The Big Ten has drawn a hard line on a question that has started to swirl around college football: what happens when a player turns pro, then tries to come back?
On Tuesday, the conference announced that any athlete who declared for the NFL Draft and did not withdraw, appeared on an NFL roster, or signed a contract with a professional team will not be allowed to return to Big Ten teams. The penalty for a school that ignores the rule is steep, too - the head coach would be suspended for 50 percent of the team’s remaining games and would also face an undisclosed fine.
“The conference continues to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes in other sports from conference competition,” said the official conference statement on the matter.
The move comes as the NCAA Division I governing board’s June vote on the five-for-five eligibility structure for the 2026-2027 season has already stirred up major questions across the sport. One of the biggest has been the possibility of former NFL players finding their way back onto college rosters. The Southeastern Conference followed the Big Ten’s lead shortly after with its own ban on returning NFL players.
Oregon coach Dan Lanning was already in the middle of that conversation after his comments on the issue went viral. Following a fall camp scrimmage, he said there were plenty of “negatives” tied to athletes returning to college football, especially when roster spots are tight and a younger player could lose out to a former pro.
On Monday, two Oregon seniors weighed in as well.
“I think I'm with Lanning on that one,” senior wide receiver Evan Stewart said. “I don't really agree with that too much.
I think once you play your your years and try to prove yourself. I mean, we all got a limited amount of time, so I mean, once you get that time and you make that decision to go and you think you're good enough to go, you can't can't really turn back on it.
That's how I feel, but yeah, that's how I feel on it.”
“Yeah, I mean that's a tough question because, like, it kind of sucks, like you said, for the younger dudes that's coming in from high school trying to get that spot and to play the game. Right now, I don't think I have an answer for that question, but yeah, it's kind of tough," senior center Iapani “Poncho” Laloulu added.
There is also a legal backdrop still shifting underneath all of this. A 2-1 ruling by the U.S. 10th Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday temporarily stopped orders from the original judge that would have given thousands of athletes another college year.
Even with that ruling, lawsuits are still being filed or continuing around the country. Much of the fight centers on athletes who graduated high school in 2022-2023 and want to reclaim a fifth college season after playing under the old eligibility rules.
The NCAA has argued that allowing athletes to return after they have already moved on creates a “destabilizing” effect on the sport and opens a “Pandora's Box” for players who already used four years to come back for a fifth.
The Friday ruling also puts the NCAA back toward its original five-year eligibility framework, which begins when an athlete graduates high school and enrolls before his nineteenth birthday, or by his nineteenth birthday, in order to guarantee a full five years.
Another major part of the new setup is the removal of redshirts. The NCAA said the change was meant to make it easier for coaches and staffs to handle redshirt designations, and its clarification on the rule said: “It does not pause because a student-athlete does not compete, transfers, sits out, changes teams or takes time away from participation,”
For Oregon, the Big Ten’s stance should not change much. The Ducks have already been firmly opposed to the lawsuits that would open the door for returning players, so the conference rule is expected to have little to no effect on them.
The bigger impact could land on programs that were hoping to bring back former NFL players, with LSU mentioned as the most notable example. Those teams may now have to alter their plans to fit the new conference rule.
There is still a chance a conference, most likely a Group of Five league, decides not to ban the path in hopes of giving smaller schools a chance to lure top players back for another season. For now, though, the issue is still evolving.
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