Dealing with Iran war is ‘easy,’ Trump says. College athlete pay? Not so much

President Trump prioritized college sports reform over pressing national security concerns during an extensive White House roundtable Friday, drawing attention for his surprising statement that questions about the war in Iran were “easy” compared to regulating college athletics.

The president convened a high-profile gathering that included former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua to address what he considers a crisis in collegiate sports. For more than an hour, participants discussed concerns about lucrative athlete compensation deals and transfer portal rules that Trump believes have undermined the traditional college sports model.

The timing of this extended discussion raised eyebrows among observers, coming just one week after the United States and Israel conducted military strikes against Iran. When questioned about the ongoing Middle East situation, Trump interjected, “That’s an easy problem compared to what we’re doing here,” suggesting that reforming college athletics presented a more complex challenge than international military operations.

When later pressed on why he was dedicating significant time to college sports amid global crises, Trump offered a more measured response: “I saw what was happening with college sports. And it doesn’t sound very important compared to what’s happening in Iran and other places, but it is very important to me. And if I can get it done, I’ll get it done.”

The president did briefly address Iran when prompted, rating recent U.S. military actions as “a 12 to 15” on a scale of 1 to 10, though he provided no further details or context.

The roundtable’s primary focus remained on the changing landscape of college athletics, particularly regarding name, image, and likeness (NIL) compensation for student-athletes. Trump argued that the current system, which allows athletes to secure endorsement deals and other financial benefits, has created an unsustainable financial burden for universities.

“If this doesn’t work, colleges are going to be destroyed,” Trump warned, suggesting that high-revenue sports like football are squeezing out smaller sports programs and women’s athletics. He 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?” while acknowledging some athletes might receive “some compensation, more minimal, but a lot.”

The president urged Congress to pass the SCORE Act, legislation designed to impose new regulations on college sports. Critics have characterized the bill as favoring the NCAA and its most powerful schools. When informed the measure was unlikely to clear Congress, Trump pledged to draft an executive order himself, though he did not specify how it would differ from one he signed in July regarding whether college athletes can be classified as employees of their schools.

Notably absent from the discussion were any current student-athletes, though the meeting included numerous high-profile figures such as House Speaker Mike Johnson, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, former Ohio State coach Urban Meyer, New York Yankees president Randy Levine, and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who previously served on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee.

The event highlighted the increasing politicization of college athletics amid significant structural changes in how universities compensate their athletes. It also demonstrated Trump’s willingness to prioritize domestic cultural issues even as his administration navigates complex international conflicts.

Prior to the roundtable, the president reportedly spent hours in closed-door meetings with senior officials, likely discussing Iran and other national security matters. He also announced meetings with defense contractors who agreed to increase weapons production, underscoring the competing priorities facing his administration.