Bruce Pearl calls for one-time transfer rule, annuity model for paying players in Washington Post piece

Bruce Pearl has taken on a litany of new roles since retiring from coaching a month before the 2025-26 season. After briefly flirting with politics, Pearl has successfully transitioned into the media world as a popular college basketball analyst for CBS Sports and TNT.

And while the former Auburn head coach ultimately punted on a potential Alabama senatorial run, it hasn’t stopped Pearl from regularly sounding off on national and world affairs. That includes weighing in on the great debate raging about the current state of college athletics, and whether Congress should ultimately intervene and save the NCAA from itself.

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On Tuesday, Pearl published an op-ed column in the Washington Post entitled “Trump can’t save college sports, but Congress can.” It called on the passing of the controversial “Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act” that would provide unprecedented antitrust protections for the NCAA while placing strict reforms on how student-athletes monetize their NIL opportunities, as well as severely restricting player movement in the transfer portal.

“[…] College athletics do need reform. The National Collegiate Athletic Association lacks the authority to address what ails it — a consequence of NCAA v. Alston (2021), in which the Supreme Court ruled that the association’s restrictions on education-related benefits for student-athletes violated federal antitrust laws,” Pearl wrote in the Washington Post op-ed. “The decision established that the NCAA is on precarious legal standing, so much so that it’s unclear if the association can even enforce its own rules without violating antitrust laws.

“While Alston in effect rightly allowed men and women to cash in on their talents, it also opened the door to a Wild West in which student-athletes are perennial free agents, eligible to play into their mid-20s. Legal challenges have since proliferated any time the NCAA attempts to enforce a commonsense rule.”

Pearl’s op-ed follows in the coattails of a recent executive order signed by President Donald Trump that also calls on Congress to “expeditiously pass legislation” like the Republican-backed SCORE Act, which would effectively codify many of the president’s EO recommendations. Pearl, a public supporter of Trump, also disputes many of the Democratic criticisms of the SCORE Act, most of which center around how it would potentially help the NCAA suppress wages for student-athletes.

“The bill would allow the NCAA to ensure fair compensation for athletes while encouraging them to earn their degrees on a standard four-year timeline,” Pearl wrote. “The SCORE Act would also encourage players to stay at their institutions, restoring sanity to the transfer portal, bolstering the student-athlete experience and giving continuity to fan bases. The proposed guardrails, moreover, would benefit schools left by the wayside as blue-blood programs assemble topflight rosters costing tens of millions of dollars.”

As part of his op-ed, Pearl proposed several rule changes he’d like implemented once the NCAA gets its antitrust protection with the passing of the SCORE Act. That includes limiting student-athletes to a single, one-time transfer with immediate eligibility, with a prerequisite that the athlete must stay at their first institution at least two years before exercising that transfer. Pearl’s proposal also allows for a second unrestricted transfer once an athlete graduates.

Pearl then suggests colleges should implement an “annuity model” for student-athlete revenue-sharing compensation. He stated that a player’s compensation builds over time at an institution and could result in a large lump sum payment at the end of their time at the school.

“Doing so would also create cost savings for athletic departments that could be allocated to invest in the women’s and Olympic sports that are suffering under the weight of football and men’s basketball,” Pearl wrote.

Ultimately, Pearl understands public interest in college athletics has never been higher, as evidenced by the TV viewership records set during this year’s NCAA Tournament. And his answer is allowing the NCAA to implement wide-ranging restrictions on how student-athletes monetize their time in college athletics.

“Annual free agency is unsustainable, and the refs at the NCAA need to be granted the authority to make and enforce rules to support players and fans,” Pearl concluded. “The president has taken the courageous lead and tossed the ball into Congress’s court. It would be derelict not to take the shot.”