It’s official. Donald Trump is an ignoramus when it comes to college sports.
The president’s attempts to cosplay as a sports analyst — amid a government shutdown, at that — haven’t gone particularly well this week, starting with his attempt at color commentary during a Washington Commanders game.
On Tuesday, he didn’t fare much better in his assessment of the college sports landscape during a chummy chat with ESPN’s Pat McAfee, whose daily talk show has spread misogyny and right-wing conspiracy theories.
Trump and his administration are looking to wield influence over the hotly contested debate about how college athletes are paid. The president has aligned himself with people, such as former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, who think players have become too entitled and show “less resiliency” under the current compensation rules, which allow players to make money from third parties using their name, image and likeness. These people also don’t want athletes to be classified as employees, which would allow them to collectively bargain with their schools.
In June, a federal court ruling opened the door for schools to share revenue with student-athletes and pay them directly — but crucially, it instituted a cap that some advocates already worry will stymie payments to the players.
And that’s important context for the clip below, in which Trump praises Saban and rambles about the need to place some “very powerful caps” on payments because, according to him, compensating players risks bankrupting colleges. This suggests he doesn’t know such a cap is already in place, or perhaps that he thinks the existing $20.5 million limit isn’t restrictive enough on athletes’ ability to be paid for their talents.
Either way, as NBC Sports’ Mike Florio pointed out, schools have managed to pay coaches, including Saban, astronomical salaries in an uncapped environment. So, the idea of player compensation being the death knell for colleges and universities is dubious at best — especially when you consider that some of the top sports programs generate hundreds of millions of dollars for their schools.
“College football, it’s very big — but as big as it is, if they don’t do some very powerful caps, these colleges are all going to go out of business, no matter how rich they are,” Trump absurdly said on McAfee’s show.
As you watch this clip, keep in mind that it’s utterly detached from reality:
