The chaos in college football is getting more and more chaotic. As the courts open 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 closed the door on players who have signed NFL contracts. First on Tuesday, it was the Big Ten. NFL Draft as a freshman without withdrawing, to maintain eligibility for athletic competition at a conference institution,” the conference announced. “The conference continues to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes from other sports from conference competition.” Later that day, the SEC followed suit. “An SEC institution is not permitted to have an athlete on its roster who: (1) has previously declared for the NFL, NBA, or WNBA, and has not properly withdrawn; (2) has signed a contract with a team in the NFL (or other professional football league), NBA/G-League or WNBA (or affiliate); or (3) has been named to a roster of the NFL (or other professional football league), NBA/G-League, or WNBA (or affiliate). Commissioner is authorized The SEC’s move could set up a showdown with LSU, which aims to add former Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright to the roster. It also arguably challenges the court order granting another year of eligibility to Wright and other athletes, setting the stage for future litigation. Be that as it may, conferences are obviously taking advantage of a widely unpopular development in college sports in an effort to create enough political momentum to persuade Congress to pass the College Sports Protection Act, which will directly grant college programs an antitrust exemption and indirectly pick at the pockets and reduce the freedoms of college players. Good luck getting anyone connected to the college football money machine to admit this goal. It’s about shouting that the sky is falling, without seriously considering the impacts of the effort to get the federal government to solve the problem that decades of a corrupt system created.
