Staff Writer: Brett Hamilton
While that sounds simple, many consider becoming a professional football player one of the most difficult and exclusive career paths in the world.
Don’t believe me? According to u.osu.edu, “According to the data released by NCAA, there were 1,083,308 high school participants in 2016, and 73,660 or nearly 6.8% of them got the chance to compete in NCAA. Furthermore, among those 73,660 NCAA participants, only 16,369 or 22% of them are Draft Eligible. Nonetheless, only 253 slots were provided, a very small number compared to the total.
In the end, 251 NCAA participants were drafted to NFL—that is 1.5% of those 16,369 Draft Eligible players.” While those numbers were recorded back in 2016, those statistics still apply to this day.
Recently, there have been several examples of players deciding to leave the NFL to return to the NCAA. Most notably, Dae’Quan Wright, a former Ole Miss Rebels and Cleveland Browns tight end, decided to attempt to leave the Cleveland Browns and the NFL altogether to go back to the NCAA to play for the LSU Tigers.
His reason for this was to try to capture a second chance at boosting his draft value, as he went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft. Despite later signing with the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent, then being claimed off waivers by the Cleveland Browns, Wright ultimately decided to return back to college.
Wright wouldn’t be the only professional player to do this, as several others attempted to return to college. These acts would not go unnoticed; in fact, it was noticed immediately by several major college athletic conferences, as well as the NFL itself. The reactions were negative, as conferences like the Big Ten and the SEC, which coincidentally is the conference where LSU is, acted immediately to pass strict rules prohibiting any team from rostering a player who had signed a professional contract or appeared on an NFL roster.
The College Football Playoff issued a formal statement strongly supporting these conference restrictions, as they are made to protect competitive integrity. The NFL had a similar reaction to its college counterpart, as it issued a clear memo reminding all 32 clubs that any professional player who chose to abandon professional football to return to college would be strictly prohibited from signing with any NFL team until 2027.
With all that has happened, the question remains: how do these players even have the chance of ditching the NFL to return to the NCAA? Well, this originates from the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused widespread game cancellations and disruptions for all current players at the time. As a result, the NCAA gave those current athletes an extra year of college eligibility, specifically the Class of 2022. This would eventually lead to a culture of extended college careers and legal challenges regarding player rules.
Therefore, with players like Dae’Quan Wright, who was a freshman in 2022, he sought out the opportunity to fight for a final year of eligibility and then used it to return to college football. As of now, players like Dae’Quan Wright have returned to college football but are not listed on the active roster. This means he isn’t currently playing for LSU, but he has the chance to at any point in the future.
As of now, it is uncertain whether or not the ability for professional players to return to college football will remain. From the reactions, it seems people and associations have a negative outlook on the event, and rightfully so.