Senator Tommy Tuberville has the right strategy to ‘Save College Sports.’ … Really
A familiar-sounding press release hit my inbox Tuesday afternoon: Yet another politician was proposing yet another bill to “save college sports. ” This one came from Tommy Tuberville, the esteemed Alabama senator and former Auburn coach who led the Tigers to the 2004 Golf Digest national championship. I chuckled that the headline proclaimed he would “Reign (sic) in NIL.
” But I read the full bill, which, mercifully, was even briefer than his tenure at Texas Tech. And I will now write a sentence I never imagined I’d write about any politician. The bill is … smart.
Really. Previous “save college sports” proposals — most notably the terminally stalled SCORE Act — have attempted to solve every existential college athletics issue in one fell swoop, with wildly contentious solutions. Prohibit athletes from ever becoming employees.
Cap NIL earnings. Give the NCAA blanket authority to set whatever rules it chooses. Not surprisingly, there is little bipartisan agreement on any of it.
Tuberville’s “Student-Athlete Act,” though, addresses two narrow and fairly noncontroversial issues: the transfer portal and eligibility. He proposes allowing athletes to transfer and play immediately just once in their careers, as well as a fixed eligibility term of “five consecutive years to play five seasons. ” The latter issue is particularly pressing, given the recent surge of lawsuits by athletes seeking to extend their careers to the point of absurdity.
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