Every year, some of the underclassmen who roll the dice on entering the draft end up going undrafted and, pending an opportunity to grab a spot at the bottom of the roster and climb from 90 to 53, out of luck. Arkansas coach Bret Bielema wants to give undrafted underclassmen another alternative.
Via Chase Goodbread of NFL.com, Bielema wants the NCAA to let underclassmen who were undrafted return to school.
“I haven’t touched base with [Auburn coach] Gus [Malzahn] yet, but Gus had two that didn’t get drafted. Dan [Mullen] had a couple at Mississippi State. Ohio State had a couple as well,” Bielema told SportsTalk with Bo Mattingly. “Those coaches, I’m reaching out to them and trying to put together some collective thoughts on how to approach it. Now, some kids maybe had to move on for academic reasons or personal reasons. . . . But if you have a guy like Denver [Kirkland] who’s on progression to graduate, is doing the right things and just needs another year. . . .”
Bielema has a point; if a player never becomes a professional athlete, why shouldn’t he be allowed to return? But the idea raises questions. Would the players be allowed to hire agents? How would their withdrawal from school to prepare for the draft be treated? As a sabbatical?
Here’s the bigger problem: With reduced risk of being unwanted by the NFL and being unable to go back to college football, more underclassmen will declare for the draft. Even if many return, they will have missed the spring practice session.
A good idea quickly becomes impractical primarily because of the current structure of college football. If/when (when) college football is forced to treat college football players as employees, it will make a lot more sense. The players will be paid -- and they will have contracts of three, four, or five years in length with the universities.
When those contracts expire or otherwise terminate, they’ll be able to leave for the NFL. Then, if they’re not drafted and if they still have time under their maximum eligibility of four years as players, they can sign another contract for whatever time they have left at the college level.