SEC, Big Ten, Big 12, ACC all ban NFL players from returning

It happened fast. The SEC moved first, then the Big Ten, then the Big 12, and now Pete Nakos is reporting the ACC has closed the loop: all four Power conferences have formally banned athletes who declared for the NFL Draft, signed an NFL contract, or were previously rostered by an NFL team from rostering for college football again.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

Every Power Four conference has now banned NFL players from returning to their respective leagues.

The SEC set the tone on Tuesday with a 16-0 initial vote, per Pete Thamel, before formalizing it Wednesday at 15-0 with LSU abstaining. The conference didn't just pass a policy statement, either — commissioner Greg Sankey was explicitly authorized to enforce it with penalties against member schools, not just the players themselves. That's a meaningful distinction, and it's why an On3 source told Nakos the SEC is going out of its way to make a point with this one.

FOX College Football

@CFBONFOX

The SEC has announced that Commissioner Greg Sankey is authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.

The Big 12 followed with a unanimous AD and FAR vote Wednesday night, and Thamel got hold of the exact language the conference is using to bar professional athletes from competing in college sports. The ACC spent Wednesday building momentum of its own, with athletic directors meeting and Thamel reporting the league wanted to finish the process within 24 hours — which, per Nakos on Thursday, it did, making it unanimous across all four leagues.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Exact wording of the Big 12’s new rules regarding professional athletes competing in college sports.

None of this is happening in a vacuum. Attorney Ryan Downton, who represents athletes in a Louisiana lawsuit challenging NCAA eligibility rules, called the conferences' moves "cartel-like conduct" and argued the SEC's actions put the NCAA in contempt of multiple existing court orders. A preliminary injunction hearing in that Louisiana case is set for next week, though Nakos noted that date could still shift. The NCAA, for its part, is touting momentum in the courts — Thamel reported the association has now won three straight eligibility appeals, with the NCAA saying it's "encouraged" that appellate courts keep recognizing the harm caused when ineligible athletes are allowed to compete.

The stakes for individual players are real and immediate. Nakos flagged that the SEC's rule would make recent LSU commits Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris ineligible, along with SMU running back TJ Harden, who'd been in contact with SEC programs. Then on Thursday came a wrinkle that shows how tangled this has gotten: former Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding, who sued the NCAA after running out of eligibility and briefly signing with the CFL's Ottawa Redblacks, won a ruling clearing him to return for a fifth season and enter the transfer portal — even as the new conference rules would seemingly bar him from actually landing anywhere in the Power Four.

Pete Nakos

@PeteNakos

With this ruling, former Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding can return for a 5th season and enter the transfer portal. t.co/k2LeFdZbQI

Thamel also flagged that Sankey himself is now a named defendant in a related suit, alongside Kansas City Chiefs players Wesley Bissainthe and Omari Evans, both of whom would currently run afoul of the new conference rules if they tried to return to college ball. It's the clearest sign yet that these bans and the ongoing litigation are on a collision course — and as one skeptic pointed out online, even a favorable court ruling for a player like Fielding might not matter much if schools are the ones facing punishment for using him, not the players themselves.

What happens next probably gets decided in a courtroom, not a conference call. If judges keep siding with players on eligibility while the Power Four keeps threatening schools with penalties for rostering them, college football is headed for a standoff between what's legally allowed and what's conference-approved — and somebody's going to have to blink first.