Tuberville says that we need federal legislation to address the issues with college athletics

December 17, 2024 – WASHINGTON, D.C.. – U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) recently spoke with Alabama reporters about his ongoing efforts to reform college athletics.

Sens. Tuberville and Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia) introduced legislation in this Congress to address issues with athletic collectives, name image and likeness, and the ballooning gaps between the haves and have nots in college athletics. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) effectively blocked that bill from ever getting to the floor of the Senate.

The Alabama Gazette asked Tuberville if he was optimistic that those issues might be addressed in the new Congress that will be sworn in next month.

"Yea, now with the Republican Congress and White House I think we got a chance," Sen Tuberville answered. "We had a good bill last year. Schumer wouldn't put it on the floor. He wanted to unionize all athletes. We are not going to do that."

Tuberville said that any federal legislation would only come after the NCAA brings forward their new rules over the summer.

"We need to leave a lot of this to the NCAA," Tuberville continued. "They are going to come out with some new regulations this summer; but I think that there are some things we can do federally that they can't do to make it a little more equal; but it is hard to equalize something where there is not a cap, a salary cap, or whatever."

Among the twelve teams in this year's playoffs, Boisie State spent less than $2 million on name image and likeness money for its team. Arizona State Spent $10.6 million, Oregon $10.6 million, Tennessee $11.6 million, Indiana $13.6 million, Penn State $13.8 million, Clemson $15.3 million, Georgia $18.3 million, Ohio State $20.3 million, and Texas $22.3 million. Notre Dame and SMU are private schools so they do not have to report their spending so their NIL costs are unknown.

https://nittanylionswire.usatoday.com/lists/college-football-playoff-teams-ranked-nil/

"I bet most SEC schools spent $5 to $1o million on their teams," said Tuberville. "Ohio State spent some where about $20 to $25 million if I heard these numbers correct from some of my former colleagues; but you know what's legal is legal."

Long gone are the days when players were 'student athletes' who often couldn't afford to go home for the holidays, order pizza, or go out on date night. The best players at the top schools make more money than the professors who teach their classes. College sports have become more like pro sports with professionals managing a team's NIL budget in order to build a competitive roster. With the top schools, the game has become more about picking which payers to pay than it is about the Xs and Os of playcalling.

"I heard (retired) Coach (Nick) Saban say you know you can go out and buy them but you got to buy the right ones," explained Tuberville.

Tuberville said that the money in athletics is here to stay; but that reforms are needed.

"I hate that we got to this point. I am totally for players making money; but I am not for not having enough money for Women's sports and Olympic sports," said Tuberville. "We have got to protect sports and college athletics of all shapes and sizes; and we are going to have to do some sort of federal legislation; but I just don't know what we are going to get through."

Tuberville said that college sports legislation will be later in 2025, after the NCAA announces their own internal reforms.

"We are going to have to wait to see what the NCAA does and try to get involved to some point," stated Tuberville. "Again, the cat's out of the bag on the money. That's not going to stop."

Players get paid; but this is not like a pro sport where there are league wide collective bargained agreements. A player is free to negotiate with any school's NIL collective, third party corporate sponsors, or even with individuals only loosely affiliated with the schools and all can be involved in the recruiting of an athlete. Athletes get paid not only out of high school; but also to go to a school through the transfer portal at the end of the season. Auburn University has seen all three quarterbacks on the roster: Holden Grenier, Hank Brown, and Walker White enter the transfer portal. Meanwhile they have signed Deuce Knight out of high school and the quarterbacks from Stanford and Oklahoma through the transfer portal. Marshall has to decline a bowl bid because most of the team entered the portal. The University of Alabama has lost some key contributors including their starting cornerback through the portal.

Tuberville suggested that there be some form of contract or rules in place to reduce the chaos.

"We can put some kind of contract together or whatever where we can help to make sure that education is the number one thing about going to college and not about making money," concluded Tuberville.

The 12 team college football playoffs start on Friday night. Tommy Tuberville spent decades in college coaching including at Auburn University.

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