President Donald Trump has described the war in Iran as an “easy problem” compared to the complexities of regulating college sports and curbing high salaries for football players. The remark came during a roundtable discussion on Friday that included former Alabama coach Nick Saban and other sports officials.
Trump convened the meeting to address what he called the “destruction” of college athletics due to the NCAA's name, image and likeness (NIL) rules and the transfer portal. He spent over an hour arguing that big paydays for star athletes have wrecked the system, warning that universities risk insolvency if reforms are not enacted.
The timing of the lengthy discussion drew criticism, given that the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran a week earlier. When a reporter attempted to ask about Iran, Trump interrupted, saying, “That’s an easy problem compared to what we’re doing here.” He later added, “I saw what was happening with college sports. It doesn’t sound very important compared to what’s happening in Iran. But it is very important to me.”
Trump urged Congress to pass the SCORE Act, a bill imposing new rules on college sports, which opponents say favours the NCAA and its most powerful schools. Told the measure was unlikely to pass, he threatened to issue an executive order, saying, “If this doesn’t work, colleges are going to be destroyed.” He also expressed nostalgia for the pre-NIL era, asking, “Is there any way we could go back to the old system, which I thought was fantastic?”
The roundtable included House Speaker Mike Johnson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, and former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, but no current college athletes. Trump also briefly commented on Iran, rating US military actions “a 12 to 15” on a scale of 1 to 10.
