A group of former college athletes, some who had signed with NFL teams this summer, have now been given the green light to return to college after being granted a restraining order by a Louisiana judge.
According to ESPN, Ole Miss starters Dae'Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris and Wydett Williams are among the list of 30 athletes, from a variety of sports, who filed a lawsuit agains the NCAA in a Louisiana court on Wednesday.
Wright, Williams, as well as former Oregon State running back Anthony Hankerson, are all listed on NFL rosters for the Browns, Cardinals and Seahawks, respectively.
Those players have expressed an interest in being released from their NFL contracts. Should they be released, they would be Sept. 1, they would be allowed to return to a college roster under the restraining order.
"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," NCAA senior vice president of external affairs Tim Buckley 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."
The latest lawsuit is one of dozens filed across the country by athletes seeking to play a fifth season of college sports. ESPN reports that a total of 100 athletes are currently suing the NCAA to return to college for one more season.
The NCAA changed its eligibility rules in June to allow athletes to play for five seasons within a five-year window, which begins when they enrolling college or in the academic year following their 19th birthday.
The previous eligibility rules allowed players to compete for four seasons during a five-year window without any specific age restriction.The D-I Board of Directors opted not to include outgoing seniors who player four years in college even though they would have been eligible for a fifth season under the new rules. NCAA officials said they did not want a sudden influx of returning fifth-year players to take roster spots from incoming freshmen, many of whom had already signed on to play for their teams by the time the rule was changed.
SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said allowing athletes who have signed professional contracts back into college sports "fuels disruption" and should not be allowed, according to an affidavit filed in a Louisiana courthouse last week.
Sankey asked Judge Ronald Johnson in East Baton Rouge Parish court to uphold NCAA rules that prevent athletes from returning, saying the decision is "essential to the integrity of college sports." He wrote that allowing pros back into NCAA competition would undermine the "fundamental principles" of college sports and unfairly harm high school students looking to join a college team as well as other teams that have followed the existing rules.
"These rules are grounded in the principle that athletics are an integral part of the academic experience," Sankey wrote. "The rules align the time permitted for college athletics with the pursuit of an undergraduate education and further the important purpose of preserving opportunities for future student-athletes to participate in college sports."
