Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-AL), a former collegiate football coach, proposed legislation aimed at the “transfer portal chaos” that has transformed the landscape of college sports in recent years.
Tuberville introduced the ‘Student Athlete Act of 2026,’ which aims to limit the number of times a student athlete can transfer without sitting out a season.
“The transfer portal has made it easier than ever for athletes to move from one program to another, and repeated transfers have contributed to a system that often resembles unrestricted free agency rather than amateur competition,” Tuberville said about the bill, according to OutKick.
“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 said.
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. https://t.co/Ei8DfGHXg5
— Tommy Tuberville (@CoachForGov) March 24, 2026
OutKick explained further:
The conversation around college sports has tamped up in recent months, with President Donald Trump earlier this month assembling a group of leaders in the arena to discuss ways to fix the problems. The President is also working to design an executive order pertaining to NIL and other components, like the portal and how to strengthen rules against 3rd party collectives.
Tuberville’s proposal is looking at one of the biggest issues — the movement of athletes between schools. Such movement is creating problems for programs that are trying to find stability, while at the same time struggling with the option players are currently given regarding leaving a program after a single season.
“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.”
In this era, creating a bidding-war for athletes has obviously become the go-to move for some player-reps, who are using the portal essentially as a tool to drive up the price. Now, plenty will argue that this is what the NCAA signed up for when they allowed multiple transfers to begin with.
But, schools are fighting to keep players around, in some instances inserting a very large buyout in their rev-share contracts that will at least provide the previous school with some type of financial cushion if a player decides to leave after one season.
“March Madness is in full swing, and Americans are once again coming together to cheer on their favorite college teams. But we have GOT to do something about the transfer portal because it’s out of control,” Tuberville said.
“Last year, nearly 4,000 men’s and women’s basketball players entered the portal. Transferring every year interrupts a student’s education and is bad for team morale. That’s why I’m introducing a bill that would allow student-athletes to transfer 1 time without penalty, no questions asked. After that if you choose to transfer, you sit out a year. It’s simple,” he continued.
March Madness is in full swing, and Americans are once again coming together to cheer on their favorite college teams.
But we have GOT to do something about the transfer portal because it’s out of control.
Last year, nearly 4,000 men’s and women’s basketball players entered the…
— Coach Tommy Tuberville (@SenTuberville) March 24, 2026
To provide a glimpse of the transfer portal’s impact on men’s college basketball, the graphic shared below shows every Sweet 16 team in this year’s NCAA tournament and where its starting lineup began their collegiate careers.
Where every Sweet 16 Team’s Starting-5 began playing college basketball.
(Try to figure out which teams are which) pic.twitter.com/L8VqdWpe8E— NCAA Buzzer Beaters & Game Winners (@NCAABuzzerBters) March 23, 2026
1819 News noted:
Tuberville continued, “I’ve talked to President Trump about it, he knows it and understands it. We can’t get into all the antitrust, the agents, we can’t do that.”
“That’s got to be handled by the NCAA. But one thing we can do is stop this transfer every year, and give these kids the chance to get a degree, and one time transfer if they have a death in the family, circumstances or don’t get along with the coaches,” Tuberville told the outlet. “But, if you use it, it’s over with. But if you use it, you have to sit out a year, though most of them won’t do that anyway.”
