Not everyone is stoked about the UCLA Bruins landing Trent Hendrick. After UCLA landed the former Sun Belt Conference Defensive Player of the Year, with the Oregon Ducks head coach Dan Lanning making his stance on players returning from NFL training camps be known.
It’s a jarring reality that players are returning from playing for NFL franchises but we’ve seen things rapidly change in the world of college sports. Both the NFL and NBA have seen players return to the NCAA over the past two years.
Hendrick played in rookie minicamps with the Cleveland Browns and the Kansas City Chiefs but now will join UCLA in the Big Ten Conference, where he’ll face Lanning and the Ducks in October.
"I think there's a lot of negatives that are involved around this," Lanning said. "One, once you go to the NFL, to me, you're in the NFL. You don't get the opportunity to come back. Two, most of us have built rosters and you have a roster limit now. So if you invited somebody back to your team, that means you're kicking somebody else off your team to match your roster limits."
Lanning makes a compelling point about players who might be falling by the wayside to make roster limits after late-summer portal additions.
"I don't think that's fair to the players that worked all summer, all spring, and put themselves in a position to be ready to work for a team, to have somebody come back," Lanning said. "Ultimately, it used to be once you had an agent, or once you went and did the combine, or once you went to minicamp, all those things qualified as you were no longer an amateur; you're a professional now, once you declared for the draft."
NEW: Oregon HC Dan Lanning on NFL players coming back to college football:
"Once you go to the NFL, you're in the NFL. You don't get the opportunity to come back."
“It’s unfair to the sport... It’s unfair to the players on current teams.” 😳 pic.twitter.com/sbZesa4OFb
This article originally appeared on UCLA Wire: Dan Lanning isn't a fan of players returning to the NCAA from the NFL
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