Although the Big 12 has now joined the Big Ten and SEC in banning anyone who has been an NFL player from returning to play college football, Texas Tech will be adding Tommy Castellanos to its roster.
Castellanos, at the time Florida State’s quarterback, announced in December that he was entering the NFL draft, and after he went undrafted he was in rookie minicamp with the Dolphins. But Castellanos will apparently be allowed to play in the Big 12 because at the time he said he was entering the draft, he believed he was out of NCAA eligibility, and when he was in rookie minicamp he was there only on a tryout basis, and not on an NFL roster.
Texas Tech will be Castellanos’s fourth college team, having previously played at Florida State, Boston College and UCF. He is a college quarterback but was trying to make the NFL as a wide receiver.
Castellanos got his NCAA eligibility back on Friday when a Kentucky judge granted him a temporary restraining order allowing him to play a fifth season of college football.
Castellanos will join Will Hammond and Kirk Francis in the Texas Tech quarterback room. The quarterback situation at Texas Tech has been a major offseason storyline since Brendan Sorsby initially won a court ruling to get back his eligibility and play for Texas Tech, which sparked outrage in the college football world. Sorsby ultimately left college football, tried and failed to enter the NFL via the supplemental draft, and is now sitting out 2026 and hoping to get drafted in 2027.
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