President Donald Trump’s superpower is creating a cognitive dissonance that allows otherwise sensible people to indulge his whims and ramblings despite the myriad controversies, moral failings, and downright disturbing behaviors he engages in.
That superpower was on display Friday afternoon as various sports media members gleefully showed up at the White House to provide breathless coverage of his College Sports Roundtable, which somehow ended up even more useless than one might have imagined.
Despite being billed as a bipartisan conversation about the state of college athletics with the goal of finding concrete answers on how to fix it, no actual college athletes were present. The President of the New York Yankees, hockey executive Lou Lamoriello, several agents, and the President of RedBird Capital were present, however.
As tends to happen with Trump’s signature events, the president spent much of the time rambling, uttering many words that added up to little substance. Much of what he said was either factually incorrect or seemed ill-informed. And more often than not, he rambled about various topics of dubious relevance to the conversation at hand. Intended to last an hour, the event ended up going for two hours, with worthwhile conversations about the SCORE Act devolving into meaningless commentary and small-potatoes concerns.
Of the 50 people scheduled to be at the White House today to talk about college sports, more than 60-percent of them did not even speak during the meeting. That group included Adam Silver, Condi Rice, Val Ackerman, Tony Petitti and multiple university presidents. https://t.co/MNFjHCrvEW
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 6, 2026
At one point, Trump seemed to signal an intention to sign an executive order to… do something, though even he was quick to admit that any such order (whatever it was for) wouldn’t likely hold up to scrutiny in the courts or otherwise (a common thread with most of his EOs).
Trump also expressed a desire to “go back to that wonderful system” before NIL and college athlete empowerment, which was presumably music to the ears of all the rich people around the table. Trump also suggested a “salary cap,” which will defintely not happen.
The most notable moments of the entire endeavor came towards the end, when Trump was asked about the war he started in Iran last week, something that probably deserves the President of the United States’ and Secretary of State’s full attention at the moment.
None of this should be surprising, of course. It was always the most logical and expected outcome. This was always destined to be a waste of everyone’s time. That didn’t stop various sports media outlets from sending reporters up to cover it live, playing along with the festivities, including Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger, Front Office Sports’ Amanda Christovich, and ESPN’s Heather Dinich.
On paper, it makes sense that a roundtable discussion about the state of college football involving the president would demand coverage. However, that doesn’t take into account the unserious nature of these events under Trump, where the lack of notable accomplishments was an all-too-obvious outcome as soon as it was announced. Anyone expecting anything other than a masturbatory exercise in self-indulgence was either fooling themselves or in on the joke.
No one should even be giving this event oxygen. It’s a farce and there’s a reason not one current athlete was invited.
🦮🐴🎪— 💫🅰️♈️🆔 (@ADavidHaleJoint) March 6, 2026
The White House college sports roundtable was going better than I expected. Then it ended worse than I expected. That might’ve hurt the chances of passing the SCORE Act.
— Chris Vannini (@chrisvannini.com) March 6, 2026 at 3:06 PM
Less than one week into a war with Iran, Trump spent more than 90 minutes at an event (with Marco Rubio by his side) talking at a roundtable about what ails college sports and how to fix it.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1.bsky.social) March 6, 2026 at 3:20 PM
50+ people. 60 minutes. No current athlete perspective.
Yeah, this will fix things 🤦♂️ https://t.co/3RsBTHnE3V
— Austin Karp (@AustinKarp) March 6, 2026
This roundtable was a waste of time for everyone who attended and paid attention to it.
But at least we get clarity on the true intentions of some who attended. https://t.co/jsK1oy0XGa
— Mit Winter (@WinterSportsLaw) March 6, 2026
Whew! Fixed! Feel so much better.
Many of the people at this gathering do not have the ability or authority to enact change. Lotta words spoken tho! https://t.co/60LPAoVBzy
— Seth Davis (@SethDavisHoops) March 6, 2026
If there are answers to the issues plaguing college athletics, they were never going to be found here. But hey, everyone got to visit the White House, so I guess that’s neat.
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.