It’s probably not just blind luck that Lane Kiffin so often finds himself playing the villain – sometimes self-inflicted, sometimes intentional and sometimes a combination of both, and, no matter the method, he always seems to range from leaning into it to downright relishing it.
His history of such moments includes, but is not limited to, the disastrous Oakland Raiders hiring and tenure (Oi, those Davises), creeping backdoor-style out of Knoxville after leaving Tennessee one year into that tenure to return
to USC (Burn, Knoxville, burn.), his subsequent Pat Haden boot-to-ass USC tarmac (office) firing, and being shown the door by leaving Alabama prior to the 2017 Nat’l Championship per mutual agreement with Nick Saban.
Then there were several years (2017-2025) of perceived maturity and settling down at Florida Atlantic and Ole Miss. “Perceived” being the key word before the last eight months of swaggering back into full WWE Kurt Angle heel mode in such a fashion that it boggled the mind. First, he decided to become the first head coach in a BCS or CFP tourney who chose to take a job at another school rather than coaching his current team for a shot at the national title.
And second, and most important for the purposes of this piece, he tried to bring back two players to LSU who were cut from NFL teams in the preseason.
(Quick background – both were undrafted free agents who had gone that route after playing all four seasons of eligibility in four years with no redshirts. They are among a group of former players who were the only ones not allowed a 5th year of eligibility after the new “5 to play 5” rule was passed. It made no sense. Players in their class year who had the good luck to redshirt or medically redshirt get their 5th year. We’d just finished a stretch of athletes eligible in 2020 getting a bonus Covid season. And any currently eligible athletes and even committed 2026 high school athletes GOT THEIR PICK OF THE OLD OR NEW ELIGIBILITY RULES. Only the 2022 athletes who played four straight got hosed out of a 5th year.
I think the NCAA just enjoys legal fees in losing battles, because they will lose this one in full eventually.)
But what it comes down to now, and what fans and conferences (My gawd, SEC – kick LSU out of the conference over this??) are losing their minds over, is not necessarily giving these players their 5th year, but letting back ones who have participated in an NFL training camp and possibly some exhibition games.
And to this I say, “Why not?”
Let me explain with a few bullet points as I believe it becomes fairly obvious that this is a no-brainer well defended as in many college sports arguments – NIL, rev sharing, the portal – with simple logic with those on the side of the “old days” simply shouting out their emotions. This is why the NCAA has had about as much luck in the courts as the 1987-88 Kansas State football squads.
When people express their emotions in court, judges generally tend to hand out contempt of court fines or time in a cell to cool their heels, not decisions in their favor.
WHY IT JUST MAKES SENSE TO LET THESE CLASS OF ‘22 DUDES CUT FROM THE NFL PLAY THEIR 5TH YEAR
So here we go:
- If someone with eligibility remaining under the new rules (even if they have to win it in court) wants to come back and meets the old/new requirements to have remaining eligibility, why shouldn’t they be allowed to?
- Please keep in mind that college football is and has been a pro sport for decades as money was pouring in from ticket sales, merch sales, TV rights and more even if the players weren’t being paid. If you cling to the notion it was still an amateur sport, it was not – even if the scholarship by which method they were being paid was possibly at criminally low wages given the hours put in. And now, with revenue sharing being paid directly to the players by the schools, the narrative that “NFL players” (they were cut) can’t be returning to “amateur” ranks is simply untrue.
- Why is it that the NFL is the only one of the four major sports that basically give you one shot to make a team (or practice squad) and that is effectively it for you if you are cut as they do not own, operate or invest in any developmental leagues. NCAA FCS football is the closest thing they have to a (free) minor league. So I ask again – even allowing for eligibility limits – why shouldn’t some be allowed to drop back down, as in any other sport, in order to improve their stock?
- There’s weird noises being made that it’s somehow unfair and dangerous to allow someone who’s practiced and played on an NFL team for six weeks (or however long they remain with the team) to return to a college team, despite this being normal in any other sport. Let’s get rid of that notion.
- Some say they have the options of UFL, CFL and Arena Leagues to which to go if they want to further develop and try again. Leaving out the fact that Arena and UFL play in the spring and summer, which is far from a developmental situation (the spring/summer season ends and you report to an NFL camp with little to no time for recovery), these leagues are inferior to D1 football.
- I’ll go one further – an FCS all-star team would SMOKE a combined all-star team from these three leagues. Yeah, older guys, I don’t care. Don’t believe me?
- 224 players from college football will be drafted into the NFL next year. Statistics show that 75-80% will make an NFL team or around 168 if we take the low end number. The UFL? Approximately 40-46 per year make it onto rosters or practice squads. The CFL? The search came back none to very few. Arena? Usually zero. I’d feel pretty good about picking from the college pool. Put it this way – Adrian Martinez was the UFL MVP recently – would you rather have him or Tyler Shough slinging it for you in this game?
- As for the danger factor? Both potential LSU players were undrafted free agents, remember? Maybe they improve, maybe they don’t, but does a few weeks in an NFL camp make them categorically better than the 224 guys who will be getting drafted out of college this year. They obviously weren’t bigger, stronger, faster than the 224 who played college ball last season and got drafted instead of them.
- Or than their 2022 classmates who had the good foresight to redshirt or medically redshirt, are playing currently and aren’t any danger to the system at all.
- I will welcome any logical defenses of why just one group of one class was singled out for not getting the 5th year. It just has the feel of that angry cop whose ego “doesn’t like your tone” and starts writing those broken taillight and too far from the curb tickets. The NCAA’s been doing a lot of losing and eating a great deal of crow.
WHY IT DOESN’T REALLY MATTER ONE WAY OR ANOTHER EVEN IF YOU STILL HATE THE IDEA COMPLETELY
- There are approximately 31,000 players in Division 1 college football. Approximately 100 sued and won injunctions for their right to play that 5th year. Many are on rosters but the number is unclear as the NCAA is pushing back against even the non-NFL players in the state courts and with threats of future sanctions…and more court hearings.
- And again – all this over 100 guys out of 31,000 (and we’re just talking football here). That’s 3/10 of 1% of all players.
- If you think that’s a problem which barely exists now, it really approaches non-existent or maybe single digits after this season. Why?
- That Class of ‘22 4-year players are done after this season. The only ones left will be players who decide to leave early for the draft, don’t make a team and then wish to come back. I think five who fit that bill will be considered a boom year for that scenario. Just let ‘em come back and make your life easier.
NOW, THERE HAS TO BE RULES IN PLACE ON HOW IT’S ALLOWED. I’M NOT THAT CRAZY.
- A big complaint is that if you allow a couple of those guys to come back, two hometown li’l Jimmy All-Hearts get cut from the 105 and we can’t have that, because it’s HEARTBREAKING!
- Well, no it’s not. If you want to play big boy D1, make-some-cash football, then you better be ready to be cut like big boys get cut in big-time billion-dollar enterprises…like FBS football. You don’t get to make some dough, but then be shielded from The Turk, because now you’re a fresh-faced college boy who just loves his momma.
- I’m only half kidding – but I do believe these decisions need to be made before fall camp starts. Or how about this?:
- College coaches can absolutely add players cut by NFL teams, BUT! If they intend to do so, they must roll the dice. That is, they must hold empty roster spots and announce how many the day prior to the first fall camp practice.
- They don’t have to have a list of name(s) or anything, just the number of open roster spots they are holding. They can then have up until the final day of NFL cuts to add players into these spots (leaves plenty of time for enrollment). You don’t end up signing anyone? Tough shit – that spot remains unfilled until after your season officially ends.
- I feel that will somewhat discourage the practice or at least discourage trying to sign these guys in large numbers. It also eliminates late cuts to the roster. I poked fun above, but it allows those bottom of the roster players to rest easy they will not be chopped on September 4th or anything.
So there it is. Absolutely, let me know how you feel about this or if it’s even that big a deal to you.
