U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama) is a former football coach who is using his experience in Washington to help pass legislation regulating NILs. Senators want to make it harder for student-athletes to fly around the school. But some people, including reporters and Texas Tech football fans, aren’t happy about this. Tuberville once abruptly quit school to coach at the University of Cincinnati.
These people take to social media to share their frustrating memories.
The backlash against Tuberville comes as the senator questions why a student-athlete can break an NIL contract at one school and transfer to another program.
“But my opinion is that when you sign a contract with the NIL, you can’t easily break the contract,” Tuberville said, according to AL.com.
The term has drawn criticism from reporters who remember the Senators from when he was a coach. Tuberville famously quit Texas Tech and went to Cincinnati.
“Senator and Coach, you canceled your contract with Texas Tech in the middle of your induction dinner for Cincinnati,” reporter Stewart Mandel said on X (formerly Twitter).
Tuberville, along with outgoing Sen. Joe Manchin (I-West Virginia), have long sought to put more guardrails on the NIL and transfer portal processes in college sports. Despite proposed legislation drafted in Washington, nothing came of these efforts.
NIL is changing the landscape of NCAA sports
Related Texas Tech Football NewsArticle continues below
NCAA athletes can now accept compensation for the use of their name, image and likeness. There are few guardrails on how much athletes are paid, as organizations are responsible for the transactions. Players can also transfer to schools that offer more attractive compensation packages. Schools don’t have much control over how they distribute their NILs, but the NCAA wants to change that.
The NCAA is proposing several changes to the current NIL structure, including allowing schools to sign players directly. Under the proposed settlement in the lawsuit, NIL payments would also go to former athletes who played before the current rules. Today’s college sports world is undoubtedly the Wild West.
Tuberville has expressed interest in enacting federal legislation to stop much of this practice, but it’s unclear how much appetite there is in Washington to regulate NCAA sports. The issue could receive increased attention as President-elect Trump heads to Washington, D.C., in the coming months. President Trump hasn’t said much about the issue during the campaign, so it remains to be seen.
Only time will tell what will happen to NIL in the coming months and years.
