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The NIL movement on Capitol Hill will have a huge push on Thursday, as both Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and former Alabama coach Nick Saban will join President Donald Trump to discuss regulations.
The transfer portal has run wild as college athletes are now aiming to make as much money as possible during their college eligibility.
Tuberville said ideally, the government would not be involved, but they find themselves in the thick of things and are brainstorming.
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Sen. Tommy Tuberville attends the House and Senate committee markup of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024 in the Dirksen Building on Nov. 29, 2023. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
“The one thing we can do is we can make every state be on the same level [for NIL money]… Now, between that, we have to come up with some rules for transfer portals and possible contracts for players, all the things that make college football the greatest sport ever. We do not want to turn into minor league sports. We can do things, we just gotta get it passed,” he told 109.9 The Game in Tuscaloosa on Wednesday.
Tuberville, though, blamed Democrats for the continued whirlwind that is the current atmosphere of college sports.
“I think we can get it on the floor, the problem is getting it past a Democrat group that really wants nothing to do with making this country better. They don’t care about college sports or education, they worry about the power that they control in this country. It’s a hard way to go, but if anybody can get it done, it’s President Trump, and hopefully we can have some discussion to get on the right track toward helping the NIL and college sports,” he said.
Sen. Tommy Tuberville speaks to members of the media outside the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse in New York, on May 13, 2024. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
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Tuberville also said women’s sports, and transgender inclusion, will be at the forefront of the discussion.
“There’s nothing more important than women’s sports, women’s athletics, and he stopped the nonsense of biological men and boys in women’s sports.… We’ve gotta save Title IX, we’ve gotta save women’s sports, and President Trump is the one that will stand up and fight for women. He’s done that, he understands it, and that will be in our entire discussion about NIL. If we continue down this path, there’s not gonna be any money left.… If we don’t do something soon, we will lose a lot of non-revenue sports, and most of those include women’s sports.”
Tuberville also believes that if this current landscape continues, “you’re going to start losing fans.”
Sen. Tommy Tuberville talks during a television interview before former President Donald Trump speaks at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
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“Sooner or later, it’ll affect the fans that pay that ticket not knowing who the players are with no loyalty.…” he said. “There’s no carryover or loyalty to schools that these fans love to support.”
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