Sen. Tuberville says penalties are needed for athletes who break NIL contracts

The world of college sports in the year of 2024 continues to be a Wild West-style cesspool with Name, Image, and Likeness deals being used as a recruiting tool both out of the high school ranks and the transfer portal.

Fairly universally, most want athletes to be able to profit, but the way the system is currently set up – even though those in charge intended the opposite – is a pay-for-play mess in which players are simply going to the highest bidder as well as being illegally enticed to leave their school and go elsewhere.

Though the letter of the law says this is not allowed, there are no penalties enforced and no strong governing body to make sure rules are actually being followed.

U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville, a former SEC head coach himself, spoke about the state of NIL and attempting to secure legislation by Congress during his speaking arrangement at the Monday Morning Quarterback Club in Birmingham.

“I’m not against players making money, but we got to have some kind of penalty for players breaking contracts,” Tuberville said, according to via AL.com. “So it’s got to go both ways … So 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…my thoughts are, you know, you sign a contract on NIL, I mean you can’t just up and break it. I mean you gotta … 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.”

Tuberville went on to state once again that while he’s not against players making money, there simply needs to be a change to the craziness that collegiate sports are in today.

“We can do it the right way…Players can make money. We can just disperse, you know, the revenue a little bit better to all athletes, not just a few,” he said. “And then we can try to give the opportunity for schools to build programs like we used to. Not just haphazardly every year going out and buying a new player, new football team every year. I don’t mind players – if you got a one-year contract, that’s fine. But we’ve got to do something with kids in the transfer portal.”

Many in the sporting world including now former Alabama head coach Nick Saban are determined to try to get something done with. Many have speculated that the state the sport is in was a chief reason for Saban’s retirement — and while he has squarely denied these claims — he has made it a point to try to be one of the key cogs in fixing a broken system.

The next four years may see a renewed urgency to establish legislation around college sports, and the future of amateur athletics as we know them depends on it.

Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.