Power conferences are moving closer to banning former NFL players from playing within their membership across 64 schools with the SEC following the Big Ten by proposing conference rules to keep professional athletes from returning to play college sports. On Tuesday, the Big Ten became the first conference to levy significant penalties when its athletic directors and faculty athletics representatives unanimously approved a ban on former NFL players pursuing a fifth year of eligibility within their league. Sources tell CBS Sports the punishment is modeled on the NCAA's ghost transfer rule.
That rule bans coaches from 50% of games and carries a financial penalty on the school equal to 20% of its football budget. The SEC announced its new policy later Tuesday after a meeting at the conference's headquarters in Birmingham, Alabama. LSU was considering adding two former NFL players to its roster.
The Big 12 is mulling a similar ban, and the ACC is set to meet Wednesday to discuss the subject, sources told CBS Sports. The Big Ten's decision and the other conferences' discussions arrive amid growing legal uncertainty and a recent push from players who've signed NFL contracts trying to return to school and even seeking to enter the transfer portal -- utilizing recent court rulings allowing players interested in a fifth year of eligibility to return to college football. The Big Ten made it clear that its ban includes players who signed a professional contract, were on a professional roster, or declared for the NFL draft without withdrawing.
Previously, under the Big Ten's Sportsmanship Policy, standard disciplinary measures gave the Big Ten's commissioner the leeway to levy immediate five-figure fines or hand down suspensions on his own authority, while major escalations -- including extended sideline bans or institutional sanctions -- required only the executive committee's rubber stamp. Such violations will be dealt with swiftly and decisively. That will surely be the case with other conferences if they implement the same rule, as many in the college athletics space expect.
Lawsuits could follow from players -- and potentially schools -- seeking to circumvent these rules, though it appears unlikely to have much impact, at least within the Big Ten, at this point, given the unanimous approval among the 18 schools. "The lawsuits are circumventing the NCAA, but now when the league says you can't do it, now you're dealing with problems with your conference," a power conference head coach told CBS Sports. Several head coaches told CBS Sports they would like to see further punishment, including game forfeitures, if teams play a former professional athlete.
The SEC released a statement Tuesday night urging Congress to pass the Protect College Sports Act in September to better protect itself from such developments, but the league, along with other power conferences, is moving toward individual conference-wide rules and enforcement. It also potentially signals the first step toward the long-gestating proposals within the Big Ten and SEC to shoulder enforcement policies under a new rules-and-enforcement model separate from the NCAA. The conferences have been preparing self-governance models in case legislation in Washington, D.C. fails to become law later this year.
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