Former college football coach and current US Senator Tommy Tuberville has officially announced his plans to run for governor of Alabama in 2026. With Tuberville's seat in the Senate now vacant, an interesting name has been floated as a replacement, and it is one that also has Auburn ties: Auburn men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl.

According to Semafor's Burgess Everett report, Pearl's name came up, despite Tuberville expressing doubt about the idea. Tuberville said, “The compensation is a little bit different,” Tuberville told Semafor. “I wouldn't let him do it because he did such a good job at Auburn. We need him there.”

Pearl resurrected his coaching career at Auburn and signed a contract extension worth $6.28 million from 2022 through 2030. He was hired by the Tigers in 2014 and has had a 244-123 record since then. He has led Auburn to its only two Final Four appearances in school history and led the program to its first No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament last season when they finished with a 32-6 record. He was also named co-Coach of the Year, earning the honors with Rick Pitino.

He has been involved in politics, especially recently, in addition to his role as head coach. He is the chairman of the U.S.-Israel Education Association and was most recently on Capitol Hill a week ago.

During March Madness, he also spoke out-with his players' permission-and called for the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander.

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His social media posts are also not typically seen from a college coach. He talks about real-world issues and is not afraid to express his opinion on different topics, despite the spotlight he has on him at Auburn.

When he won his seat in 2020, Tuberville helped popularize the coach-to-lawmaker pipeline. Pearl would follow in his footsteps if he ran for public office.

The college sports landscape has been changing recently. Looser Transfer Portal and NIL restrictions have turned off many mainstays: former Alabama football coach Nick Saban and former Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski. The upcoming House settlement is also set to put more regulations on NIL. Still, this new landscape might be enough to push Pearl into politics as another example of an older coach who wants to fix a broken system.

Pearl's chances of running remain a long shot due to how much success he has had at Auburn and seems primed to continue to have, but as we get closer to election day, we might see him throw his hat in the ring.