The Southeastern Conference passed a rule Tuesday banning players who have been drafted by NFL, NBA or WNBA teams or listed on rosters in those leagues, joining the Big Ten in taking a strong stand against an unexpected surge of pro players trying to return to college with the NCAA mired in a sprawling legal fight over eligibility.
The SEC’s rule goes beyond the one adopted earlier in the day by the Big Ten, which only included football in its decision and is expected address other sports later.
The news was the latest in a head-spinning week of court rulings, emergency rulemaking sessions and player signings, all of which point to a college sports landscape in disarray. The moves by the nation’s two biggest conferences, four days before the start of football season, are intended to tamp down the latest crisis - one involving players who came back to college after being released from pro rosters.
“I feel like I took a freaking gummy,” said Sean McVay, the coach of the Los Angeles Rams, when asked about the prospect of a player he released returning to college. “I don’t even understand it.”
The rules - which seem likely to be challenged in court - came after a series of losses for the NCAA in state courts around the country, where judges are granting players who graduated high school in 2022 a fifth year of eligibility. In June, the NCAA passed a rule giving most players five years to finish five seasons of eligibility in college, but did not grandfather in the Class of ’22.
Hundreds of those players saw their fourth - and supposedly final - year of eligibility run out last spring. They are arguing that they’re being denied educational opportunities and the chance to earn name, image and likeness money that they could get in a fifth year.
College rosters are largely set and incoming freshmen and other new players on teams are now faced with sudden competition from athletes whose eligibility had supposedly run out.
LSU was quick to nab players after court rulings
The SEC rule puts LSU on notice. This week, Tigers coach Lane Kiffin was adding Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, a pair of undrafted players out of Mississippi who had tryouts in the NFL over the summer, but were released by their teams during training camp.
The rule, which also applies to players signed by the NBA G League, will impact players like R.J. Luis Jr.. On Monday, the former St. John’s star won a court ruling that allowed him to sign with Will Wade’s basketball program at LSU despite having briefly been under contract with the Jazz and Celtics of the NBA.
Kiffin suggested in a news conference Monday that if LSU didn’t take these newly eligible players, other teams certainly would. Now, nobody can - at least not among the 34 teams that make up the two biggest leagues in college and play an outsize role in spearheading policy across the industry.
There was no immediate comment from LSU.
“Over 100 athletes in multiple sports were cleared and said you could go play. That’s a court order,” Kiffin said earlier Tuesday on “The Pat McAfee Show” on ESPN. “If you think back on all the different court orders of great players that were granted — whether that’s Diego Pavia or, now, Trinidad (Chambliss) that were allowed to play a sixth year, we followed all court orders. I think you get into a really interesting situation as a conference if you’re now saying, ‘Well, we’re not going to follow this court order.’”
The Big Ten’s penalties for violating its rule include a half-season suspension for the head coach and a fine for the school. The SEC did not immediately divulge its penalties, though commissioner Greg Sankey is expected to have wide latitude in figuring out punishment.
The other Power Four leagues, the Atlantic Coast and Big 12 conferences, are expected to discuss the issue Wednesday.
“I don’t think anybody in our league likes the idea of taking away opportunities from existing college students and graduating high school players, which is exactly what is happening when a school signs a player out of an NFL camp to their team,” Wake Forest athletic director John Currie wrote in a text message to The Associated Press.
The leagues and NCAA are using the eligibility crisis as a selling point for the Protect College Sports Act, a bill in the Senate that would give the NCAA some protection against the sort of lawsuits that are upending college athletics.
But that bill is weeks away from a vote. Football season starts Saturday, with the featured game taking place in Ireland, where TCU faces North Carolina.
“It’s a rudderless ship right now,” TCU coach Sonny Dykes said. “I mean, I don’t know who’s in charge of football anymore.”
Duke coach Manny Diaz said the Power Four conferences need to present a unified front.
“You wouldn’t run any other type of corporation, organization, anything else, the way we’re being run right now,” he said. “And so I hope the leagues do step up because somebody has to right now, because when there’s a vacuum, this is what you see.”
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