The chaos in college football is only getting more chaotic.
With the courts opening the door for players from the high school class of 2022 to return for a fifth year of college football, the two most powerful college-football conferences have slammed the door on players who have signed NFL contracts.
First on Tuesday, it was the Big Ten.
“The Big Ten Conference announced Tuesday the unanimous adoption of a conference rule to prohibit football players who have signed a professional contract, were on a professional roster at any point or declared for the NFL Draft as an underclassman without withdrawing, from maintaining eligibility for athletic competition at a conference institution,” the conference announced. “The conference continues to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes in other sports from conference competition.”
Later in the day, the SEC followed suit.
“An SEC institution is not permitted to have an athlete on its roster who has: (1) previously declared for the NFL, NBA, or WNBA raft, and did not appropriately withdraw; (2) signed a contract with an NFL (or other professional football league), NBA/G-League, or WNBA (or affiliate) team; or (3) been listed on an NFL (or other professional football league), NBA/G-League, or WNBA (or affiliate) roster. The Commissioner is authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.”
The SEC’s move could set up a showdown with LSU, which intends to add former Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright to the roster.
It also arguably defies the injunction granting another year of eligibility to Wright and other athletes, setting the stage for further litigation.
However it goes, the conferences are obviously seizing on a widely-unpopular development in college sports in an effort to create sufficient political momentum to persuade Congress to pass the Protect College Sports Act — which will directly give college programs an antitrust exemption and indirectly pick the pockets, and reduce the freedoms, of college players.
Good luck getting anyone connected to the college football money machine to admit this objective. It’s all about screaming that the sky is falling, without giving serious consideration to the impacts of the effort to get the federal government to solve the problem that decades of a corrupt system created.
