College Football Chaos: NFL Players Returning to School

Another week, another earth-shaking lawsuit for college football. Nineteen days after a judge in Colorado issued a sweeping temporary restraining order that allowed all Class of 2022 athletes to return to school for a fifth year, a judge in Louisiana issued an order Wednesday that now allows double-digit football players to return to the sport in 2026 with an added caveat: The NCAA can’t enforce its rules that prevent players who signed professional contracts from returning to college.

The ruling is limited in scope and only applies to the players in the lawsuit, but it still set off a bomb in college football front offices as teams now scramble to deal with the impact. Front office staffers are asking questions about whether they should go after one of the players who’s now eligible, or could one of their former players, say one cut by an NFL team, go sue to return?