The NIL Order Everyone's Panicking About Is Actually a Filter
Trump signed an executive order targeting NIL. The headlines called it a threat. Coaches are scrambling. Parents are nervous. Athletes are confused.
Here's what's actually happening, and why the athletes who've been doing this right have nothing to worry about.
What the order actually does
Before my contrarian take, you need the facts. Here's what the executive order actually targets:
1. It kills pay-for-play NIL
The order draws a hard line between real NIL — brand deals, endorsements, content value — and improper NIL — payments tied to committing to a school. Booster money. Collective deals with no real market behind them. Above-market arrangements that exist purely to recruit. That's what's under fire.
2. It puts schools under federal scrutiny
Federal agencies are being directed to evaluate schools on NIL activity, recruiting practices, and eligibility rules — and potentially tie that evaluation to federal funding. Schools are about to get very careful about what they promise and who they let do the promising.
3. It pushes for transfer limits
The proposal includes one transfer with immediate eligibility, a second only after earning a degree, all within a five-year window. Transfer freedom isn't gone, but the era of consequence-free movement is over.
That's it. That's what changed. Now here's what it actually means.
A contrarian take nobody's saying
Everyone's asking who loses from this order. That's the wrong question.
The fake NIL market just collapsed. Which means the athletes who built something real are now competing against fewer people for the same brand dollars.
I played professionally in six countries. No hype machine. No middleman. Every market I entered, I had to prove my value fast — with nothing but who I was and what I brought.
That's the question this order forces every athlete to answer. And most of them can't. Not because they're not talented. Because they never built anything beyond the talent.
What was actually happening before this
Brands were already skeptical of NIL. Too many athletes. Too much noise. No way to tell who was real versus who just had a collective cutting checks to steer their recruiting decision.
The money was flowing — but a lot of it had nothing to do with brand value. It was recruiting in a costume.
That was never NIL. That was a bag with a disguise on.
This order rips the disguise off. And what's left — actual brand value, actual audience trust, actual identity — that's what the market should have been rewarding all along.
What this means if you're an athlete
The athletes who win from here already know who they are. They have a clear identity. They create content that shows who they are beyond the sport. They've built a reputation that brands actually want to attach to.
An executive order can kill a bag. It can't kill a reputation.
I've spent 19 years inside pro sports organizations. The athletes with staying power weren't always the most talented. They were the most legible. You knew who they were. You knew what they stood for. Brands knew how to use them.
Build your identity now… before the next rule change, before the next order, before the next collective shuts down.
Because if your NIL strategy depended on a collective cutting you a check to sign a letter of intent, that was never a strategy. That was a transaction. And transactions don't build careers.
What this means if you're a parent
If a school was dangling big NIL numbers with no real brand logic behind them — that offer just became a lot less certain. Not illegal. Not gone. Just under scrutiny. And schools that were playing fast and loose with it are about to go quiet.
The better question to ask any school right now: what do you actually offer my kid in terms of brand-building, content support, and NIL education? Not just the number. The infrastructure.
Because the athletes who come out ahead of this aren't the ones who got the biggest check to commit. They're the ones who built something no rule change can touch.
A note on DIII and non-revenue sports
The take above is primarily aimed at revenue sport athletes in the NIL ecosystem. DIII is a different conversation. State-funded Division III institutions that depend on federal dollars face a different kind of exposure here — not from fake NIL, but from whether compliance reviews tied to this order affect their federal funding stability. If you're a DIII athlete or parent, that's the question worth asking your administration right now.
The bottom line
This order raised the bar on what's real. That's not a threat; that's a filter. And if you've been building something real, you just got an edge.
Stop chasing the bag. Build your brand. The bag follows the brand — not the other way around.
Jared Harding is the founder of Tewdilly, a brand strategy and content practice for athletes and sports organizations. He spent 17 years at Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and is a former professional basketball player.
