The ongoing back-and-forth movement between the college ranks and the NFL will not feature a path back to professional football for the upcoming season.
According to multiple reports, NFL franchises will be notified on Wednesday that any player who chooses to return to the collegiate level will be ineligible to come back to the NFL during the 2026 season.
Additionally, players who make the jump from the NFL back to college will not be allowed to re-enter the league’s draft. Instead, they will become free agents in 2027.
Any implementation of this policy would likely necessitate an adjustment, or at minimum an official clarification, to the current Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Interestingly, the existing CBA already contains a provision that could come into play once the NCAA’s new five-year eligibility rule takes effect in 2027. Should a team select a player in the draft who then opts to return to college, that organization will retain the player’s rights at the original draft slot for the year their college eligibility concludes.
This scenario was considered last year when Shedeur Sanders slipped past the first four rounds of the draft. Moving forward, the strategy could become more common, particularly if a prospect with a fifth year of eligibility available goes earlier than desired and seeks to capitalize on another year of NIL earnings before launching an NFL career.
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.jpeg?w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "‘He was tested, went too defensive too early’ – Pujara questions Shubman Gill’s captaincy on Day 4 of Colombo Test")
