Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala. ) made the suggestion that Congress might need to look into punishing college athletes who violate NIL contracts raise eyebrows this week.
People on social media criticized Tuberville for making his remarks at the Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham without appearing to endure any economic repercussions after the government received the news.
However, Tuberville’s exit from TTU in 2012 served as a perfect illustration of the previously biased expectations of loyalty for current employees of athletic departments and college athletes. When he was named the following Cincinnati manager, Tuerville was having breakfast with some Red Raiders recruits at the time. Apparently, Tuberville left the trainees mid-meal and did not return.

In a phone interview on Thursday, Tuberville stated that he is not aiming for athletes to adhere to a diverse commitment standard than that of coaches or administrators in an effort to regulate college sports.
” Everyone should have body in the game”, said the first-term legislator.
Asked about his own work history in training, Tuberville said:” Here’s the offer: I think educators should be held responsible. … But, you know, if you can get an AD or a president or a school to give you just a one-way contract—where, if they fire you, you get paid, but if you leave, you do n’t have to pay anything— I mean, you’ve, you’ve hit the jackpot. But that’s what’s happening with institutions. I mean, these kids are coming in, they’re not getting a deal, but they’re getting promised a certain amount of cash. And then, you know, there’s no effects if they get up and leave”.
Tuberville added that buyouts in employment contracts do frequently act as a deterrent despite the numerous public examples of university instructors jumping ship midway through their contract terms with apparently no consequences.
” Sometimes guys have$ 3 million buyouts and another school says,’ Hey, it’s worth it to us to pay$ 3 million for this coach,'” Tuberville said. However, you must remember that the coach is taxable at$ 3 million. There’s a lot of consequences from that. There were times that people may call me and state,’ Coach, what’s your buyback? Five million? Well, we ca n’t afford that.’ Therefore they’re going down the road. So there is some consequence. The ones you see do n’t just work out, either. There are many, many more that do n’t work out”.

On the other hand, colleges have increasingly spent more and more money to pay instructors who fail to fulfill their contracts. According to Sportico’s college sports money database, public FBS schools made football-related severance payment of$ 147 million in 2022-23.
Also, Sportico’s coaching income guide, released Thursday, includes 21 college football coaches in the top 100, underlining the good economic circumstances of the most popular names.
With Republicans set to take control of the Senate next Congress, Tuberville, who sits on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, struck a somewhat negative word about the likelihood of passing NCAA reform policy in 2025. One of the more than a dozen Congressional bills that did n’t get a vote in July 2023, he introduced a piece of NIL legislation with retiring Sen. Joe Manchin (I-W. V. ).
” There’s no great bill”, Tuberville said. ” There’s no perfect way to do this. At the end of the day, we only gotta look out for the … organizations, people, families—everybody that’s gotta get on board with this to make sure we save it. And I’m not certain we have enough people at this time to do that.