Tuberville Forces Senate Showdown on the Future of College Sports

Senators Cruz and Cantwell block the Student Athlete Act

WASHINGTON - Last night, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville (R-AL) moved to pass his bill, the Student Athlete Act, by unanimous consent, forcing the Senate to confront the growing crisis in college athletics.

The Student Athlete Act would rein in the transfer portal, clarify eligibility requirements, protect scholarship commitments, and empower the NCAA to enforce basic rules. Introduced earlier this year, the legislation aligns with President Trump's April 2026 Executive Order on college athletics and would address the vast majority of the issues fueling instability across campuses, athletic departments, and locker rooms nationwide.

Despite widespread agreement that the transfer portal is broken and eligibility rules need clarity, Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Maria Cantwell (D-WA) blocked Sen. Tuberville's bill and instead pushed their own bill, the Protect College Sports Act, which would amount to a federal takeover of college sports.

A transcript of Sen. Tuberville's remarks can be found below or watch the full exchange with Senators Cruz and Cantwell on YouTube or Rumble.

"Mr. President, I wanna bring up a subject today that's close and near to my heart. Four things that made this country strong-made it the best country in the world-is God, family, military, and sports. You learn a lot of things out of those four. It makes us strong. And we've kept that pretty much in that order for a long, long time. But I like to say today that […] college sports is in trouble. Not just men, but also women. And before I was elected, I spent 40 years coaching. [I] coached girls' basketball. That was a thrill. [I] coached college football for a long time [from] assistant to head coach. Best job I ever had. But it's not about championships or packed stadiums or television. It's the best job because you had an opportunity to help people, young people get them on the right track. And that's what sports does. As a coach, you're just not calling plays on Saturday. That's just a small part of the job. You're helping young people prepare for life after the whistle. You're teaching discipline, accountability-teaching young men and women how to make a good decision under pressure: how to handle success and how to handle failure and how to keep their word when things get bad. But above all, you're helping them to succeed in the classroom.

You're making sure that they go to class, stay academically eligible, [and] leave school with something more than a letter jacket. That's what college athletics is supposed to be about. It's supposed to give young people the opportunity to compete at the highest level and have an ultimate goal. But the ultimate goal that I always taught my players, and I think most coaches have, is not just the sports end of it, but get a good education. College athletics should be a pathway to a degree, a meaningful career in a better future long after the final whistle blows. The lessons learned through sports-discipline, accountability, teamwork, perseverance-they really matter. But they're the most valuable when paired with education that prepares young people for life beyond the playing field.

This is why the term 'student athlete', not 'athlete student,' is spoken in athletics and college sports. Athletics should support education, not replace it. Education must come first. I retired from coaching 10 years ago [in] 2016. A few things have changed in the world [of] college sports since that time. A series of court decision, state laws, NCAA rule changes have opened the door for student athletes to profit from their name, image, and likeness-often called NIL. It has been a popular topic for now 10 years. Now, let me be clear about this: I think it's great that students can profit from their name, image, and likeness. I'm all for it.

I was for making money when I was coaching. They should be able to benefit from the value that they create. For years, everyone around college sports made money. Schools, conferences, television networks, sponsors, coaches, while the athletes were told they could not make any money. That needed to change, and it did.

NIL is here to stay. No one should be trying to take money away from student athletes. It's here. But NIL is only one part of what has changed. The transfer rules changed along with NIL. Used the right way, the transfer portal is a good thing. It can help a young person find a better fit and a better opportunity and a fresh start. But without any real rules around the transfer portal, it has turned into something else entirely. Constant year-round roster turnover. The scale of the problem is hard to put into words. I've never seen anything like it. Last year, more than 10,500 college football players entered the transfer portal. 10,500 [in] one year. More than 3,200 of those were in Division 1. Division 1 is the highest level of college football. There are only about 130 Division 1 football teams, and each program can offer up to 105 scholarships. So, those 3,200 players are enough to empty out 30 complete programs of the 131. Think about that. It's amazing. That is like every football program in the ACC and the Big 12 losing its entire roster at the same time.

And this is not just [a] football problem. In 2025, more than 1,500 men's college basketball players entered the transfer portal. A Division 1 basketball roster typically has 15 scholarship players. That means the number of Division 1 basketball players entering the portal in a single year is equivalent to more than 100 full basketball teams. On the women's side, more than 2,500 basketball players entered the portal, including more than 1,000 Division 1 players. That's not a few students looking for a fresh start. These numbers tell the story. What used to be rare has become routine. When I was coaching, you used to be able to develop a young person, over [a] 4- or 5-year period, send them out into the real world as a man or woman with a degree, an education. And that's what it's about. I think we'll all agree to that. When I was coaching, you used to be able to develop a young person and saw them grow up every day. Now you're lucky to keep a player one season. And I think that's what we're all here talking about today. The relationships between athletes, coaches, and teammates and schools are becoming shorter and more transactional.

Too often, short term financial incentives are driving decisions that should be about education, personal development, and finding the right fit for a student athlete's future. Coaches can't build a program when the whole roster turns over from one season to the next, and that's what we're seeing. Schools are now forced to spend more time and resources recruiting their own players than coaching them, developing them, or helping them succeed in the classroom. They're not getting degrees now because of the transfer portal. And the young people caught in the middle have no idea whether the team they just committed to will even resemble the team that they signed with. Young people are being treated like free agents instead of students. And while older players bounce from school to school chasing the next paycheck, it is the high school student athletes, both young men and women, who are paying the price. In other words, these high school students aren't getting scholarship offers like they used to. The transfer portal is squeezing high school athletes out of opportunities.

We may not know the exact number, but the trend is clear. Thousands of roster spots are now being filled by older transfers instead of high school recruits. A scholarship that used to go to an 18-year-old with their whole future in front of them is now going to a 5th or 6th year senior, who has already had his shot, or her shot, two or three times over. This system is hurting the very people college athletics is supposed to serve. It has created a culture that rewards chasing the next opportunity instead of honoring commitments, persevering through adversity, and finishing what you started. That's what sports is about. It's not good for student athletes. It's not good for schools, and it's certainly not good for college sports. The NCAA spent years standing on the sideline while these problems got worse. Failing to provide leadership from the NCAA are meaningful reforms needed to protect student athletes and preserve college sports. They stood around and watched. I saw it personally. As a result, Congress now is being asked to step in, and that's what we're here today for. But the federal government-if it gets involved- need to be very clear what our role is and what our role is not.

Congress should not run college sports. That's the first thing I wanna say. We cannot run college sports. Congress should not manage television contracts, dictate conference alignments, or write department budgets. We can't do it. Congress should not decide how much money student athletes can earn. That is not our job. Our role should be limiting to setting clear rules for eligibility, transfers, and scholarships. So, student athletes and families, coaches, and schools know what the rules are and can plan accordingly. That is where Congress can help. And that is where Congress should stop. Two weeks ago, my colleagues here rolled out a bipartisan bill that aims to fix some of these problems. I respect the work that they put into. I know it all too well. I know they're trying to solve a serious and very, very hard problem. It's almost impossible. But I think their bill goes too far. Trust me, if I thought it'd work, I'd support it. Unfortunately, it gets too deep into the businesses of universities, conferences, athletic departments, while doing far too little to give the student athlete the stability and clarity that, actually, they need. It claims to address the transfer pool eligibility. But it is riddled with loopholes and waivers that gut those rules before the ink is dry. Let me be clear. You cannot do waivers for eligibility and transfer. You can't do it. It opens the door for endless lawsuits-and they're coming-by creating new avenues for student athletes to sue schools, conferences, and the NCAA. It opens the door to student athletes being classified as employees, which leads to unionization in the end of college sports as we know it.

It does not do enough to protect women's sports, which is an issue I've come to this Senate floor to talk about many, many times before. It also sets a permanent cap on revenue sharing for student athletes. And worst of all, this bill drags the federal government in the decisions that should be made by schools and conferences, […] including how conferences are structured, how games are scheduled, how media rights are managed, and how athletic departments are run. We can't do that. We just can't do it.

In other words, their bill is 111 pages. It pulls the federal government deep into the day-to-day operations of college sports. This is not the direction we should be headed. I commend them for working on it. But if we go this far, we will be creating more problems than helping. Congress should focus on fixing eligibility and transfer rules, not inserting itself into matters that universities and conferences and athletic departments are fully capable [of] handling on their own. That's what they're hired for. In the years since I came to the Senate, I've heard from student athletes, coaches, athletic directors, presidents, they've all been in my office, 'you gotta do something. You gotta do something.' But we gotta do the right thing. And the concern I hear more than any other is simple. College sports needs a clear, consistent rule for the transfer portal and eligibility. That is where the problem is. And that is where the federal government should get involved in.

College athletics has thrived for more than a century without folks from DC trying to call the plays. It does not need a federal takeover. It needs a few clear common-sense rules to restore stability and predictability, and then Congress needs a step aside. That's why I have concerns about the approach that my colleagues have here today. That's the standard I use when I read the Protect College Sports Act. I respect what my colleagues are trying to do. I know they're trying to do. The right thing and trying to solve a problem. We've all heard it. My phone rings all the time, and I'm sure theirs do too, being that they're from the commerce [committee]. […] But your bill tries to do too much. We're too much in the weeds. Way too much in the weeds. We're making it too complicated. We're talking about college sports here.

We're not talking about the NFL or NBA. I'm not the only one with concerns. Dozens of athletic directors, coaches, commissioners, university leaders, they're all stepping in and talking about this [with] the bill is current form. You know, Congress should try not to manage every part of college athletics. It should focus on the issues that need clear national rules, eligibility, and scholarship protection. That is exactly why a few months ago introduced the Student Athlete Act. My bill is simple: you get 5 consecutive years to play 5 seasons. We don't need 30-year-olds playing against 18-year-olds. That's a disaster. You need one penalty free transfer. No questions asked. And after that, if you want to transfer again, you can transfer, but you go back to the old rule. You sit out a year and then you get to play at that school you transferred to. So, save it before you really need it in a transfer. People say, well, when coaches leave, they should be able to leave. Yeah, they can. That's the reason you got one transfer. Don't use it to make $50,000 more. Use it when you need to use it, if you never need to use it, because if you transfer your chance of getting a degree goes down 50 percent.

And again, what we talked about earlier, it's about academics first. Before the NIL, if you transferred, you sat out a season. And that's the reason we should do that again. One free transfer, set out a season. […] More athletes, they will stay in school, and they will go to class, and they'll work towards a degree. My bill also protects student athletes by making sure that scholarship commitments made to them are honored as long as they remain in good academic standing. The Student Athlete Act follows the same basic direction President Trump laid out in his eligibility and transfer executive order. But we all know that executive orders only last as long as the president is in office. This is not a partisan or controversial bill. It's very simple, common sense. Let's make this happen. So, unlike the 111-page bill my colleagues are pushing, mine is short and simple. [It] does not involve a federal takeover of college sports. My colleagues intend to object this day. I understand that. [Before] they do, I want to ask them just one question: why is a simple fix of eligibility and the transfer portal something all of us can't do?

And then after that, we either try to help or we give direction to NCAA to do it on their own. College sports is facing a five-alarm fire. It's getting ready to be over with as we know it. We do not have time to waste. So, Mr. President, I move today to ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation be discharged from further consideration of S. 4177, the Student Athlete Act of 2026, that the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration that the bill be considered read a third time and passed and that the motion be considered made and laid on the table."

Following Sen. Tuberville's remarks, both Senators Cruz and Cantwell delivered a rebuttal before blocking the bill. Sen. Tuberville's response to their rebuttals is below:

"I agree with a lot of things that my colleagues are talking about, especially about the five-alarm fire. It is in trouble. [Senator Cruz] just brought up a lot of names about people supporting this bill. They don't understand how this place works. They don't understand the significance of when you add those rules, it is a federal law. And when we get involved in it, if you look at everything else we do, most of the time it doesn't work.

We're only gonna have one chance here. And I brought this five [years of eligibility] for five [consecutive years] and one time [penalty-free] transfer up. No waivers. If you don't do it that way, it ain't gonna work. If you give waivers to people, you've got problems. We're giving one [penalty-free] transfer. If you give waivers for everything, 'my grandmother had a cold when I was a sophomore' and they [live] here. And if they don't get a waiver on that, they're gonna go to a federal judge and it's going to end up the same way that we're doing it today. It is a God-awful mess.

If we wanna fix 80% of the problems without the federal government getting into it, [we should pass my bill that says] you've got five years [of eligibility] to play five [consecutive years] and one transfer. No waivers. No federal judge can get involved. But if you give waivers, there's gonna be more lawsuits than you can ever imagine. It is going to be a disaster.

Senator Cantwell said something about revenue sharing. You know, they passed a rule a couple years ago that says there's $20 million dollars of revenue that goes to the college athletes. Okay? Twenty million a year that's revenue-shared. You know who gets the money? Football players at every university-it doesn't go to women. It doesn't go to basketball or softball or baseball. It goes to the men's football team. It is a disaster. All I'm saying is watch what you're doing.

And I'm telling my friends who are calling me-they're in coaching [and they are] conference commissioners-read this […]. If you're for this, then it's gonna be your last chance. I hope it works. If it passes, I hope it works. I go to a college football game every week. It is my life. And I hope it works. But we damn sure better know that it's gonna work if we pass it because you're not gonna be able to retract it. It is gonna be the law of the land. The law of the land. And it's not gonna change. I'm telling you right now.

I would consider voting for this if there [were] no waivers and five years of eligibility because I know what that affects. I know how it's gonna work. I've seen it. These kids are gonna run straight to a federal judge and they're gonna give them leeway and they're gonna give them that extra year. And then you don't have a law. […] The only way you can […] fix college sports is five for five, one transfer, no exceptions, and let's go play."

Senator Tommy Tuberville represents Alabama in the United States Senate and is a member of the Senate Armed Services, Agriculture, Veterans' Affairs, HELP and Aging Committees.

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