Alabama Sen. Tuberville’s plan to make America great again is to fix college sports
From the White House to the halls of congress, and the Supreme Court, America’s leadership has always been collection of tone deaf hypocrites, but in short time Coach Tommy Tuberville is proving to be “one of the greats.”
Senator Tuberville has never been able to get over the fact that the sport, and profession, he loves wants no part of him after he “quit” as the head coach at Cincinnati, in December of 2016. His resignation beat a firing by 48 hours, and since then no school of note wanted him as their head coach.
He won a U.S. senate seat in Alabama, in 2020, thus maintaining a position of influence gained by his ability to BS because his expertise on most subjects is limited to 145 characters. He is a Senator, and yet he yearns to coach football again.
In lieu of coaching, he’s doing exactly what any good Republican vows not do: Put the government in the way. In this case, government in the way of college sports. These are our priorities.
He was visiting the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham, Ala. when he addressed the topic of potential NIL legislation.
“I’m not against players making money, but we’ve got to have some kind of penalty for players breaking contracts,” Tuberville told the audience. “So it’s got to go both ways. We’ll continue to look at it once we get a new administration in. I’m going to get a couple of people on the Democratic side.”
Please disregard that Coach Tuberville broke his contract at Ole Miss and Texas Tech without penalty.
Tuberville, 70, is one of those for whom athlete empowerment is as welcome as locusts in the bedroom; he has come around to some of the changes in college sports, because there is no choice.
What he’s lobbying for makes sense.
“You sign a contract on NIL, you can’t just up and break it,” he said. “You wanna sign a year, two-year, three-year, you got a three-year contract. If you break it, there’s gotta be some kind of penalty. We’ll have to go through all the rules and regulations when it comes to the commerce committee on this.”
As the NCAA and the plaintiffs negotiate their way through lawsuits that will ultimately lead to the construction of rules and regulations for the future of major college sports, the area that Tuberville is addressing, NIL deals, is on the list.
Right now, a student athlete can accept an NIL deal and leave early with full payment. It’s why so many players now “opt out” of the bowls that are not playoff games.
What college administrators, coaches, and Tuberville, want are contracts where there are penalties if the player does not fulfill it. If the player “opts out,” they have to either return, or forfeit, a portion of the contract. That’s a fair proposition, and standard for coaches who bail before the end of their contract.
Tuberville will be aided in his efforts with his Republicans winning the Senate, House and White House in the most recent election. Another Senator who has prioritized college sports, Theodore Cruz of Texas.
Please disregard the irony of two men who work for our government while they campaign on the platform of less government who will use government to fix college athletics.
The Senator from Alabama was doing just fine on this topic, but it was inevitable he would Tuberville himself. What he wants to do is take NIL out of recruiting, and transferring.
“I don’t think you should be able to recruit with money,” he said. “I think you recruit with your school and your salesmanship, but then you get there and then you give them the opportunity to make money.”
This is a man who coached not just at Ole Miss but Auburn, too. He wants to maintain the myth that he assembled good football teams without the aid of offering players money, because it was against the rules, and violated the sanctity of amateur sports.
He sounds like another old ex-coach who is mad that the system he knew, and loved, is gone. He has not gone full blown “Get off my lawn,” but his leaf blower is humming.
Sen. Tuberville has a reasonable concept to aid the current comical state of major college sports, one that should be drafted and enforced by the start of the 2025 season.
Please disregard that the legislation comes from an ex-coach who college football dumped, and a current U.S. Senator who runs on a platform of less government.
