Birmingham, Ala. — Sen. Tommy Tuberville, a Republican from Alabama, has a theory for how No. 5 Indiana football has become the surprise story of the 2024 college football season.
Speaking to a handful of reporters Monday, the former Auburn and Ole Miss head coach accused Indiana of buying a team as the source of its 10-0 undefeated season that has the Hoosiers on the verge of making the College Football Playoff.
“You just don’t build a team, you pretty much buy a team now,” Sen. Tuberville said. “That was a little bit forbidden when I was in coaching, but now it’s legal. Look at Indiana. They went out and bought them a football team, and look where they’re at. They’re playing Ohio State this week, possibly play for a national championship and maybe in the Final Four.
“Pittsburgh went out last year and a lot of their players wanted more money. Head coach says you’re all done, go somewhere else and went out and bought another team. A few weeks ago, he was 7-0. You can get it done but as Nick Saban says you can buy them but you’ve got to buy the right ones.”
Under first-year head coach Curt Cignetti, Indiana took a transfer class of 31 players, headlined by Ohio transfer quarterback Kurtis Rourke. Nearly half of the transfers came with Cignetti from James Madison, his previous coaching spot, in a rebuild that didn’t get much attention at the time but has since elicited the attention of a certain United States senator.
“When I came in, we needed a lot of new faces,” Cignetti said earlier this season. “I felt like we really flipped the roster. All we had to do was put them on the field. I’ve just had success and expected success.”
Tuberville, elected to the United States Senate in 2021, has been involved in Name, Image and Likeness legislation for years, albeit to no discernible success thus far. He said Monday that he and Sen. Joe Manchin got legislation done but Sen. Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, refused to bring it to the floor for a vote. Tuberville is in frequent touch with college head coaches, relying on his relationships from a lifetime in football, and often hears complaints about the lack of enforceable contracts in college sports unlike the professional ranks.
“I don’t think that it’s right to go out and start offering a half-million dollar contract to a 10th grader at a high school,” Tuberville said. “I don’t think you should be able to recruit with money. I think you recruit with your school and in your salesmanship, but then you get there and you give them the opportunity to make money. That’s what Name, Image and Likeness was about. Wasn’t about go recruit somebody in the ninth-grade with half a million dollars. Of course, they’re going to change their mind two or three times before they graduate. We got to get some kind of continuity to it. I’m not here to invent the wheel.”
Tuberville said Monday he wants there to be penalties for players who break their contracts. His previous legislation wanted players to complete three years of academic residence before they could transfer without penalty. He expects to work closely with Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican from Texas who will chair the important Commerce Committee in 2025. Cruz said on a recent podcast that he would prioritize a solution for the “future and visibility of college athletics” once he takes over as chairman.
“My thoughts are you sign a contract, I mean, you can’t just up and break it,” Tuberville said. “You’re gonna sign a year, two-year, three-year, if you got a three-year contract and you break it there’s gotta be some kind of penalty. We’ll have to go through all the rules and regulations when it comes to the Commerce Committee on that, but the one thing I do not want is Senator Schumer wanted to unionize all college athletes and … it’s not any way for that at all. We can do it, we can do it the right way. Players can make money.”
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