutions.

The conversation in college sports right now isn't just about who gets paid. It's about who holds the power to decide — and what leverage they're willing to use.

Social movements and sport have had a sordid history. It was the Civil Rights Movement that sparked Muhammad Ali into refusing being drafted into the Vietnam War; ultimately being banned from boxing for more than three years. It was the #BlackLivesMatter movement that prompted Colin Kaepernick’s national anthem protest on police brutality and racism which ultimately costed him his career.

Where politics has had a long-standing legacy of division, sport has always been (at least has attempted to be) an avenue of creating unity. What some may consider an unholy matrimony, sport and politics have sparked the dualities of love and hate, reassurance and uncertainty, passion and apathy, relief and concern. These are the hallmarks of any relationship working towards a meaningful and prosperous end goal, no?

Now, we have several contentious movements at play such as anti-woke vs. anti-racism, nationalism vs. globalization. Despite this, we see where sport continues to usher society forward.

Bad Bunny, born Benito Antonio Martinez Ocasio in Puerto Rico, has been vocal in times past regarding performing in the US due to ICE raids and other matters that he deemed as unsafe for many of his fans. This has prompted staunchly conservative groups to announce alternative performances that speak to their concepts of American ideals. Still, NFL, Commissioner, Roger Goodell, doubled down on the league’s decision to keep Bad Bunny as the halftime performer.

Goodell’s reasoning stemmed from Bad Bunny being one of the most popular entertainers globally which is in connection to the league’s push to become a respected global brand that focuses on inclusion.

How top leadership within sports leagues have begun putting emphasis on resolving pressing social issues showcases how last few years of athlete activism have shifted the action from protest to policy reform. It is a progressive move forward from a past where athletes and the leagues they played for were considered more apolitical due to the fears of losing revenue and reputation.

While the American anti-woke narrative is being put on display in this latest Superbowl halftime performance controversy, American sport has broadened the horizons of what could be when it comes to global inclusion. This push back by sports executives echo the sentiments mentioned by the late former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, when he said, “Sport has the power to change the world.” He would add that, “it is more powerful than governments in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all types of discrimination.”

For example, when President Trump stood firm on his early campaign promise to dismantle DEI, NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell refused to adhere saying, “We got into diversity efforts because we felt it was the right thing for the National Football League and we’re going to continue those efforts.”

Additionally, Trump announced that he was considering moving World Cup 2026 competitions from cities such as San Francisco and Atlanta. But FIFA’s Vice President, Victor Montagliani, said that “With all due respect to current world leaders, football is bigger than them and football will survive their regime and government and their slogans.”

Author, Bill Rhoden has said sport has always been a global platform to speak truth to power during times in which it has been both praised or demeaned to the lowly notion for athletes to just “shut up and play.” With both sentiments, many athletes have paid the price for their beliefs. Therefore, what is necessary is that institution of global sport cannot back down from its trailblazing abilities to ignite change, to challenge the status quo, and to showcase where we can go from here. Now is the time to build upon this in hopes for a brighter future. That much is non-negotiable.

Shaun M. Anderson, PhD is the Knight Chair in Sports, Race, and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is the author of The Black Athlete Revolt: The Sport Justice Movement in the Age of #BlackLivesMatter.