From the NFL to College Football, a new pathway has emerged.
Former Ole Miss starters Dae’Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris and Wydett Williams, all of whom signed with NFL teams this summer, are among a group of athletes who were granted a temporary restraining order Wednesday to return to college for one more season.
The trio of former Rebels standouts joined 30 other athletes from a variety of sports in a lawsuit filed against the NCAA in Louisiana state court Wednesday.
The list of plaintiffs includes 16 football players, several who signed with NFL teams and participated in training camps earlier this month. Three of the players — Wright, Williams and former Oregon State running back Anthony Hankerson — are currently listed on NFL rosters for the Browns, Cardinals and Seahawks, respectively.
Those players have expressed an interest in being released from their NFL contracts, according to attorney Ryan Downton, and if their NFL teams release them by Sept. 1 they will be allowed to join a college roster under the restraining order.
Former South Carolina safety DQ Smith, LSU linebacker Jack Pyburn, James Madison linebacker Trent Hedrick and Notre Dame defensive lineman Junior Tuihalamaka are among the other players who joined the suit.
“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,” NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley said in a statement. “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 those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.”
So, it’s not just guys who didn’t make a roster, but it’s now guys who made a roster, already received their signing bonus, and decide that they don’t like the pay grade and want to go back to college for one more NIL payout…question is, how would any NIL money be available if it’s already been divvied up among the current college roster?
And as if Ole Miss needed any additional power on their roster from transfers.
Geez.
I give up!
As I have said before, 20 years ago getting a TRO or preliminary injunction was like going over the top on the Western Front during WWI; today, judges are just handing them out like candy…..
A sophomore computer science major can go work for Apple in the summer and come back to school. So what’s like the difference and stuff?!?
Nothing crazy will happen just because guys can make a little money because they play ball!!
There is no Pandora’s Box!!! Trust me!!
(The idea of unregulated NIL was always stupid and shortsighted. Our dear departed former host was right on many (most) things. On this one, eh, not so much. Nor was the majority of the commentariat.)
“A sophomore computer science major” and on the HOPE or some other scholarship! Reckon an athletic scholarship only tethers you to a place forever, because? Why?
There ain’t a gd thing in there about the portal.
The portal never bothered me. Still doesn’t.
Buying and selling teenagers and turning college football into a professional league does tho. And for two reasons:
1) Kids should pick schools for reasons related to academics not immediate monetary returns.
2) The college experience shouldn’t be muddled by adult considerations. There’s plenty of time to deal with all that shit. It will consume most of your life. Can’t we allow these guys 4-5 years of growing the fuck up? The best years of my life were doing that in Athens. Its why so many of us are so committed to uga after decades away.
We were sold that nil was nothing more than a Michael Jordan signing with Nike before the Chicago Bulls.
That was always bullshit. The only thing that’s surprised me is how slow the shit storm has taken to fully manifest itself.
“1) Kids should pick schools for reasons related to academics not immediate monetary returns.”
Haha! Like that has ever been true. I do think you’re right about #2, and that might be why some of these guys are willing to go back to ‘school’. Turns out the NFL is a J-O-B and probably a practice squad job at that. Or maybe they think they are going to get cut.
https://www.nbcsports.com/college-football/news/stanford-pulls-recruiting-coup-with-wr-commit
“Also, there’s the environment around the overall campus built by the students and the teachers. And then there’s the weight the degree carries in the business world once I graduate. Then, I asked myself if I were a regular student and couldn’t play football, would I still want to go that school?”
Why does it seem like the suits have decided it’s important that Ole Miss be good?
As for the total freedom of college football players and the inability of anyone to restrain them in any way, up to and including leaving NFL rosters to come back, this shit is starting to look like a Kurt Vonnegut story.
Insanity. A toxic combination of greedy lawyers, “agents,” desperate schools, and biased judges all out to ruin the sport at every available opportunity. The SEC/B1G will end up recruiting/signing players from the NFL before this madness ends.
But no responsibility for the schools who sold their players’s identities to EASports. None! Nope!!
The schools opened this box by arrogantly believing they could simultaneously maximize profit and pretend they values amateurism. We shouldn’t forget that.
No cliff left.Next stop will be the bottom of the bottom! Just ready to close up shop for me. Will always Love them Dawgs, but don’t think l can handle all the BS!!!