The constant chaos in college football has created all sorts of questions. The most pressing current donut hole relates to the five-year rule and the question of whether players who graduated high school in 2022 will get one more season of eligibility.
There’s still no clarity as to how a recent injunction issued by a court in Colorado will apply. Judge Charlotte Sweeney initially opened the floodgates, before explaining that the ruling doesn’t throw the transfer portal open for players who have another season to go wherever they want. Still, other cases that have been filed or that are in the works could result in a different outcome.
Through it all, the NCAA is holding firm. For some of the member schools, however, there are cracks in the wall. Or maybe they’re just being opportunistic.
Regardless, some programs have been reaching out to agents with a specific pitch. First-year players who get cut and who are looking at a year on the practice squad, at best, should consider returning to college for another season.
The possibility raises many questions, for everyone. Will a school have roster spots? Will a player have to surrender any money he made (signing bonus, per diem, etc.) before returning to school?
For the player, the most obvious question would be the amount he could earn in another year of college football versus the money to be made on the practice squad, with the possibility of performing well enough to be signed to an active roster. Which could entail earning an accrued season, and all of the long-term benefits that go along with it.
It will be, as one team executive observed, a “dangerous game” for the players. Still, the fact that they have the ability to make business decisions, dangerous or otherwise, represents progress that would have been inconceivable only five years ago.
For the schools, it’s just another way to get better. Whatever it takes. Wherever the good players can be found — even if it means promising a retired jersey with no intention of living up to the commitment.
That’s the irony. The schools collectively have become desperate to find a path to normalcy (by having someone else find it for them), especially if that means the players making less money and losing their current portal power. Individually, the schools want to win now. And if there’s a way to bend the chaos in their direction, the coaches will do whatever they can to make it happen.
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