Is the Alabama rig anything new? Nope, striper guys have been using it for years,and just have kept it somewhat quiet. They have caught plenty of schooling spots with it. In fact, on Allatoona, I tend to see that the striper guys actually outfish the greenfish guys on a given day, during certain times of the year.
Should it be allowed in tourneys? That is up to each individual club. Some tourneys put certain rules on to add to the challenge (can only use certain lures, and so on), but as a complete blanket statement of no, I would certainly disagree. Unless they otherwise specify it, the tourneys pretty well state that the rig has to be casted and retrieved by use of a handheld rod and reel shorter than 8 feet - no trolling, though a wind aided drift is often allowed. As far as I'm concerned, the A-rig is one lure, whereas the tried and true double fluke rig, or using a jig as the weight on a drop shot, is truly two lures. Furthermore, if you look at the hooks, you only have 3 - 5, depending on the arrangement. On some jerkbaits, say a Lucky Craft Pointer 128, you have three treble hooks, or a total of 9 hook points. As far as catching multiple fish at once, when fish are schooling, I have caught 2 fish at once on a jerkbait on multiple occasions, and have been in the boat when the same has happened with twin treble crank baits. Heck, I actually (somehow), had two fish hooked on a single hook spinnerbait (no trailer hook), though I ended up knocking one off with the net. I'm still trying to figure that one, and would love to do it again, to photo document it.
I can't really see the merit in the argument of keeping bass fishing pure, as these days we have so many improvements over what was around when tourney bass fishing started - lightweight sensitive graphite rods, fluoro line, tungsten weights, side imaging sonar, electric trolling motors etc.
This is just my two cents, but as far as where the thing falls under normal tourney rules, I'd say the thing is perfectly legal - it is an artificial bait that is casted and retrieved by a handheld rod and reel shorter than 8' - keep the number of hookpoints within the margins allowed by each individual lake/state, and it is good to go.
=P~ 
