Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) is working the ultimate referee.
The former Auburn University football coach turned Alabama senator is quietly pressing President Donald Trump to wade into the increasingly chaotic world of name, image and likeness rights, a multi-billion dollar industry that critics, including the president, say threatens college athletics.
And now it appears he’s getting his wish.
On Friday, Trump is scheduled to gather sports executives, former professional athletes and coaches at the White House for a roundtable on the future of college athletics. NIL — the patchwork of state rules governing how schools can use student athletes’ names, images and likeness — is expected to be among the topics discussed, according to two White House officials granted anonymity to share the details.
Former Alabama football coach Nick Saban, NCAA President Charlie Baker and golfing legend Tiger Woods will attend, according to several reports.
Last month, Trump discussed NIL with Saban, as well as former Ohio State football coach Urban Meyer and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis during a golfing trip, according to the first official. And New York Yankees President Randy Levine has called up the president to discuss the issue, the White House officials said.
“You have to have a national standard to some degree, so you don’t have a patchwork of 35 different standards in different states where they’re competing against each other on a daily basis," the second White House official told West Wing Playbook today.
Tuberville has made similar arguments, and told POLITICO last month that he spoke with Trump at the White House about the NIL issue.
“He wants to help,” the senator, and gubernatorial candidate, said, though he conceded that any executive order would likely face legal challenges.
Tuberville, who is not attending the roundtable, declined to discuss private conversations with the president but the senator has in the past pushed for a national standard for name, image and likeness rules so that colleges in different states operate on a level playing field. He said the NCAA should stick to the “Five-Year Rule,” which gives student athletes five years of eligibility to complete four seasons of competition. Student athletes have pushed back on that — at this point, a sixth year of eligibility is usually only granted on a waiver if an athlete has missed a year or more due to injuries.
He also said the association should limit athletes to one transfer opportunity, which he said would solve “90 percent of the problems.”
“Once you start, you have five years to play. [A player that is] 30 years old and playing” is not sustainable, Tuberville said. “We gotta put the pedal to the metal and get something done. Another year of this, I don’t know what we can do.”
The senator in 2023 introduced legislation alongside former Democrat-turned-Independent Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the PASS Act, that would create a national standard for NIL rights. The bill was introduced in both chambers again last year but has not advanced out of committee.
“While I’m all for players making money, we need to create national standards to protect the integrity of college sports,” Tuberville wrote last year in an op-ed for Fox News. “Because there are no national rules for NIL contracts, every state has passed its own laws. This patchwork of laws has created an uneven playing field and given some universities advantages over their competitors.”
Tim Buckley, NCAA senior vice president of external affairs, said in a statement that the association “appreciates interest from members of Congress and President Trump in further discussing those topics.”
He added that student athlete leaders have called on Congress to tackle the debate head on, “including employment challenges and limited antitrust protection so the NCAA can enforce reasonable eligibility standards and protect access to the benefits of college sports for future generations.”
The NCAA, and some universities, have called on lawmakers to establish a NIL standard.
The concern from Trump, Tuberville and other critics of the current system is that it creates competitive imbalances because some states have more permissive rules. For example, some states require more disclosure than others. Some states like Alabama allow athletes to earn money as soon as they commit, even before they’ve enrolled. Other states do not.
That can make all the difference to a standout high school quarterback looking to earn before taking a snap.
The Trump administration has over the past year heard concerns from people in sports, media and academia and that’s partly why they are convening the roundtable Friday, according to the first White House official.
“There’s been a lot of people across the sports world that have been in touch with the president,” the official said. “The president is the only one with the power to convene this group and push them to come up with some type of solution” on NIL, as well as a number of other college athletic issues.
The president has repeatedly labeled the current NIL landscape a “disaster,” saying it threatens the financial and competitive health of college sports and even America’s Olympic pipeline. Trump argues that runaway bidding wars for top recruits are forcing universities to pour scarce resources into football and basketball at the expense of “lesser” sports — programs that have historically been talent factories for non-revenue Olympic disciplines.
In December, speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump warned that schools simply can’t sustain offering “$14 million quarterback deals” and similar packages without risking financial collapse.
Trump last summer signed an executive order, dubbed “Saving College Sports,” which, among other things, banned universities and boosters from paying athletes directly.
“The fear is that without any rules, there’s this ever escalating arms race that’s continuing to draw more and more resources, and therefore resources away from some of the non revenue sports like Olympic sports and women's sports,” the second official said. “The answer is to put some reasonable guardrails in place that allow for preserving all these sports and the opportunities they provide.”
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