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Tommy Tuberville releases feedback from key stakeholders regarding potential congressional NIL regulations
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Tommy Tuberville is working alongside Joe Manchin in a bipartisan effort to allow Congress to set guidelines on how NIL can be utilized nationally.
The former SEC head coach and Republican senator from Alabama, along with his colleague across the aisle from West Virginia, have released feedback they have received from various stakeholders across the college landscape, including Power 5 and Group of 5 commissioners and the NCAA, among others.
P5 commissioners expressed concern that boosters are improperly providing financial compensation under the guise of NIL to lure recruits to specific programs.
“We need a federal law that prohibits conduct of this nature,” they wrote to Tuberville and Manchin. “It appears boosters are inducing high school and potential transfer student-athletes to attend their favored universities with payments inaccurately labeled as NIL licenses, with no connection to the value of any endorsement or NIL activity.”
Meanwhile, the American Athletic Conference, arguably the most prominent G5 conference, has doubts about the role of NIL collectives set up to support several programs, feeling that boosters could use those improperly.
“Collectives should be prohibited from any participation in the process of soliciting an individual’s enrollment at the institution,” it wrote. “The intent of NIL legislation was to allow student-athletes to find legitimate opportunities to be compensated for the use of their NIL; it was not to find a way around the rules that would allow boosters to be involved in the recruiting process.”
It’s likely a matter of when, and not if, a bill will be introduced on the floor of Congress to set guardrails around NIL, and it appears Tuberville and Manchin are a step closer in the process.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
