Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Auburn) has proposed a new bill which would get a handle on the chaos that the NCAA transfer portal has produced over the last half decade.

This week, Tuberville proposed a bill he is calling the “Student Athlete Act Of 2026” which would prevent athletes from being able to transfer as many times as they want and return to a system where a second transfer would require sitting out a full season.

“The transfer portal has made it easier than ever for athletes to move from one program to another, and repeated transfers have contributed to a system that often resembles unrestricted free agency rather than amateur competition,” Tuberville said.

During an appearance on Outkick, Tuberville spoke about the bill and shared his goals in what it would mean for the future of college athletics, a future that looks more and more precarious by the day.

“Sixty to seventy percent of them (college programs) don’t even look at high school athletes, they look at the portal and say ‘How can we win now? How can we bring players in?’ It’s going to bring the price down on a lot of these players in which to me, it’s ok because they’re going to be making money anyway,” Tuberville said. “I’m all for them making money. But for them to keep selling themselves for $50,000 to $100,000 more, I think it’s creating a huge problem.”

The bill also targets eligibility concerns as athletes increasingly remain in college longer to maximize NIL earnings.

It would give student-athletes a hard five years of eligibility to play five years of intercollegiate athletics, regardless of any sort of injury or hardship request to prevent the endless court cases regarding eligibility.

“I’ve talked to President Trump about it, he knows it and understands it. We can’t get into all the antitrust, the agents, we can’t do that,” Tuberville continued. “That’s gotta be handled by the NCAA. But one thing we can do is stop this transfer every year, and give these kids the chance to get a degree, and one time transfer if they have a death in the family, circumstances or don’t get along with the coaches…But, if you use it, it’s over with. But if you use it, you have to sit out a year, though most of them won’t do that anyway.”

Citing statistics of over 10,000 college football players entering the portal this year alone, Tuberville says the emphasis on education has been completely lost.

“This year alone, in 2026, we’ve had over 10,000 young men get into the transfer portal in college football, that probably will not get a degree when they transfer because once you transfer, it takes forever to get those hours back because most of them don’t transfer,” he said. “So, we’re trying to put education back into college sports, common sense.”

What happens next remains uncertain, but Tuberville’s proposal is promising — and likely to gain broad support from fans if it can clear the necessary hurdles.