U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) knows a thing or two about the NCAA and how much sway it holds in the world of college football. The former Auburn, Cincinnati, and Texas Tech head coach is at the forefront of a push to pass a federal bill that would help in the regulation of NIL rights.
However, according to Sportico, Tuberville doesn’t see that legislation including antitrust exemptions for the NCAA.
“We’ve got to take care of all these recruiting possibilities first, and once we get through this we would like to stay out of it,” Tuberville said. “If you get (Congress) involved, it is not a rule, it is a law. We don’t want to jump in this with all four feet and say this is how it is going to be with every situation.”
Tuberville has been working with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) on crafting the legislation with the hope of introducing it in spring 2023. He and Manchin recently met with Democratic Sens. Cory Booker (N.J.) and Richard Blumenthal (Conn.), co-sponsors of the College Athlete Bill of Rights.
“Cory comes from a different angle,” said Tubervillle. “He saw the progress we are making and wanted to make sure as we were talking [with stakeholders], we didn’t overlook health care until after the fact.”
The NCAA has been pushing hard to get an antitrust exemption ever since they started getting a lot more class-action lawsuits from former players and others. That all culminated in the 2021 Supreme Court decision in NCAA v. Alston, which cleared the way for NIL. It was also notable that Justice Neil Gorsuch said the NCAA does not have a “judicially ordained immunity from the terms of the Sherman Act,” meaning that it could be susceptible to antitrust concerns.
“The problem the NCAA had is they were so vulnerable with lawsuits and couldn’t afford it,” said Tuberville. “It was money going out the door, again and again. We can help to some point, but we don’t want to go overboard on antitrust and all those things.”
It sounds like the NCAA isn’t going to get as much love from Congress as it was hoping while it clutches to relevancy.
[Sportico]
About Sean Keeley
Along with writing for Awful Announcing and The Comeback, Sean is the Managing Editor for Comeback Media. Previously, he created the Syracuse blog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and wrote 'How To Grow An Orange: The Right Way to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written non-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle where he is complaining about bagels. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.