Sports

Former Auburn Football Coach Tommy Tuberville Is Working On Controversial NIL Legislation

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Getty Image / Justin Sullivan



It’s been almost 6 years since Tommy Tuberville has coached a college football game, but players could still end up being impacted by one of his decisions in the future.

Since the end of his coaching career, Tuberville has turned to politics, winning one of Alabama’s senate seats in their last election.

Now it seems that he intends to use his new position to impact his old sport. Tuberville is working on a controversial bill that would regulate NIL deals in college sports.

Tommy Tuberville working on controversial legislation to regulate NIL

In a conversation with the 315 Foundation, a nonprofit that supports Syracuse athletics, On3 learned the motivation behind this bill.

While we fully support an athlete’s right to compensation for their NIL and to transfer freely, we feel many collectives are diminishing fair play. Without regulation college athletic departments are transforming into [de] facto professional sports franchises. However, unlike professional teams, collegiate athletes are not under contract and can easily transfer. This results in a ‘free agency marketplace’ where schools with the most aggressive collectives and largest bankrolls (‘pay for play’) recruit the best athletes to their programs.

You know what else would fix this issue? Signing these players to contracts that entitle them to a portion of the revenue that they earn their schools.

Those working on this bill seem to also assume that by putting restrictions on NIL, thy would limit this free agency even though it’s well known that players had been receiving money long before NIL became the norm in college sports.

NIL is not actually a problem, but is really a change that was way overdue and is something that should remain a part of college sports as it currently exists.