In this first weekend of SEC College Football, the preeminent football conference in the NCAA is pitted against Louisiana State University, in what can only be likened to the ourboros, the mythological serpent that’s eating itself.
LSU has fought for the right to suit up players who declared for the NFL but now want to play another season, and the Southeastern Conference has sued the school and its head coach, Lane Kiffin. At issue is whether the SEC can enforce rules that bar players who have dipped their toes in professional waters from returning to college football.
On Thursday evening, a judge in Baton Rouge — that is, on LSU’s home field — granted players Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, two of 42 athletes who sued the NCAA and the SEC for a right to play a fifth year, a temporary restraining order that bars the SEC from enforcing the rule. Those players declared for the NFL Combine and Draft in April, and some of them have already been picked up by other schools after being granted injunctions.
At issue is whether the SEC can enforce rules that bar players who have dipped their toes in professional waters from returning to college football.
Earlier that same day in Alabama, the SEC sued LSU and Kiffin, in defense of its rules that it says “are built upon an essential principle: college athletics is reserved for students who are actively pursuing an education while competing for their universities,” and that allowing players who tested the professional waters to return violate that principle and take away opportunities from high school and college players.
Morally, it’s hard to disagree. For years, some college players have extended their careers to fifth, and even sixth, years with “red-shirt” seasons, but that loophole was intended to account for injuries or other special circumstances. It was not to provide a soft landing for athletes who discovered that making an NFL roster was harder than they thought. And most observers acknowledge that the size and speed gap between an NFL-ready player in his early 20s and a teenage college freshman or sophomore is generally wide enough to be considered dangerous.
That loophole was intended to account for injuries or other special circumstances, not to provide a soft landing for athletes who discovered that making an NFL roster was harder than they thought.
If that was all there were too it, we might say the SEC is clearly in the right as it seeks to protect roster spots and, presumably, the safety of its athletes. But the NCAA’s power conferences long ago forfeited any moral high ground they might have had. Those conferences spent decades opposing compensation for college players while coaches and athletic directors raked in millions, boosters and sponsors profited, and stadiums and broadcasting networks were built off those young athletes’ labor.
That system crumbled with a federal judge’s 2014 ruling in O’Bannon vs. NCAA, which opened the door to the modern name, image and likeness deals that allow players to trade on their names. Next came the transfer portal, college sports’ take on free agency. That’s when the ourboros first appeared, full off the farce of amateurism that fed the NCAA beast for generations. Now that that’s been obliterated, the serpent has turned on itself.
Why wouldn’t college athletes turn opportunist after watching coaches and administrators gorge themselves? NIL deals gave them a taste of earning, and the transfer portal gave them the thrill of the way professionals take back power from team owners and exercise negotiating leverage.
Through all of this, Kiffin has been an arch opportunist. During his career at other programs, he repeatedly recruited players only to walk away each time a better paycheck or shot at a national championship presented itself. Just ask the kids at Ole Miss, whom he kicked to the curb last year even as they were headed to the College Football Playoff. He left them for hated rival LSU. With his roster on the ropes this offseason and the spring transfer portal shut down, he saw an opportunity in players the NFL ignored this spring, and he jumped at the chance, just like he always has.
But the SEC sees the writing on the wall, and it doesn’t like how the story turns out. The old rules are gone and the system is clearly in danger of collapse. If college athletes can test the pros and return to college, then what’s next? Might the NFL, or even the UFL, become a competitor for talent rather than a pipeline for graduates?
Given the large sums of money involved, it may have never been right to call football players amateurs. It’s especially true now.
Given the large sums of money involved, it may have never been right to call football players amateurs. It’s especially true now, given all the reasons listed above. Still, letting players go to a pro league and come back may be seen as a bridge too far.
That’s why the SEC sued, and that’s why fans are focused on courtroom battles as much as they are on gridiron battles. But who ever thought we’d see this kind of battle between a power conference in college football and one of its championship-winning teams?
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