According to sources who spoke with ESPN’s Pete Thamel, the Big Ten is scheduled to enact a rule on Tuesday that prohibits athletes who have returned from the NFL from attending one of its institutions.
According to sources who spoke to Thamel, a player cannot be on a Big Ten roster if they signed a deal with a professional league, appeared on an NFL roster, or declared for the NFL draft but did not withdraw.
The Big Ten’s decision follows the departure of two NFL players from their respective teams to join Lane Kiffin’s team at LSU: Dae’Quan Wright of Cleveland and Zxavian Harris of New Orleans.
Due to a court ruling that is causing chaos in the NCAA by granting athletes an unanticipated fifth year of eligibility, Wright and Harris, who both played for Kiffin at Ole Miss, are returning to collegiate football. If the athletes end their professional contracts and reimburse any professional profits, they will be eligible to return to college.
In a statement, the NCAA claimed that court decisions granting fifth-year eligibility are “destabilizing effect” on collegiate athletics.
On Tuesday, the NCAA stated:
“Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college — sometimes without even having a hearing — are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,”
“The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from both those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience and those who are currently on campus working out with the team and attending classes. Thankfully, Congress can right this wrong by passing the bipartisan Protect College Sports Act and ensure student-athletes can have a level playing field with rules that apply fairly to everyone.”
Jim Phillips, the commissioner of the ACC, told ESPN on Tuesday that his league will talk about the subject this week.
