The idea of an NFL player getting cut and simply crawling back to college used to sound ridiculous. Now, it is becoming a real possibility, and Greg Sankey wants that door slammed shut. The SEC commissioner is backing the NCAA’s hard line that once a player signs a professional contract, his college career should be over. No second chance, no transfer portal escape hatch, and no using college football as a fallback when the NFL does not work out.

As ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported, Greg Sankey made his position clear in an affidavit filed last week in East Baton Rouge Parish. He believes letting former pros back into college sports is unfair to athletes who stayed in the system and never made the jump. It is the same fight he picked earlier this year in the Charles Bediako case.

“Permitting former professional athletes to return to competition creates a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness for current student-athletes who have not pursued a professional sports career but instead have maintained their commitment to the collegiate athletics model,” he wrote.

Sankey thinks the unfairness is obvious. Former pros get to train full time, use professional resources, and focus on their sport without the same academic demands college athletes face. Letting them come back means they return with an edge over players who never left.

“Inconsistent application of the NCAA eligibility rules challenged in this case, through court rulings or otherwise, fuels disruption in college sports,” Sankey wrote in that February affidavit.

And that disruption is no longer theoretical. The same eligibility fight is now playing out at LSU, where former St. John’s basketball star R.J. Luis is trying to return to college after signing professional contracts.

Luis was the 2024-25 Big East Player of the Year before leaving school for the 2025 NBA Draft. He went undrafted. Then came the professional career. Luis signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz and was later traded to the Boston Celtics.

He appeared in three preseason games for Boston, totaling eight minutes, but never played in an NBA or G League regular-season game. An injury eventually ended that opportunity.

Now he wants another shot at college basketball. And Greg Sankey does not think that door should open. The LSU connection makes the situation especially awkward.

Greg Sankey is fighting to preserve an NCAA eligibility rule while an SEC school is backing the player trying to get around it. Pete Thamel reported that the commissioner filed the latest affidavit in the case with Luis scheduled for a preliminary injunction hearing Aug. 24.

Greg Sankey is not picking on Luis. He fought the same battle in February, when former Alabama center Charles Bediako tried to return after playing in the G League. Bediako actually made it into five SEC games before the NCAA shut the door, and a judge later backed the NCAA.

Now the same fight has spilled into football, where the stakes are even messier.

Greg Sankey wants a clear line between college and the pros

A Louisiana judge has also given several players from the 2022 recruiting class a shot at another college season. Some of those players are not simply former college athletes sitting at home. They are trying to make NFL rosters right now. Former Ole Miss TE Dae’Quan Wright is with the Cleveland Browns. Now, he’s the first to enter the transfer portal after taking advantage of the ruling.

Wright was one of 16 athletes given another year, and ESPN reported that seven of the football players had entered the portal shortly afterward. It’s a headache. A player can now be in an NFL training camp one week and looking for a college destination the next. The Louisiana case has 32 athletes from different sports caught up in it. 

That is where Louisiana goes further than Colorado. The Colorado ruling gave 2022 recruits another year, but it did not erase the NCAA rule that blocks players who signed professional contracts from coming back. The Louisiana order temporarily does. For the athletes named in the case, the NCAA cannot use that rule to keep them out. That is how a player can be on an NFL roster in August and still have a legal path back to college before kickoff.

College staffs immediately saw where this could lead. CBS Sports reported that personnel officials expect the ruling to “open the floodgates” for more lawsuits, especially from undrafted rookies who think they are about to get cut. Instead of taking an NFL release and moving on, a player could challenge the NCAA, enter the portal, and shop himself back to college.

Some programs are not even pretending they hate the idea. One Big 12 general manager told CBS Sports, “We need a player or two. Saturate the market, baby.” If an experienced player with NFL camp reps suddenly becomes available in late August, coaches chasing a playoff spot are going to look.

Jack Pyburn makes the whole thing look even stranger. He is not sitting at home after an NFL dream died. He is still fighting for a spot with Tampa Bay and had two sacks in his preseason debut. At the same time, he is part of the lawsuit preserving a route back to college. Some around the sport already see that option as possible leverage against NFL teams, especially when the choice comes down to a practice-squad spot or another college season.

That is exactly the kind of blurred line Sankey wants to prevent. College sports, in his view, were never supposed to become somewhere players could return after testing the professional market.

“These rules are grounded in the principle that athletics are an integral part of the academic experience,” he wrote.

And that is where Sankey has drawn his line. Going pro is supposed to mean leaving college competition behind. The courts may decide otherwise, but he does not want the NFL to become a trial run with college football waiting as the backup option.