Tuberville-Manchin NIL bill is dead on arrival, unless it makes one key change | Goodbread

The term "bipartisan legislation" has a natural tendency to perk up ears, giving off a sense of hope for passage, especially in times (like these) when Democrats and Republicans have split control of Congress' two houses. It's a false hope, however, when it comes to the PASS Act. That's the name, image and likeness bill that Joe Manchin, D-W.

Va. , a friend of Alabama football coach Nick Saban's, and former Auburn coach Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala. , have collaborated on to address the inevitable problems that NIL rights for college athletes have brought about.

And if you were hoping the PASS Act (Protecting Athletes, Schools and Sports) would bring some order to NIL chaos, Congress is, once again, here to disappoint. Thanks to a single, outlandish provision, PASS has zero chance to pass. The provision calls for athletes to be ineligible for transfer without penalty for their first three years of school, with a few exceptions.

In other words, a star football player good enough to head to the NFL after three years would be locked into the same school until it was time to turn pro. And for many more athletes who aren't three-and-out football players, that would reduce the ability to fully capitalize on the full career value of their NIL rights. This coach's dream of a rule feels very much like it came from Tuberville's side of the table, and it's hard to fathom why Manchin, assuming that's the case, didn't say, "Whoa, Tommy.

That will never fly. " When the NCAA began allowing transfers without penalty at any point in an athlete's career, it established a right that can't be walked back, especially in a climate where college athletes are quickly gaining more power, not less. The transfer genie is out of the bottle, and it's not going back in.

The provision is a deal breaker on two fronts, really, because it'll never get the congressional support it needs, particularly in the Democrat-controlled Senate, and even if it did, it would face an uphill legal battle the minute it saw sunlight. As for the exceptions, the bill carves out only two explicitly: 1) death in family or a family member's diagnosis of terminal illness; 2) departure of head coach or position coach. So an athlete who experiences a family tragedy or loses his coach can transfer with immediate eligibility, but one who doesn't is stuck? Please.

That's not going to withstand even surface-level scrutiny in attempts to move the bill forward. It'll be the first thing struck through in red ink as the PASS Act undergoes amendments and changes, and if Tuberville and Manchin are smart, they'll stand down without objection and won't withdraw a bill that is otherwise sensible and positive for college sports. The PASS Act addresses the issue of recruiting inducements and tampering better than other NIL bills that have been put forth — in fact, some NIL bills don't appear to address that pressing issue at all — and if passed, it could restore at least a small measure of control for the NCAA.

If passed, however, is a two-word hurdle that stands awfully tall. And bipartisan legislation is, after all, about compromise. Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23 and the Talkin' Tide podcast.

Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett. com. Follow on Twitter @chasegoodbread.

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