President Trump signed an executive order last Friday aimed at bringing structure back to college athletics. Transfer limits. A five-year eligibility cap. Regulation around NIL collectives. Even the threat of pulling federal funding from schools that don’t comply.

It will face legal challenges. It may not survive them.

But that’s not the point.

Something more important is happening underneath all of this.

I’m in the business of fighting for players. That doesn’t change. The Transfer Portal gave athletes real leverage, and they deserve it. NIL was a necessary correction. Players should be compensated.

And yet.

We’ve quietly lost something in the process.

The college experience was never supposed to be easy. Development isn’t linear. A freshman year is supposed to test you. That’s where growth actually happens.

Right now, too many players are leaving before that process has a chance to play out. And too many programs are moving on from players before they’ve had time to become who they’re capable of being.

Both are happening. Both are a problem.

When movement becomes the default response to adversity, development suffers. Culture becomes fragile. And somewhere in the middle of all of it, the education piece – the foundation this system was built on – starts to disappear.

That’s the part nobody wants to say out loud.

Whether this executive order holds up in court or not, it’s forcing a conversation that needs to happen.

Structure isn’t the enemy of player empowerment. Done right, it’s what protects it.

The White House released a statement on their site:

“College sports cannot function without clear, agreed-upon rules concerning pay-for-play and player eligibility that can’t be endlessly challenged in court.”

Hard to argue with that.

— Michael O’Rafferty
Senior Managing Director, Kaizen Sports