When President Trump returned to office in 2025, he promised sweeping change, taking aim at immigration policy, federal bureaucracy and drug cartels. He also zeroed in on an American institution in turmoil: college sports.
What Trump needed was somebody capable of cutting through the financial and legal morass that modern collegiate athletics had become. So he summoned a close friend, who also happens to be the president of the New York Yankees.
That friend, Randy Levine, is one of the most influential executives for Major League Baseball's most storied franchise. And now, his longtime relationship with the president has transformed him into an unlikely power broker in shaping the future of college sports.
"The fiasco in college football, the chaos, got really, really bad," Levine said. "People in Congress, universities all over the country, everyone came to the president and said, 'Can you help us find a way to fix this?'
"So he called me."
Levine is now racing to rally votes for the Protect College Sports Act. The sprawling bill aims to stabilize the industry by giving college sports leaders a federal antitrust exemption to let them enforce restrictions on player movement and compensation.
This fall, the Senate passed the bill, 77-22. But with Democrats taking control of both chambers in the midterms, time is running out for it to pass the House by the end of this Congressional session.
Over the past several months, the 71-year-old Levine has lobbied everyone from university presidents to members of Congress to pass the PCSA. His influence extended even to shaping the language of the bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Ted Cruz and Maria Cantwell, a Republican and a Democrat.
"The president and I said this has to be bipartisan," Levine said. "College is for everybody."
The bill's supporters have cast it as a lifeline for an industry in peril. Cruz called it "our last best chance to preserve one of America's great unifying traditions." Retired Alabama football coach Nick Saban has also thrown his support behind the bill.
Opponents say it was crafted largely without input from college athletes and wouldn't stem the tide of lawsuits that created a free-for-all in player transfers and compensation. They also criticize efforts to limit player pay but not that of coaches, some of whom make more than $10 million a year.
In a letter to House members this week -- written on Yankees letterhead -- Levine urged them to pass the bill, citing the support of 400 colleges and universities. (He said that he is advocating for the PCSA on his own time for free and not as Yankees president. Levine signed the letter as Vice Chair of the President's Roundtable on Fixing College Sports.)
"I'm talking to people every day, and I'm feeling better about this every single day," Levine said. "I think this is going to pass."
Levine joined the Yankees as president in 2000, after a stint as a New York City deputy mayor under Rudy Giuliani. A longtime labor attorney, Levine was MLB's primary negotiator on the 1996 collective bargaining agreement.
His role in college sports has been lower profile. He served on the Board of Trustees at George Washington University, his alma mater, and chaired its athletics committee. Yankee Stadium hosts college football's annual Pinstripe Bowl in December.
Levine's ties with the president stemmed in part from Trump's close relationship with George Steinbrenner, the late Yankees owner. At a campaign event last month, Trump called Levine an "incredible guy."
In high-level conversations about college sports, many people see Levine as Trump's voice.
"He's relying on me to do the day-to-day stuff," Levine said.
In recent years, Levine has developed a friendship with another prominent bill proponent, Texas Tech regent and benefactor Cody Campbell. The billionaire oilman said Levine's work has been invaluable on the bill, and that the two grew close enough that Campbell brought his family to the Bronx for a Yankees game a few months ago.
"My wife thinks I'm dating him or something," Campbell said. "There was one day he and I talked 16 times."
While college sports grapples with its future, Levine's full-time league is undergoing its own strife.
At the end of this month, MLB owners are expected to lock out the players in an effort to implement a salary cap in the next labor agreement, threatening the 2027 season.
And with a new Congress set to convene Jan. 3, the college sports bill is also on the clock.
"If it doesn't pass, it's over," Levine said. "This is never going to come back."