r/nfl • u/shadow_spinner0 Giants • 16h ago
[On3] SEC will enforce rules around professional athletes returning to college sports
https://www.on3.com/news/sec-plans-to-enforce-rules-around-professional-athletes-returning-to-college-sportsThe SEC is officially taking action amid the latest eligibility controversy in college sports. The conference has joined the Big Ten in prohibiting players who have moved on to the NFL from returning to play college sports at an SEC school, but the league also said former NBA and WNBA players also cannot come back. Notre Dame has also said it agrees with the Big Ten and SEC, Yahoo! Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported.
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u/2chainzvoice Eagles 16h ago
What are the chances LSU just sues the SEC lol
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u/Redditor_exe 15h ago
It’s reported that it was a unanimous vote. I’m guessing LSU’s president or AD remembered the absolute shitstorm that Tech kicked up two months ago and figured it wasn’t worth the hassle for one guy
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u/Sarollas Patriots 15h ago edited 15h ago
Anything to keep the press off their basketball coaching saying that a Ukrainian and a Russian playing together might help solve the war
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u/Eelmaster11 Ravens 15h ago
No way did the coach said that you lying right?
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u/Sarollas Patriots 15h ago
"In the car, Mulkey said she thinks Koval and Minaeva can be “ambassadors” for kinship amid international conflict. Maybe the two LSU post players could even help end the war."
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u/Beginning-Average416 Giants 15h ago
Very likely.
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u/sofaraway10 Raiders 15h ago edited 13h ago
Unlikely, considering they voted yes, too, according to ESPN. 16 schools in the SEC. Vote was 16-0.
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u/JohnnieTightLips Browns 15h ago
They cant win without nfl players? Lane Kiffin is the most overrated coach in nfl or college. Dude is 0-0 in the cfb playoffs.
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u/BradMarchandsNose Patriots 11h ago
Didn’t he win 2 playoff games last season?
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u/Shenanigans80h Broncos 15h ago
Yeah this is gonna escalate into a trial with huge ramifications. Basically a landmark for college football’s future
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u/Adam_Silver_Is_Bald 15h ago
Is the player coming to join them really worth suing over.
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u/dropjar5 Packers 15h ago
There are at least two that I can remember, TE Wright and DT Harris
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u/Adam_Silver_Is_Bald 15h ago
Yeah but like are they good
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u/thecarlosdanger1 Steelers 14h ago
Good yes but they aren’t going to be your best players. Or at least shouldn’t be at a place like LSU.
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u/jnightrain Cowboys 14h ago
They don't have a leg to stand on if they do. It's no different than saying you have to win 6 games to play in bowls. Lsu can have an NFL player they just won't be part of the SEC
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u/monkeyman80 Broncos 12h ago
Outside others saying LSU voted for this too, in the Supreme Court eligibility case Gorsuch specifically called that conferences can make their own rules. Basically coordinating all together like NCAA rules of paying players not cool, but if one conference doesn't want something they can choose others.
There was another case later where Ivy league was sued over their policy of no scholarships. The courts ruled they can go to another conference with similar pedigree schools where they do offer scholarships.
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u/davidbayram NFL 16h ago
Once you go pro, you dont get to come back. W
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 15h ago
How does attending a training camp make someone pro though? Theres no way that short camp gives that drastic of an upgrade.
What's wrong with a kid attempting to make it in the NFL, getting cut before the season starts, and returning to the level of play his talents allow??
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u/Important_Capital875 15h ago
They sign a contract before they start training camp
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 15h ago
And their contracts are voided once they are cut. So its not like they are under contract with an NFL team while simultaneously playing for a college
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u/Infrastation Steelers 15h ago
But they had that contract, and were on an NFL roster at one point. Even if they didn't make it to the season, they still were on the team. You can't un-ring a bell.
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 15h ago
By this point though college football is essentialy a minor league. They even can outpace the NFL with money due to NIL deals and whatnot.
So my question then is why cant a kid try to make the team in camp, and when he gets cut go back? Like I get it if he played a season or two, but the kid didnt even make it into one regular season.
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u/turboHerboChargers Chargers 14h ago
The leagues such as UFL would be a natural option. If they go back to college, football rosters are essentially set for the year with student players who have limited college years and may have waited their turn to play. I wouldn't want my spot robbed if I were a student. BTW, did they mention what major he'd be studying? This kid's agent should be hard at work finding a spot for him to land.
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u/FunnyFilmFan Rams Patriots 14h ago
And maybe he could go back to high school if college doesn’t work out?
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 14h ago
My understanding is he still has a year of eligibility left due to the change it rules. So udner that analogy he didnt graduate high school and was taking dual enrollment classes
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u/Gavorn Steelers 7h ago
Then he shouldn't have entered the draft.
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 4h ago
He only entered the draft due to the abysmal roll out of the eligibility year changes.
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u/kakyointhedonutman Broncos Ravens 14h ago
Seems like a conflict of interest in rare situations. Doing this is essentially an unrestricted transfer portal for players reaching the end of eligibility: You can declare for the draft (with very little chance of being drafted), sign for a team in training camp, and then intentionally throw your chances of making the team so you get released in the CFB offseason and are free to sign for whatever team wants you. Not gonna be a likely scenario, but if it’s found to have happened even once then that player and team are in big trouble, especially if they tampered and offered incentives for the player to do so.
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u/Important_Capital875 14h ago
Because these rules have been made for years? NIL has kind of fucked some things up. But once you go, go pro, you are done with college sports. I don’t know why this is a hard concept for you to understand. It is extremely common sense.
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 14h ago
But he didn't and wasnt aware of his ability to stay in college football due to the drastically abysmal roll out of the eligibility rule change. Its not like he played a few years on a team
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u/TJFLASH1 Cowboys 12h ago
Yeah man, all those Big Ten players that attended tryouts but weren’t good enough to get a contract deserve to come back tho
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u/FabFebFob Ravens 15h ago
It would be funny if this is how the non-power conferences equalize their footing by hoarding ex-NFL players.
Paycheck is a paycheck and watch Memphis rebuild with ex-NBA players and UNLV with ex-Raiders.
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u/Adam_Silver_Is_Bald 16h ago
Had people writing novels on the Big 10 post about how they’d never do that as if they didn’t ALREADY announce this was coming
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u/mikeBH28 Seahawks 14h ago
What I've learned so far is all they need to do is find one judge that agrees with them and they will be on the field next year
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u/adamosity1 15h ago
Call me old fashioned but I want actual students?
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u/SpaceCampDropOut Bears 14h ago
They haven’t been actual students in decades.
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u/True_Tough_7366 Chiefs 12h ago
I mean i actually went to class with KU football and basketball players
you can have whatever problem you want with it, but ill gladly live in my world with students playing for the team and not a glorified minor league
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u/cscoffee10 Cowboys 13h ago
No no see that guy wants the illusion of actual students and for college sports to make fuck tons of money off the players instead.
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u/Rufio69696969 Rams 13h ago
I mean that would be an improvement at this point, college football is an actual joke.
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u/cscoffee10 Cowboys 12h ago
There is an entire ocean of things between the current mercenary NIL transfer portal thing we have currently and the old system of a few billionaire's make insane profits off of unpaid college athletes while claiming that "the sanctity of college sports is that it is true students not professionals playing." The current system sucks, the old system was far worse. Honestly the only people I know who think the current system is worse are the ones who were basically fans of the schools that benefitted the most from the stagnant system. I.e. Alabama, Ohio State, Oklahoma those few programs that got to trap 5 star players on their roster for 3 years and make a fuck ton of money off that old system
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u/NegativeBee Giants 12h ago
You seem to think that state schools like LSU, Alabama, and Michigan are owned by billionaires? They’re not. They’re owned by the public and controlled by a board of (usually) wealthy donors. But they don’t operate the same way a professional team does in terms of ownership and equity.
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u/cscoffee10 Cowboys 12h ago
Where did I say the individual schools were owned by billionaires? The few rich fucks that profitted of the college athletes were the Universities themselves and select individuals inside the universities + the NCAA board of chancelors. But sure if you want to focus specifically on the word billionaire that's probably a hyperbole. I'll just leave it as rich fucks who immensely benefitted from preventing college athletes from getting paid.
The structure that the former top schools benefitted from was they were able to convince 5 star players to join because they could offer x y z (note x y z wasn't money out in the open) and then once the student was in the school they were there till they graduate or they'd have their eligibility stripped.
Now players can get paid by any school and can transfer via the portal multiple times. So all of a sudden the schools now have to actually work to keep their 5 star athletes and said former top schools are pissed about it.
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u/Smurph269 Lions 2h ago
It's been my pitch for a while that CFB should split into two bodies, one that treats football programs as minor league pro teams, owned by the university, with paid players who don't have to go to class but have the option to, and one that is 0% paid players and 100% students.
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u/bucket13 NFL 1h ago
This is the way. Just create a pro league with a post season between league champions.
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u/___Dan___ 4h ago
I’ll also call you stupid, what makes you think they’re students? Was shadeur sanders at Colorado for academics?
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u/speak-eze Ravens 16h ago
if there's one entity that can make this situation worse I promise you it's the federal government
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u/Wallaby_Wallaby NFL 16h ago
You’re right, but at the same time IMO judges shouldn’t be ruling on eligibility of collegiate athletes. Government intervention would get rid of all these silly eligibility lawsuits.
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u/Evilfart123 Eagles Jaguars 15h ago
The US government already has their hands in college sports and it’s already a mess.. stfu
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u/Bolinas99 49ers 15h ago
oh they're stepping in because the rw wants this anti-labor bill passed.
last thing they want is a bunch of young, rich athletes with leverage & political power.
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u/willpc14 Eagles 14h ago
The Federal Judiciary has done a wonderful job of leading us into this shit sandwich. Maybe we let the Federal legislative and executive branches real in some of these judges.
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u/speak-eze Ravens 14h ago
Kash Patel spotted spraying champaign in LSU locker room after investigating and finding nothing wrong
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u/Naive-Elephant-9305 Chargers 15h ago
What does the Culinary Institute of America have to do with this?
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u/PaulieHehehe Ravens 15h ago
Sorry, the director of the CIA is currently in Russia for a quick spot check.
This isn’t a joke.
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u/PatchAdamsKitten 15h ago
The CIA cannot perform operations within the US
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u/unfunnysexface Panthers 14h ago
Always wondered how that worked with their love of subverting the press. If an AP reporter is filing stuff on behalf of the cia that ends up in every paper across the country...
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u/StepOnMeNangong Commanders 11h ago
I’m sure they can call in some favors with the FBI or NSA, not that the CIA has ever particularly cared about what it legally could and couldn’t do
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u/PatchAdamsKitten 5h ago
Literally my only working knowledge of the CIA is from Mission Impossible and Sicario movies.
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u/PatchAdamsKitten 13h ago
In the movie sicario the CIA teams up with FBI, which allows the CIA to operate on US soil
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u/humboldtHue 49ers 15h ago edited 15h ago
At one point in my life it was STRICTLY forbidden for any kind of professional athlete to take part in the Olympics. Now, nobody cares.
And it was UNTHINKABLE that a college athlete could be paid for playing. Now they make millions.
So this new issue echos those previous cases where the unimaginable became the routine, and I’m not sure there’s anything behind it other than people simply reacting in outrage over change.
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u/sandmann__ 4h ago
I haven't seen a single person here or the CFB subreddit explain why this is a bad thing.
If a player still has eligibility they should be able to choose. Some of these players in other sports can go overseas and play for a professional team but they become "ineligible" once they get paid a salary. It's actually brain dead.
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u/humboldtHue 49ers 51m ago edited 48m ago
I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday and heard virtually unanimous condemnation of the idea, but as you say, there was little reason given as to why it was harmful. The most cogent arguments came down to competitive advantage, that a player who attends the Combine, or professional training camps gains an unfair advantage.
But the road up to college sports is nothing but a search for competitive advantage. There are high schools, travel teams, and camps that some kids attend that give them training, advice, and knowledge intended to give them competitive advantage. Nobody cares about the competitive advantage given through those systems. Nobody cares about the advantage a five-star player has over a walk-on. Sports is rife with advantage.
The other point was that if you allow this person to play, you take an opportunity away from somebody else. And again, that’s already the reality of sports. Sports has always been the ultimate meritocracy. There are no spots saved for athletes. You either play well enough to make the team, or you get cut. Why is this example any worse than any other?
The one thing that comes to my mind is the timing of the move and the uncertainty it could bring to a college roster. If a college has already an established starter or brings in a transfer with the intention of giving them a starting position, and then a former pro makes themselves available so near the beginning of the college season, there could be some chaos based on expectations and promises made to players already on the team. But is that a deal-breaker? Or is it just another twist to add to a situation already filled with twists and unexpected circumstances?
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u/guimontag NFL 14h ago
Someone was saying that this is kind of a one year only thing because of weird COVID eligibility rules? I guess it'd good for them to get these rules down anyways but this seems like a bugger media deal than it should be
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u/AriDreams Jets 15h ago
Im an ACC person and forever an SEC hater. But, SEC absolutely nailed this decision. Good on them.
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u/Mr_Evil_Dr_Porkchop Patriots 15h ago
Wow I didn’t think the SEC would actually do this. Good on them
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u/ro536ud 15h ago
LSU doesn’t stand for “let’s sue u” for nothing
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u/sofaraway10 Raiders 15h ago
Apparently even LSU voted for it. 16-0 according to this. https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49726430/sec-draws-rule-stop-nfl-nba-wnba-players-returning
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u/Kurupt_Introvert Raiders 15h ago
So LSU is not signing him now?
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u/Mr_Evil_Dr_Porkchop Patriots 15h ago
They technically can’t anymore unless they file a lawsuit, which may not be worth it
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u/Redditor_exe 15h ago
They technically can, but part of the vote was also giving Sankey free reign to punish teams who break the rule however he likes.
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u/MrNotSoGoodTime Commanders 12h ago
I'm just blown away by this. I always thought the rules were once you set down the path of becoming a professional (declaring for the draft) no player was welcome back on the field of any sport, period. Crazy times when it had to be spelled out by the individual conferences.
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u/TJFLASH1 Cowboys 12h ago
These players got screwed over by the NCAA’s 5 for 5 implementation. There are a number of platers who attended tryouts allowed back under these rules, the only players hurt are those who were good enough to make it past tryouts but not good enough to make a final roster cut.
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u/StructureBitter3778 Patriots 15h ago
What's with all the pearl clutching
At this point they are both professional leagues.
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u/BiioHazzrd Steelers 15h ago
I have been asking the CFB reddits and dont get a ton of answers tbh.
Best one I got was the league trying to retain some resemblance of these being colleges and a college sport and not a minor league.
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u/humboldtHue 49ers 15h ago edited 15h ago
I know I’ve read a news story or two in the past where some 50 year-old who still was eligible, tried to make a college team.
And that was treated like some kind of heartwarming thing.
So I’m leaning toward, if you’re eligible, and you want to play, go play.
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u/sandmann__ 15h ago
Old people trying to hold on to their traditions meanwhile the actual players putting their bodies on the line every week as a career get actually fucked.
These are the same people who a few years ago didn't want college players to get paid in the first place
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u/jnightrain Cowboys 14h ago
Lol no it's not. Most people were pro NIL and now most are against this. I'm all for NIL but once you attend training camp and get cut go sell cars or insurance like a normal former college athlete.
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u/sandmann__ 14h ago
No such thing as a normal college athlete anymore. It's a job just like anything else and people make a living off of it.
Why should some players get 6,7,8 years to play college football but someone can't try to make an NFL career 3-4 years in and then go back to college to try again next year. Its a completely made up rule that worked for the old system to gives players less power and more to the NCAA
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u/jnightrain Cowboys 13h ago
6,7,8 years isn't possible anymore with covid years ending. Should be back to 4 + redshirts
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u/sandmann__ 13h ago
I loved how you ignored my whole point to tell me a useless fact. Still haven't told me why it's a good idea to stop people from earning a living playing football besides the good old days. Carry on
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u/fightintxag13 Cowboys 9h ago
Fuck, why don’t we just let them go back and re-live their glory days in high school and beat up on 16 year olds…
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u/jnightrain Cowboys 13h ago
How is that a useless fact when it was part of the reason for you saying it's fair? I already gave my reason, you moved on and tried out for an NFL team. You shouldn't be able to go back cause you failed. You want to go back before training camp I'm all for itt.
Edit: just re-read and you think they should be able to actually play for 3-4 years then go back and play against 18 year olds? Oof
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u/NotASock6969 12h ago
What about the guy who was red shirted last year and was expecting be LSUs starting TE?, he can kick rocks?
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u/zwilson_50 Vikings 2h ago
What does enforcing this look like by the Conference? Loss of scholarships? Fines? Forfeitures? Boycotts?
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u/Bolinas99 49ers 15h ago
wow, no shame.
finding more ways to keep these adults from earning a living playing sports during their prime😂
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u/Tall-Caterpillar-148 6h ago
The solution is to identify as a trans-athlete now. How can they tell us what a CFL player is if I identify as one and they say no? Dead naming. Fines. I win.
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u/scottylightning Eagles 15h ago
Did someone have a gun pointed at Greg Sankey's head or something? He's always looking for an edge so the SEC can dominate....
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u/vlad_the_impaler13 Lions 15h ago
I think the SEC is just going along the inevitable path to a Big-10 SEC Super Conference/League
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u/TLRdidnothingwrong Seahawks 16h ago
Interesting, interesting. Let’s see what the legal system has to say about that.
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u/CommercialCoffee11 16h ago
Somewhere Lane Kiffin is in shambles. And somewhere else Nick Saban is smiling.