This is an opinion column.

This may be hard to believe, but Tommy Tuberville found time this week to offer some alarming comments on subjects other than white nationalists in the military. One of those subjects, not nearly as serious in the real world but kind of important around here, was the state of college athletics — past, present and future.

What the former Auburn football coach said on that subject has not been dissected and denounced from sea to shining sea, nor is it likely to require a clarification from his office, but it deserves a spotlight of its own. Tuberville’s deep thoughts on sports reinforced a long-held belief that the last place college presidents and commissioners should turn for answers to the chaos they’ve set loose is Congress.

Before teeing off Wednesday at the Regions Tradition pro-am, Tuberville sat down with his old Auburn center Cole Cubelic for a radio interview on the WJOX morning show Cubelic co-hosts with former Alabama quarterback Greg McElroy.

Here are a few slices from Alabama’s senior U.S. Senator. On the popular notion of football breaking away from the NCAA:

“The NCAA cannot stand football because they can’t control it. So football probably in the future will be a lone wolf, kinda moving off into the distance, running their own show, having a commissioner, doing your own thing, having your own rules.”