The NCAA has been getting hit left and right for the last couple of years. And the crux of it remains fixated on the eligibility rules. On one hand, NBA players are allowed a U-turn to college athletics, while others are staring down a dead end. Oklahoma Sooners LB Owen Heinecke is another player caught in such uncertainty.

“I would like nothing more than to have one more year to kind of cement a legacy for myself. It’d be a shame if 15 minutes of lacrosse playing time was the reason that I didn’t have that opportunity,” stated Owen Heinecke.

Owen Heinecke has anchored the Sooners’ defense this past season. Leading the DB room (after KIP Lewis), he has recorded 74 tackles, three sacks, and a forced fumble, earning Second Team All-SEC honors. Naturally, the OU head coach, Brent Venables, wouldn’t want to do away with Owen. But his eligibility concerns have put a damper on those plans.

Owen did not start his collegiate journey with football. Albeit the Gridiron remained a cherished sport, the lack of scholarship offers pushed him towards lacrosse. The Navy and Army offered him a spot, but he eventually headed to Ohio State to pursue lacrosse.

According to the NCAA rules, a student-athlete has a five-year eligibility clock. In which he can play for four seasons. So, when Owen entered the lacrosse box in his freshman year, he had burned his first year of eligibility. Albeit it was for three games, amounting to a mere 15 minutes of playing time, the NCAA rules are set in their ways.

And the four-game redshirt rule? It’s specific to college football. To sum it up, when Owen played lacrosse as a rookie, he had already utilized one year of his eligibility.

However, “his heart was always with football.”

So, after spending one year at Columbus, he headed to the Oklahoma Sooners as a walk-on. In the 2022 season, he did not play. He redshirted, working on his development. From the next season onwards, he appeared in every game.

In the 2023 season, he totalled four tackles, followed by chipping in seven tackles. In the last two seasons, he improved his craft, and the growth was visible. By the 2025 season, he had become a beast on the turf, terrorizing the offenses.

Presently, he hasn’t received the verdict. But as the clock runs out of time, he is faced with a dilemma. To prepare for a return or to gear up for the draft.

Owen Heinecke to the NFL?

Owen Heinecke is working hard to pitch his case for an extra year of eligibility. But he also knows that these rarely end in a fairytale. When the NCAA denied Trinidad Chambliss’ request for a medical redshirt for the 2022 season (due to persistent respiratory issues), he knew his chances were pretty slim. But he is not losing hope.

“I think every case is unique, and I think the NCAA tries to follow like a certain set of rules that they have laid out,” Heinecke told Ikard and Lehman. “Will they see my case differently? I hope so. But, you know, we’ll see.”

Right now, he is prepping for the Senior Bowl and said, “I gotta be full head of steam on the NFL stuff.”

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He is currently training in Dallas, and it remains to be seen if his NFL dreams stay alive. Yet, if his eligibility is denied, he would make the leap from college football to the pros.