“You’ve got to be sound in the kicking game.” – maxim of football coaches for generations

You may not know the name Kirk Ferentz unless you are a die-hard college football fan.

Ferentz is the head football coach of the University of Iowa Hawkeyes and is currently the longest-tenured football coach in major college football.

His football teams are not flashy. They are often the opposite – plodding, careful, dull. A few years ago, some Iowa fans wanted to bring in a new coach with a little more razzle dazzle.

However, they ran into a problem. While the Ferentz football experience is not a holiday laser show spectacular, it wins more than it loses. Eventually, these critical fans admitted defeat and devoted themselves to the Ferentz mindset.

T-shirts with the mantra, “Punting is winning,” popped up in and around Iowa City, and the team’s punter developed something of a cultlike following among Hawkeye fans.

One could accuse the Alabama Supreme Court of adopting Ferentz’s punting-is-winning strategy after its decision to allow Tommy Tuberville to remain on the ballot as the Republican candidate for Alabama governor.

The question of Tuberville’s Alabama residency has hounded him since he entered the governor’s race earlier this year. The Alabama Constitution requires a governor to reside in the state for at least seven consecutive years leading up to the date of being elected.

Back in June, the Alabama Republican Party Steering Committee considered a challenge to Tuberville’s residency. The Committee decided Tuberville had presented enough evidence about his residency to allow Tuberville to remain as the GOP gubernatorial candidate.

A state court challenge soon followed, but the Alabama Supreme Court ruled last Friday Tuberville would stay on the ballot.

You might think that’s that, but this ruling actually only kicks the can down the road – or, in the spirit of this article, punts the ball down the field.

You see, the Court made no determination on Tuberville’s residency. Instead, the Court only ruled it did not have jurisdiction under state law to declare judgment on Tuberville’s residency.

The ruling said Alabama’s election laws prohibit the Court from making any decisions regarding elections unless a state law specifically provides the Court authority on the subject.

In the case of Tuberville’s residency, state law says political parties themselves have sole authority to decide if their own candidates meet the requirements to run for any state or local office. Since the Alabama GOP is satisfied Tuberville meets the legal requirements to be governor, he remains the Republican candidate.

Though I ribbed the court for punting, the justices likely made the proper legal interpretation. Courts getting involved with how political parties select their candidates and how they interpret their own rules is a great way to get swamped by a wave of petty lawsuits.

This Court’s reasoning allows the parties themselves to assume the risk for rolling with an unqualified, or perhaps even ineligible, candidate. Removing a candidate for governor this far into election season would cause a gigantic administrative and political mess anyway.

However, this decision, right or wrong, creates a possible doomsday scenario after the election. Though the Court ruled it has no authority to intervene in candidates’ eligibility right now, it will have the authority to do so after candidates are elected or take office.

State courts could decide at that time Tuberville does not meet the seven-year residency requirement. Not being a lawyer, I do not have a good read on whether state courts making this ruling is likely or unlikely, but it is a real possibility and not a wild shot in the dark.

You may be thinking, “Well, that would be inconvenient, but we will just let the lieutenant governor temporarily take over as governor and hold another election for governor.”

That would be my response in normal circumstances, too. Nonetheless, one statement I feel confident in making is should Tuberville get elected and later receive a ruling he does not meet residency requirements then the likely lieutenant governor, John Wahl, would not meet those requirements either.

His state residency bona fides are even shakier than Tuberville’s.

In this scenario Alabama’s line of succession law says the Alabama State Senate pro tempore, Garlan Gudger, would be installed as governor while new elections for both governor and lieutenant governor are conducted.

Starting off 2027 with a placeholder governor who has never run for statewide office would certainly be interesting, but it might not be optimal for the stability of state government operations.

Punting does not always equal winning. If you are not sound in the kicking game, punts can get you beat.