In Yoni Zacks’ April 8 column, he wrote, “Northwestern men’s basketball needs to adapt to the modern era.” Unlike writer Zacks, I agree with NU men’s basketball coach Chris Collins’ support for NU student-athletes’ four-year journey on the Evanston campus. This is despite the fact that Collins lost eight of his players to the transfer portal. 

Throughout my time at NU from 1962 to 1964, and for nearly six decades after, the four-year journey was a common experience for most student-athletes. But they have since been transformed into free agents who change colleges almost as often as people change underwear, seeking the richest name, image and likeness, or NIL, payment deals from the highest bidders. 

NIL also stands for “no institutional loyalty.”

Michigan’s NCAA men’s basketball championship, won with a starting lineup of all-transfer students, is hardly “One Shining Moment.” It’s a dark victory for officially authorized bribery. 

I want college athletes to spend their entire playing careers at one school. So does President Donald Trump.

On April 3, he issued an executive order to calm the chaotic college sports landscape. It would allow student-athletes to transfer only once during their college careers without the penalty of sitting out a season.  

Trump’s order would limit student-athletes’ playing careers to a five-year window — a change from the four-season-within-five-year rule. This is the NCAA’s current rule, which it has “struggled to enforce” because of legal challenges from student athletes, ESPN reported. The executive order will set funding requirements for non-revenue sports programs, such as swimming, and introduce federal regulations for the hundreds of multibillion-dollar NIL collectives. 

Schools that fail to comply with the order, scheduled to take effect on Aug. 1, could risk losing federal funding, Trump warned, according to The New York Times.

“Why can’t the industry go back to the old system?” Trump asked at a White House “Saving College Sports” roundtable in March. “I’d like to go exactly back to what we had and ram it through a court.” 

I don’t agree with many of Trump’s initiatives, but he’s correct on this issue. He is backed by a heavy hitter on the sports scene, former University of Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who also spoke at the White House event. Saban claimed that the current college sports model for student-athletes is “unsustainable.” 

“Players need to get compensated, no doubt. But one school can’t spend $30 million for players, while another school’s spending $3 million,” Saban said.

Actually, $20.5 million is the maximum amount that any college can pay its student athletes under terms of a settlement reached by the U.S. House of Representatives and the NCAA last year, with nearly all of the money going to football and basketball programs.

That agreement significantly changed the student-athlete recruiting landscape, as NU football coach David Braun noted while introducing 21 new team members for the 2026 season on Dec. 3.

“We don’t want young men (to feel) that their main driving force is the revenue sharing,” he told The Daily. “But ultimately, we know that it’s part of the decision-making process. And we better find a way to be competitive.”

Left unsaid was the amount of NIL payments the 21 new players will receive, and who will pay them. Will the money come from an NIL collective, which includes wealthy alumni boosters, or will NU itself directly fund the payments, possibly diverting funds that could be used for other purposes, like increasing students’ financial aid? 

Trump’s executive order to more tightly restrict the transfer portal and limit NIL payments will likely face stiff legal challenges that could even reach the U.S. Supreme Court. In fact, it was a decision from the Supreme Court in 2021 that transformed the college athletic recruiting process into a system where coaches say, “Let’s make a deal,” and student-athletes reply, “Show me the money.”

On Aug. 5, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the NCAA violated antitrust laws and could not prevent student-athletes from being financially compensated.

Trump’s anger at what he regards as a corrupt college sports recruiting scene is shared by some members of Congress, who are considering reform legislation. One of them is Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), chair of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee.

In an op-ed posted on sports commentary site OutKick on March 30, Cassidy called on Congress to fix the college sports “mess” and protect student-athletes from “exploitation.”

If other universities, such as those in the Power 5 and Big Ten, challenge Trump’s executive order in court or oppose legislation to reform college sports, how will NU react? Will it join the opposition, or will it choose a path to restore fairness, balance and integrity to the student-athlete recruiting process?

A four-year journey at one school should be a life-changing rite of passage for all college students, including those who compete in stadiums, arenas and on playing fields. Putting points on the board should not mean putting obscene sums of money in their pockets.

Richard Reif is an alumnus of the Medill School of Journalism who graduated in 1964. He can be contacted at [email protected]. If you would like to respond publicly to this op-ed, send a Letter to the Editor to [email protected].  The views expressed in this piece do not necessarily reflect the views of all staff members of The Daily Northwestern.