On Tuesday, Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville introduced a new college sports bill. The bill would set eligibility limits at a max of 5 consecutive years to play 5 consecutive seasons.

If the bill passed, athletes would be allowed to transfer once without penalty, but must sit one year for every ensuing transfer. Tuberville discussed his proposed bill in a post to X.

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“The transfer portal has screwed up college sports. My bill is simple: you get 5 consecutive years to play 5 seasons and you get 1 transfer. After that, if you transfer again, you sit out a year. This will fix 80% of the issues in NIL today,” Tuberville wrote.

Tuberville, who is a Republican, defeated Democratic incumbent Doug Jones by over 20 points in the 2020 election. He became Alabama’s senior senator in 2023 when Senator Richard Shelby retired.

Tuberville is a member of the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry; Committee on Armed Services; Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions; and Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. In May 2025, Tuberville announced his plan to run for Alabama governor.

“Sixty to seventy percent of them (college programs) don’t even look at high school athletes, they look at the portal and say ‘How can we win now? How can we bring players in?’ It’s going to bring the price down on a lot of these players in which to me, it’s ok because they’re going to be making money anyway. I’m all for them making money,” Senator Tuberville told OutKick’s Hot Mic during an appearance on Tuesday. “But for them to keep selling themselves for $50,000 to $100,000 more, I think it’s creating a huge problem.”

As a former college football coach, Tommy Tuberville has an intimate understanding of collegiate athletics. Most notably, Tuberville served as Auburn’s head coach from 1999-2008. Tuberville’s best season at the helm of the Tigers was in 2004, when he led the program to a 13-0 record and finished second in the AP Poll.

Tuberville finished his time at Auburn with six nine-plus win seasons and an overall record of 85-40. Prior to his time at Auburn, Tuberville was Ole Miss‘ head coach from 1995-98. He guided the Rebels to a 25-20 record, including an 8-4 mark in the 1997 season.

Tuberville also was the head coach at Texas Tech (2010-12) and Cincinnati (2013-16) during his collegiate coaching career. He is a two-time SEC Coach of the Year (1997, 2004) and won the 2004 AP Coach of the Year Award.