Trump’s College Sports Roundtable Just Confirmed What I Wrote Three Years Ago

I watched the entire two-hour roundtable discussion hosted by President Trump with leaders from college athletics about fixing the chaos surrounding NIL and the transfer portal.

Then I watched it again.

Because while listening to the conversation, I kept hearing something that sounded very familiar.

Not just familiar.

Documented.

Three years ago I published a book titled Transferring D1: A Practical Guide on How to Navigate the Chaotic World of College Athletics.

Inside Chapter 6 — “Utilizing NIL”, I made a very specific argument:

College athletes who receive massive NIL deals should be incentivized to return a small percentage back to the universities that provided the platform for those opportunities.

Not ownership.

Not control.

A percentage.

A reinvestment mechanism that strengthens the ecosystem that made the opportunity possible in the first place.

While watching the roundtable discussion, I heard Notre Dame Athletic Director Pete Bevacqua say something that immediately caught my attention.

He said:

“If you’re going to pay X on college football and Y on men’s basketball and Z on women’s basketball, you should be required to pay some sort of percentage to reinvest into your own Olympic movement.”

Different context.

Same connective tissue.

Percentage.

My argument focused on NIL deals returning a percentage back into the university ecosystem.

His argument focused on major revenue sports returning a percentage to support Olympic sports.

Both ideas revolve around the same core principle:

Reinvestment.

And reinvestment is exactly what college athletics desperately needs right now.

The Real Problem With NIL Isn’t Players Getting Paid

The real problem is money leaving the system without strengthening it.

When NIL exploded onto the scene, the conversation quickly turned into two extreme positions:

1. Players should make as much money as possible with no restrictions.
2. Universities should regain control of the system.

Both of those perspectives miss the real issue.

The system itself has no reinvestment structure.

Without one, money flows outward instead of strengthening the programs, infrastructure, and non-revenue sports that keep college athletics alive.

A percentage-based reinvestment structure solves this.

It doesn’t limit opportunity.

It sustains the ecosystem.

Why This Conversation Matters Right Now

College athletics is at a tipping point.

The transfer portal has created constant roster instability.

NIL collectives have turned recruiting into bidding wars.

Olympic sports are quietly being threatened by the financial chaos surrounding football and basketball.

Everyone agrees the system needs structure.

The question is what that structure looks like.

The roundtable conversation made something clear:

The people inside the system are now openly discussing the exact types of solutions that many of us outside the room have been writing and speaking about for years.

The Missing Piece: People Who’ve Been Studying This

For the last several years I’ve been writing and recording content on this exact topic.

Articles like:

Why College Athletes Need to Share NIL Money https://medium.com/@moveswiftly44/why-college-athletes-need-to-share-nil-money-6ba6843d7674

Top 5 Reasons I Need to Be Involved With The College Sports Commission https://medium.com/@moveswiftly44/top-5-tuesday-top-5-reasons-i-need-to-be-involved-with-the-college-sports-commission-csc-6542732b9718

Why Trump and Saban Just Validated Everything I’ve Been Building https://medium.com/@moveswiftly44/why-trump-and-saban-just-validated-everything-ive-been-building-8e328d116509

And my book:

Transferring D1 https://makeyamove.com/shop/ols/products/tranferring-d1

The goal has never been criticism.

The goal has always been solutions.

Because the truth is simple:

College athletics doesn’t just need new rules.

It needs sustainable incentives.

The Percentage Model

The most effective system will likely involve three components:

1. Athlete Freedom Players should absolutely be able to monetize their name, image, and likeness.

2. Ecosystem Reinvestment A small percentage of major NIL deals should flow back into the university ecosystem.

3. Olympic Sport Protection Revenue generated by football and basketball must help sustain the Olympic sports that make college athletics unique.

When those three elements work together, the system becomes sustainable.

Without them, the chaos continues.

A Final Thought

Watching that roundtable discussion reinforced something important.

The people in the room clearly care about fixing college athletics.

But the solutions to many of these problems already exist.

They’ve been written.

They’ve been studied.

They’ve been proposed.

The next step isn’t just more conversation.

It’s bringing together the people who are already building the frameworks that can make the system work.

Because if college sports is truly heading toward a reset, the smartest thing the decision-makers can do is make sure the table includes people who have been thinking about this long before the crisis arrived.