SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 ban NFL players returning to college; ACC still reviewing originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Two things happened yesterday which I never saw coming. No, that was not a blind joke.
The first thing was Paul Finebaum saying something I completely agree with, and second, he gave credit and recognition to someone outside the SEC when he praised the Big Ten Conference.
As of Wednesday night, the Big Ten, SEC, Big 12 conferences have bylaws prohibiting athletes from playing for any school in their conference once they have signed a professional contract.
This sounds a bit better than it is, but it is still a wonderful step for “amateur” sports. The Big Ten Conference was first in stating that no player who signed a professional contract with an NFL team would be allowed to return to school. During the afternoon, the SEC took this a step further by stating that their ban would include all sports and not just football. But there is a caveat. We still need to see what the conferences do with basketball players who come over from Europe after signing contracts as teenagers to play professionally.
To now, these players have been allowed to come over. On the basis that the European leagues are not as good as the American leagues. Are the conferences going to be willing to continue making this distinction? If they do, it might hurt their chances in any court case which is going to be triggered by these rulings from Tuesday. The Big 12 followed on Wednesday.
We now wait and see how long it takes the ACC Conference to jump aboard. Something they both need to do in a hurry. While this can lead to the idea of collusion, there is a way around that also. A scenario thrown out by Andy Staples on the Andy and Ari Show podcast. Get the Group of Six involved.
The biggest reason the lawsuits being brought are winning is due to the restriction of a person’s rights to make a living. If I cannot go there, I cannot go anywhere to do it. Well, if the Group of Six schools are willing to take these players, and they should, the returning athletes do have a place to apply their craft. There is no longer a barrier to entry for them returning to college football, and judges can no longer decide that the students are not able to play.
This is a logical argument and an argument which can work in most states outside of Louisiana and Tennessee. And of course, Florida. This would also help the Group of Six schools compete better. Especially those who are on the verge of a playoff run this season. Schools like Boise State, Memphis or UNLV can add a player who can take them over the mountain top.
While a team like LSU is adding Dae’Quan Wright as a backup player on the roster. Someone they do not need. But they want for blocking reasons. The other problem Wright will have is the SEC rule, which is legal, that any player who wants to transfer within the SEC Conference must enter the transfer portal before February. This means that the former Ole Miss tight end can’t follow Lane Kiffin to Death Valley.
This is just a one-year problem. It is because the NCAA purposely dragged their feet in making this rule until the 2022 class had to make draft decisions before enacting it. At that point, the smartest thing the NCAA could have done was to make it retroactive. Many of these players who are attempting to come back now would have done so at the time. Nothing is ever that simple with the NCAA though, and they had to screw this up again. This is a common sentiment for sure. Unfortunately, it is not entirely true.
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The 2022 class will be the first to assess this ruling. But they will not be the last. If this goes through, what is to stop Joe Smith from Public University from declaring for the draft, not liking his draft selection or getting cut in training camp and saying that he will just go back to college for another season and try again.
In a way, this happens in other sports. But it is on a different level. In both hockey and baseball, players can get drafted and then decide whether to play somewhere else first or sign with the team. Think Kyler Murray, who had a contract with the A’s after being drafted in the first round, only to play at Oklahoma instead and become the No. 1 selection in the NFL draft. Others, like Joe Mauer, who was signed to play QB at Florida State before deciding to be a hall-of-fame level catcher for the Minnesota Twins, have done this also.
I feel bad for these young men. If they had known what was going to happen, they would not be in this situation. Unfortunately, we are, and these are the results of having too many cooks in the kitchen.
I know it is a novel concept but, how about we get organized and get our stuff together? Being blind, I must do this every day to live my life. I can help and I work cheaply. Meaning I will not cost the millions of dollars the NCAA is about to waste on lawyers.
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