The NCAA has lost its hold on college athletes.
Has a judge opened the door for first year out of college National Football League players who are not a lock to make a squad for those players to return to college for a fifth year? It is possible. A little background here, on July 31st, a federal court in Denver ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this academic year. That came after the NCAA passed a rule that gave athletes five years to complete five seasons of competition, starting with those who enroll in the fall of 2027.
Sixteen football players were granted a temporary restraining order by a Louisiana court that would make them eligible to return to college athletics, if they fail to make a team. National Football League rosters have to be cut to 53 by August 30th. The college football season starts on August 29th and college football programs are not structured like the NFL where players move around in season. The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s once tight grip on “student-athletes’ is evaporating and that is not sitting well with them. “Courts across the country granting relief to ineligible athletes who already had every opportunity to compete in college, sometimes without even having a hearing, are failing to appreciate the destabilizing effect their rulings are having on college sports,” Tim Buckley, the NCAA senior vice president of external affairs, said in a statement. “The lawyers bringing these cases seemingly won’t be satisfied until every professional athlete can treat college sports as a fallback option, regardless of the opportunities it strips from those who will never have a chance to begin their collegiate sports experience.” It is no longer 1953 and that is a problem for the NCAA.
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