The story is too big.
It is too big to explain all the what-ifs. Too big to explain all the whys. Too big to count all the things it might become a harbinger of.
Or, perhaps, it only seems that way because if it’s a one-off, well, it might prove helpful, yet be disappointingly small.
Because the SEC did a thing on Tuesday that has since been mirrored by the Big 10, Big 12, ACC and, would you believe it, the Mountain West and Sun Belt, too, and that’s just through Thursday evening. By the time you read this, the AAC, Conference USA, MAC and the reconstituted Pac-12 may have done it, too.
That is, essentially, no professionals, even very short-term professionals, allowed back on the college football field and perhaps every other arena, diamond and court, too.
Should it go that way, hallelujah, college sports may actually wind up saving itself from itself, all without Congress passing a law the Big 10 and SEC have demanded it pass (on their terms). Maybe it could all, kind of, sort of, happen in house.
Thank the NCAA, the courts, and you bet, Lane Kiffin, too, for making it all possible.
The timeline is rapid.
Call it the “five-for-five” rule, put in place by the NCAA in late June, giving athletes five years of eligibility rather than five years to complete four seasons of competition.
You can guess what happened next.
A judge, on the last day of July, decided the NCAA’s new rule meant athletes that arrived in 2022, who thought their time was over in 2025, were also eligible for 2026.
The NCAA disagreed.
Conferences and schools likely disagreed, too, talk about a headache, though one part of U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney’s ruling may have heartened them.
If a player had already signed a professional contract, even a worth-nothing free-agent contract, the type handed out to undrafted prospects often cut quickly, well, that player could not return to the college playing field.
Then, come August, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals temporarily sided with the NCAA, blocking Sweeney’s ruling.
Next, a Louisiana judge, because of course — where’s Kiffin coach now? — ruled a group of 16 football players, several of whom had attended NFL training camps on free-agent contracts, were now eligible to return to college, even mandating the NCAA reopen the transfer portal for a week to accommodate them.
And this is where it gets fun.
Dae-Quan Wright, one of those 16 players, who’d recently been waived by the Cleveland Browns, who played for Kiffin at Ole Miss last season, entered the transfer portal and media reports had him on his way to LSU, where Kiffin coaches now.
As they say in the South, “Oh, Lordy.”
Enter the SEC with its rule, which I will paraphrase.
Member institutions are not permitted to place athletes on their rosters who have declared for the NFL, NBA or WNBA draft and did not properly withdraw; or signed with an NFL, NBA (or G-League) or WNBA (or affiliate) team; or have ever been listed on the roster of any professional football league, or an NBA or G-League roster or WNBA or affiliate league roster.
That happened on Tuesday, the Big 10 and Big 12 followed suit on Wednesday, the ACC, Mountain West and Sun Belt opted in on Thursday.
The day after it announced its rule, the SEC announced its penalties should the rule be broken, which itself was an interesting thing, because if it’s a conference rule, how on earth could it be broken?
Well, probably because the SEC understood it couldn’t control the courts and their eligibility decisions, it could only control what might happen if one of its schools went with the courts rather than the conference.
The penalty for putting an ex-pro, of virtually any form, on a roster?
The SEC coach who did it would be suspended half the season and the specific program would be fined half its sport’s operating budget.
Also, as they say in the South (and everywhere else), “Holy $%#&.”
So there you go.
The SEC started something and the rest of the conferences finally understood they didn’t have to be subject to the whiplash of the courts, they could make their own rules.
There are some differences, league to league.
The Big 10, Mountain West and Sun Belt made it a football-only rule. The Big 12 made it for every single one of its varsity sports, the SEC and ACC made it football and hoops.
Good chance the football-only ones wanted to act fast and not complicate. Good chance the Big 12’s where everybody will land once they have time to work everything through.
You know what this means?
Well, it could still be a one-off, each Division I conference, the football ones at least, seeing the wisdom of the same thing at the same time, falling in line and following suit, all without colluding, which is still no tiny trick.
Or it could mean something much bigger.
It could mean a willingness to work together and do what, thus far, the NCAA and Congress have yet to do. It could mean self-regulation, and if not for every Division I football conference, at least the Power 4, which is a whole lot different than the Big 10 and the SEC going off on their own.
Beyond a willingness, it could create a nationwide epiphany among universities and conferences that nobody can save them from themselves but themselves and the way forward is to cooperate, because the Big 10 and the SEC really do need the Big 12 and ACC and, guess what, all of them need the other conferences, too.
Maybe football’s an outlier, but it would be the only one. And maybe it’s not an outlier at all.
Of course, since I began this writing, this headline popped up from none other than the Associated Press, which allegedly gets everything right.
“Texas Judge puts new eligibility rule on hold.”
But I’ve read the story over and over again and I’m pretty sure the AP got it wrong.
A judge ruled a group of 41 athletes to be eligible to return to the college playing field, but he did not rule the SEC (and other conferences) must abandon their new rules, nor withhold penalties should they be broken.
To tell conferences they can’t set their own rules would presumably require another legal fight, and by the time that happens, the season will be too far gone.
Also, recall the SEC’s farsightedness with its rule and penalties.
Here it is in action.
The conferences are in control.
Of how much do they want to be is the trillion dollar question.
Whatever, the Wild West is slightly less wild now.
Call it a win.