Athletes Who Don’t Make It as Pros Should Return to College

At the center of the latest controversy in college sports are two former University of Mississippi players who went undrafted this year, signed with NFL teams and were subsequently waived without ever competing in a regular-season pro football contest. Louisiana State University head coach Lane Kiffin recruited Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris to Baton Rouge to play for the Tigers, igniting a fight over whether athletes who sign professional contracts should ever be allowed to return to college competition. The SEC said no and subsequently sued LSU. The university left Wright and Harris off its roster for the season opener against Clemson, but the larger “define a professional athlete” question remains unsettled.

I think players who try to go pro but never actually play should be allowed to return to college, with parameters. Many people disagree with me on this. I spent much of this summer finishing my next book, Name, Image, and Likeness in College Sports: Power and Profits in the New Era of Athletics. My co-authors and I have been tracing all the major moves in intercollegiate athletics over the past six years. The entire model has been turned upside down; we highlight the good and bad of these shifts in our book. Writing it compelled me to revise some long-held positions of my own. Honestly, as recently as 18 months ago, players coming back from the pros would have been an absolute no for me. But new eras and models require sensible reconsiderations. This is one of them.

I’ve just started my 24th year as a professor, more than half of which have been at two universities in Power Four conferences. Higher education is one of my three academic fields of study, and I also spent three years on the University of Southern California’s academic oversight committee for athlete academic affairs, including one as chair. I am a staunch proponent of college access, learning, academic achievement and degree attainment. Nothing will make me give up on the idea that college is college, even as intercollegiate sports become increasingly commercialized and players rightly profit from their names, images, likenesses and labor. Many people have given up on the NCAA’s notion of “student athletes.” As an educator, I never will.

My research has long exposed racial disparities in graduation rates between Black men and other student athletes at universities in the most profitable intercollegiate sports conferences. Allowing players who left college for the pros to come back, finish their degrees and play out their remaining eligibility could be one of many ways to get diplomas into the hands of talented Black men and everyone else who wants another shot at completing college. Even if there is just a 5 percent chance that they will ultimately graduate, I say go for the 5 percent. It might just be that failing once at the pros shows players how essential it is to complete their college degrees. Universities routinely welcome back other students who leave before earning degrees, and we celebrate people who return to finish what they started. Why should athletes be different simply because they temporarily left college to pursue professional sports?

Public policy is another of my academic fields. I am usually a stickler for rules. Nevertheless, during a time when just about everything in intercollegiate athletics seems to be on the table, the return–to–college eligibility rule is worth reconsidering. Transfer policies have changed, NIL has changed, revenue sharing has changed, conference membership has changed and the relationship between athletes, universities and money has changed dramatically. I will never advocate a policy free-for-all. But it seems sensible to me that players reclaiming their student-athlete status should be allowed to compete only for the time that remains within their existing eligibility window. Going to the NFL should not restart the clock. If a player had one season remaining when he left college, he should have one season if he returns without having ever competed professionally.

It is time to redraw the NCAA’s decades-old line between attempting to go pro and remaining eligible for college competition. Players who officially enter and participate in a professional athletic contest—just one, including a preseason game—should not be allowed to come back. Declaring for a draft, signing with an agent, participating in a tryout or attending training camp is not the same thing as actually playing professional sports. Making the roster and suiting up for an official game against an opponent should be the disqualifier. If they played professionally, their college playing careers should be over. If they tried but never appeared in an official contest, returning to college should remain an option, assuming they otherwise meet academic and eligibility requirements. Returning players also should be actual students making legitimate progress toward degrees, not athletes brought back only to fill roster needs. They must go to class.

Business is my third academic field. College sports is undeniably big business. Coaches make millions, media companies pay billions for broadcast rights and higher education institutions operate increasingly professionalized sports enterprises designed to maximize revenue. Players now have significantly greater opportunities to participate in the economics surrounding their labor. But the increasing professionalization of college sports does not require us to surrender every educational value that distinguishes it from the NFL, the WNBA and other professional leagues. In fact, the more commercialized college sports becomes, the more intentional universities should be about protecting the “college” part of college sports.

Because I want more of them to graduate, I say let the players come back, finish their degrees and use whatever collegiate eligibility they legitimately have remaining. If they played in the pros, their college playing days should be over. But if they merely tried to make it and did not, returning to collegiate sports teams should still be available to them.