Some bizarre NFL and college football history could be made soon, and not everyone’s happy about it.Â
Former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright was on track to become the first player to play college football after being rostered by an NFL team following his release from the Cleveland Browns this week. But as he was set to join head coach Lane Kiffin at LSU, Wright and several other college athletes learned on Tuesday that the SEC would be joining the Big Ten in disallowing players who had already signed an NFL contract from playing in their conferences.Â
Wright was among 16 former college football players who sued the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility and were granted a temporary restraining order that would allow them to play college football in 2026. That order allowed opportunistic college head coaches, like Kiffin, to explore adding players signed to NFL contracts to their rosters in recent weeks.Â
While college head coaches and conference administrators are starting to make their feelings known on the matter, how are people around the NFL reacting to players potentially returning to play the collegiate game? Here’s what we learned from some of our conversations with people around the league.Â
Ralph Vacchiano: The recent news that some NFL players will potentially be allowed to return to college football this season did not go over well in NFL circles. And it only added to their confusion over what is currently happening in the NCAA.
“They really have to get their s— together,” one NFL scout told me. “It feels like theyre the Wild Wild West and the rules are changing every day.”Â
The recent one could be the most confusing. It was sparked by court rulings in Colorado and Louisiana that appear to allow NFL players who entered college in 2022 to return to school for a fifth year of eligibility in the NCAA. To add to the confusion, the Big Ten went against the courts and banned players from returning from the NFL. The SEC announced it opposed the rulings, but wouldnt stand in the players way.
Its unclear if any other conferences will join the Big Ten and the SEC. But the courts probably havent had their final say on the matter yet, which is why the NFL is bracing for an even bigger mess.
“All that NIL money was bad enough. It basically wiped out the talent in the later rounds of the draft because too many marginal players could afford to stay in school,” the scout told me. “But now were going to have guys who wouldve stayed on the practice squad leaving too? Well spend 3-4 months investing in their growth, developing them as a player, only to watch them go back to LSU?”
“It all looks bad,” an NFL executive told me by text. “But we dont know where all this is going yet. It feels like just the beginning of a really big mess.”
Eric D. Williams: The situation surrounding Wright and over a dozen other players has caused some to panic about the future of college football. However, not everyone in the NFL is worried about the recent court rulings and whether this will cause more players to return to college.Â
One NFL agent pointed out to me that what’s happening this summer is likely a one-time thing due to the NCAA’s new eligibility rules.Â
“It only applies to this tiny group of players this year who made a decision prior to the rule change,” the NFL agent told me. “It would never apply again because any other player in the future would make whatever decision they made after the college season based on the 5/5 rule, if it stays in effect.
“So, this really isnt a long-term issue. Its a one-off, so the NFL wont and shouldnt care about these few guys who werent making teams to begin with. These are the only players the ruling applies to â players who under the new rules would be eligible to play college in 2026 that under the old rules would not have been eligible. Thats it. A player at the end of 2026 who has a fifth year can deci
