Big Ten Unanimously Approves Rule to Block NFL Players from College Teams

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Big Ten Unanimously Approves Rule to Block NFL Players from College Teams
Photo: CBS Sports
sports· A press review of 4 outlets
  1. The Big Ten unanimously passed a rule on Tuesday that will prevent NFL players from returning to college and suiting up for a team in the conference, according to ESPN's Pete Thamel.

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    ESPN

    Sources: Big Ten to bar NFL players from return The Big Ten is set to pass a rule Tuesday that doesn't allow players to return from the NFL and play for one of its schools, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel.

    CBS Sports

    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 their names.

    Fox Sports

    Later on Tuesday, the Big Ten released a statement addressing the decision. "The Big Ten Conference announced Tuesday the unanimous adoption of a conference rule to prohibit football players who have signed a professional contract, were on a professional roster at any point or declared for the NFL Draft as an underclassman without withdrawing, from maintaining eligibility for athletic competition at a conference institution.

  2. The NCAA approved a measure allowing players to play up to five seasons within a five-year span, but only for players in the class of 2023 or later. That decision led to former players from the class of 2022 who had exhausted their four years of eligibility to file lawsuits seeking temporary injunctions for a fifth season. Some were successful, leading many players to rejoin rosters across the country -- though LSU opted to seek players who instead landed on NFL rosters.

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    Fox Sports

    This comes in the wake of several players who appeared on NFL rosters this summer going back to school to play college football, with temporary restraining orders being granted to 16 players in Louisiana, allowing individuals who graduated from high school in 2022 to play a fifth collegiate season.

  3. Meanwhile, Oregon head coach Dan Lanning was against the situation. "I think there are a lot of negatives that are involved around this," Lanning told reporters. "One, once you go to the NFL, to me, you're in the NFL. You don't get the opportunity to come back. Two, most of us have built our rosters. You have a limited roster now.

From the margins

3 details only one outlet reported

Independent claims that didn't surface elsewhere in our corpus. Treat as supplementary — not corroborated across outlets.

  1. 01 CBS Sports

    Power conferences are moving closer to banning former NFL players from playing within their membership across 64 schools.

  2. 02 Fox Sports

    "The conference continues to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes in other sports from conference competition."

  3. 03 Bleacher Report

    On Monday, the SEC released a statement saying that it opposed NFL players returning to college football.

Assembled from 3 corroborated claims drawn from 4 independent outlets. Every passage above is taken verbatim — Dorothy doesn't paraphrase or summarize.

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Sources (4)

  • cbssports
  • bleacherreport
  • foxsports
  • espn

Original Articles (7)