The current vibe in college football consists of Machiavelli vs. the lingering vestiges of amateurism.
With players from the high school class of 2022 securing a fifth year of college eligibility, even if they’ve signed with NFL teams, some college coaches are pouncing. One major conference is cringing.
On Monday, SEC presidents and chancellors sounded off against the practice of former NFL players trying to return to play college football.
“College athletes, not former professional athletes, have been at the heart of the Southeastern Conference,” they said, via Heather Dinich of ESPN. “Individuals who choose to leave college athletics, sign professional playing contracts, and compete professionally should not then be permitted to return to college competition.
“Allowing that to occur will blur the line between college and professional sports, create significant competitive equity concerns, and reduce opportunities for high school and current college athletes.
“College sports are for college athletes. The current confusion around national eligibility standards emphasizes the need to advance the Protect College Sports Act.”
And there it is. Just like the Brendan Sorsby case, those who hope to clear out the chaos from college sports (and in turn pick the pockets of the players), will seize on the unpopularity of the practice to push for the antitrust exemption they covet.
The bottom line is that it’s always a two-way street. At the core of every sky-is-falling example for college football is a college football program that is helping to pull the sky down.
For the Brendan Sorsby situation, it was Texas Tech. For the Thornton Melon situation, it’s LSU — and others.
“At the end of the day, because of these rulings, they’re either going to play for you or they’re going to play for someone else around the country,” LSU coach Lane Kiffin told reporters on Monday, via Max Olson of ESPN. “So we’ve made the decision to recruit them like probably most people are.”
Kiffin isn’t alone. Ohio State coach Ryan Day, while claiming he doesn’t like it, is also willing to do it if it means helping Ohio State win.
“[I]f there are teams that have some players out there who are cut from NFL rosters that are gonna be on other teams, we have to at least consider it and look at it,” Day said Monday, via Alec Lasley of USA Today. “Do I like anything about it? Absolutely not. But we gotta do what’s right for Ohio State. So it’s sort of a day-to-day thing right now. And like anything, we’re just gonna try to adapt.”
Others are taking a stand against it — probably because they don’t see a short-term benefit to their teams by welcoming fifth-year players who have spent time on NFL teams. Oregon coach Dan Lanning, for example, has made it clear that he’s against it.
“Once you go to the NFL, you’re in the NFL,” Lanning said over the weekend. “You don’t get the opportunity to come back. It’s unfair to the sport, and it’s unfair to the players on current teams for those guys to be coming back.”
It’s easy for Lanning to take that position as to what is, essentially, a one-year glitch given the NCAA’s shift to a five-year model moving forward. By next year, it won’t be an issue. If there’s no NFL player in whom Lanning is interested, it’s easy to climb onto a soapbox against the practice.
There’s also an element of hypocrisy lurking in Lanning’s position. Last year, Lanning embraced the opportunity to land receiver Malik Benson, a beneficiary of Diego Pavia’s effort to secure through the court system a fourth year of major college football after playing at the junior-college level for two years. Benson led the Ducks in receiving in 2025.
If Lanning could land another Malik Benson this year under the new wave of litigation flowing from the attempt to apply the five-year rule retroactively, Lanning would do it.
That’s the tension. As it relates to the broader issues in college sports, which flow directly from the chronic antitrust violations committed by college sports by decades, the return of NFL players becomes a solid talking point in the effort to get Congress to wave a magic wand that partially restores order. As it relates to the specific effort to win games, teams that perceive a potential benefit from welcoming players who have spent preseason time with an NFL franchise will roll out the red carpet — even if they feel compelled to feign reluctance to do so.
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