Tuberville: Federal government will have to intervene in ‘name, image and likeness’ issue — ‘NCAA can’t seem to get the job done’

Earlier this summer, NCAA rules changes and state laws went into effect that changed college athletes’ ability to sell the rights to their names, images and likenesses.

However, different states have different rules, which could inevitably create problems for the NCAA’s ability to maintain some semblance of a level playing field for college athletics.

During an appearance on the nationally syndicated “Clay & Buck” radio show, Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn), formerly a head football coach at the University of Mississippi, Auburn University, Texas Tech University and the University of Cincinnati, reluctantly acknowledged Congress would have to intervene to create balance on this issue.

“I wish we would stay out of it, but it looks like the federal government and the Commerce Committee is going to have to do something to make sure we balance this thing up,” he said. “The NCAA can’t seem to get the job done, can’t seem to do their job and get everybody just to agree to one thing. But I’ve talked to the Commerce Committee. Of course, I’ve been in the business for 40 years and know a little bit about it. I’ve talked to the ranking member and the chairman — madam chair — of the committee, and we’ve worked a little bit on it together. But what we have to have, Clay, is we have to have equality in terms of everybody doing it the same way. If you don’t have a rule, and you don’t compete for championships, everybody has to go by the same rules, and this is a rule that scares me.”

“I think it’s more of an experiment than anything,” Tuberville continued. “I think they’re looking at this. And I was a coach for years, and I wanted to give as much money to every player, man and woman, in every sport we possibly could. But it’s almost impossible. I mean, there might be a half a dozen to a dozen teams that can really afford the things that’s coming down the pike. But there’s a lot of teams that can’t. We can’t ruin athletics in this country, especially high school and college. If we do that… That’s one of the true things we’re holding on to, where people learn discipline, they learn values, they learn how to work together. And we’ve got to be able to hold on to that. And when we get politics involved, things start to disintegrate a little bit.”

“But when you look at this going?” he added. “My goodness. This is just an opportunity to do things that we couldn’t do. We couldn’t even come close to doing some of these things that they’re allowed to do now.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.