Tommy Tuberville

Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville, now a U.S. Senator, won Tuesday’s Republican primary election and will face former Democratic U.S. Senator Doug Jones in Alabama’s governor’s race.

Meanwhile, with six months before his next election, Tuberville says he has a plan to save college football.

“It’s the transfer bill,” Tuberville said earlier this week during an appearance at the Pearl Family Foundation golf event. “We’re going to get it passed. I’ve got six months to get it done. I don’t care how much money the kids make — they can make $100 million.

“But we’ve got to stop these transfers. We’re going to give them five (years) to play five. No redshirts, no exceptions. You get one free transfer. After that, you go back to the old rule. Now, if you graduate, then you get to transfer like we normally did.”

“My phone rings off the wall. I’ve talked to President Trump about it. The executive order is basically my bill. Now I’ve got to get it passed. I’ve got around 55 to 56 votes in the Senate. I need 60. If I can get it, we’ll get a one-time transfer and five to play five.”

At the conclusion of the 2025-26 season, 3,256 FBS scholarship players entered the portal in the two weeks it was open.

Last summer’s approval of the House v. NCAA settlement made it permissible for schools to pay college athletes directly for the first time ever. For the first year of the settlement, universities will be allowed to share up to around $20.5 million with players.

Tuberville said he believes that move came too fast, as now certain programs can’t afford to split that amount with other sports outside of football and basketball.

“It’s just so unfortunate that we’ve gotten to this point,” he said. “If the NCAA would have listened to us 15 years ago and done revenue-sharing, giving everybody $15,000-20,000 each, we’d have been golden. They wouldn’t do it. Now we’re at the tip of the iceberg. It’s in trouble.

“I don’t think people understand that there are 10 or 12 teams that can make it. But there’s a lot of teams across the country that aren’t. It’s coming to a school near you, and we don’t need to lose women’s sports and Olympic sports. That’s where we train for our Olympics. That’s how I sold it to President Donald Trump. He’s all in for the Olympics, and it’s coming (to Los Angeles) in a couple of years.”

Auburn reported $59.4 million in football expenses on its NCAA financial report for FY 2025, which ranked eighth among the 15 public schools in the SEC.

Tuberville says his issue was never about the school’s spending or ways of getting more NIL. His new bill focuses on regulating athlete eligibility and movement between schools, he said.

“But, again, it has nothing to do with money. You see it at Auburn this year, taking a (football) game to Atlanta that’s pretty much for NIL,” Tuberville said. “And you’ve got everybody screaming, ‘Wait a minute, you’re taking away a home game?’ You got to pay for your NIL. You got to pay for your players.

“That’s going to be my job between now and the time I get out, whether I get elected governor or not. If I don’t win, I’ll go home and play golf. If I get elected, I’ll come run the state. I think it will actually save college sports. There are going to be some more things that have to get done. But, at the end of the day, the two most important things are the eligibility time limits and the transfer portal.”