Opt out return process per Albert Breer
Apologies if this has been covered.
Per Sports Illustrated's Albert Breer
Returning to school won’t be tough for guys who opted out but didn’t sign with agents (Ohio State’s Shaun Wade and Wyatt Davis are in that category, as is Purdue WR Rondale Moore). It’s trickier for those who did. Those guys, I’m told, will have to terminate their on-paper relationship with the agents, pay back any benefits they received, then apply for reinstatement without a guarantee it’ll be granted (though common sense would say the NCAA would almost have to cut these kids some breaks).
There’s also the possibility that schools will suspend kids for taking benefits to try to get ahead of any sort NCAA sanctions. Which is pretty wild and says a lot about what the NCAA finds important.
https://www.si.com/nfl/2020/09/21/las-vegas-raiders-making-money-rodgers-saquon
September 21st, 2020 at 6:27 PM ^
I’m out. Crashed my vet the day after taking my agent cash advance.
September 21st, 2020 at 7:54 PM ^
Why for? Bad neutering?
September 21st, 2020 at 6:28 PM ^
I think this means the entire Ohio State is ineligible since they all take benefits. That's my interpretation.
September 21st, 2020 at 8:47 PM ^
"(T)hough common sense would say the NCAA would almost have to cut these kids some breaks." When did the words Common Sense and NCAA ever belong in a sentence together? So, OSU good, MAC School kid gets book thrown at him.
September 21st, 2020 at 10:25 PM ^
The NCAA has no common sense.
September 22nd, 2020 at 1:40 AM ^
I get it, but this just gets old after 30 years. We were saying this when Michigan kicked their ass too. Truth be told, it takes talent and a little bit of luck to be where they are, if we beat them 4 of the last 5 years, our average recruit would be a 95 also, but we didn’t.
September 22nd, 2020 at 9:36 AM ^
When Michigan kicked their ass too? The last time we put up 50+ points was 1946. They have done it 2 years in a row. The last 6 years they have averaged 43 points.
I will settle for a team that just doesn't embarrassed.
September 22nd, 2020 at 12:09 PM ^
Yeah, Michigan kicked their asses in the 80’s and 90’s lol.
September 21st, 2020 at 6:30 PM ^
The NCAA will not exist for college football in a few years, if that.
September 21st, 2020 at 6:39 PM ^
Or it'll turn into basketball, with The Rock's XFL being the equivalent of the G-League for the NFL, and highly rated players go there until draft eligible and take a small payday instead of playing for free at a college. Which I think would favor Michigan to some degree.
September 21st, 2020 at 6:53 PM ^
By free you mea All expenses paid for to a college/university of your choosing including room and board, books and a stipend. Also a platform to showcase your talent/marketable skills , tv appearances etc. I don’t know many high school kids that the NFL is beating down the door to sign, but maybe they are out there. I’m all for name and likeness and all that but to say the players aren’t compensated is kind of a bold face lie, or maybe hyperbolic rhetoric on your part.
September 21st, 2020 at 7:07 PM ^
I agree that for myself, there would be extreme value to having a free ride to college. For others, they perceive it as no value whatsoever. There will be options for both types of people if an NFL "G League" option is formed. It also wouldn't have to be High School kids. You could go to college, have a crazy freshman year, then make a couple hundred grand or whatever to play two years in the XFL or wherever, until you are draft eligible.
And then there's the old argument that you could take several years of college with that money if things don't work out. But as we see with Last Chance U, some guys just want to play football and give zero shits about school.
September 21st, 2020 at 7:49 PM ^
People make bad decisions all the time if someone doesn’t want to invest in themselves educationally and would rather “ swing for the fences” that they are an NFL caliber athlete good for them, not something I’d personally do in that situation.
September 21st, 2020 at 10:32 PM ^
It depends on the infrastructure an NFL g-league could build. Currently being developed in a major college football program led by a Jim Harbaugh or Nick Saban will develop a player far better than a g-league franchise. From the weight room to the nutritionist, to the position coaching, to the medical support it’s hard to compete.
Maybe that changes over time, but that is a huge investment to build up unless there is a free cash flow from the NFL. I doubt the NFL owners will want to siphon those profits off when college will do it for free for them. In the NFL the average term of your investment is about three years. That’s a pretty short return time to build an additional infrastructure just to help the kids who don’t want to play school.
September 22nd, 2020 at 11:34 AM ^
On your Last Chance U point... as a society we need to get back to saying, "this is ok!". Not everyone should have to go to school. Higher education should be that... There should be no shame in not receiving a higher education, and those that do get one shouldn't hold it in higher regards to those that do not have it.
Master and Apprentice are lost in this country, perhaps this world, and I would argue the ability to be master of anything that provides to society, and supports oneself should be held in higher regard than about 50% of all of the undergrad degrees we give away these days to those with the money to pay for them. Lets face it, a ton of kids leave school with an "education" and a degree but almost no direction to take it in and piles upon piles of debt and are left behind because of it.
A line from a Rush song always stood out to me on this discussion and I have literally 0 idea if it's even intended to be relevant, but its my interpretation "we need someone to talk to, and someone to sleep the floors" society needs both and that's OK. But we only emphasize the money and with it the high paying job, there's no one left that wants to sweep the floors because we demonized it.
September 21st, 2020 at 9:43 PM ^
What if the things YOU hold in high regard (in this instance a University of Michigan education), aren't found to be an acceptable substitute for actual remuneration by the work force?
Like let's say you were offering coal miners the opportunity to get a free college education instead of pay - in fact, unless LNI becomes a reality in the very near future, they are forbidden from earning any money!
Would you say coal miners would say that was a great deal for them & their families?
September 22nd, 2020 at 8:52 AM ^
What if you gave people a choice: follow the college sports path (including opportunity to get a degree), or follow whatever other path (semi-pro, rec league, whatever) they wanted? The comparison to coal mining is absurd; no one forces potential coal miners to become coal miners, just as no one forces high school athletes to become college athletes.
If college sports with its compensations isn't the best deal available to potential players, they should chose the alternative that is best. Ditto for coal miners.
September 22nd, 2020 at 10:03 AM ^
Now that is absurd! And ignorant of the facts of the situation.
At this point there are no alternatives for the HS football player wanting to play professionally!
They are blocked from getting paid until 3 years after their HS class graduates. Unless there's a league paying 18-19 year old football players you know of?
Baseball has no such rule, so those athletes can bypass college should they so choose. I don't believe they're serving themselves well if they do, but that's their choice.
At no point did I suggest anyone was forced into any kind of work - not since we defeated the Confederacy and abolished slavery anyway!
September 22nd, 2020 at 5:00 PM ^
bald-faced lie would be preferable
you aren't technically wrong but it is an OCD thing for me
September 21st, 2020 at 9:33 PM ^
It would only benefit Michigan if that "small payday" you theorize the Rock will pay these players is comparable to the amount the perennial CFP teams already pay the top players.
I don't feel like a "small payday" is gonna get that done! ?♂️
September 21st, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
It exists for FCS and the lower divisions. I do think there will be an eventual breaking point where the NCAA will have to share the wealth with players or NFL will help create a viable minor league alternative like NBA has with GLeague
September 21st, 2020 at 7:45 PM ^
The g league is viable? When’s the last time you watched the Maine red claws?
September 21st, 2020 at 7:52 PM ^
I mean, Isaiah Todd chose it over Michigan.
September 21st, 2020 at 9:19 PM ^
USFL, World league, XFL, NFL Europe, Arena League, AAF, XFL redux all tried already and didn’t work clearly. Even your G League was precursed by the CBA. That leagues time will come.
September 21st, 2020 at 9:48 PM ^
Isaiah Todd could have chosen a school that pays as much or more than the G League.
The fact he wasn't interested in that type of under the table deal shows he has the character to have been a true Michigan Man!
September 21st, 2020 at 6:48 PM ^
I do t see players being suspended. If the NCAA grants them permission to play there is no reason for a school to take any action. I feel of a player wants back in with everything that has happened they will be allowed to return
September 21st, 2020 at 6:54 PM ^
Not a lot of confidence in SI reporting, but if this is true its total crap. The B1G office said the decision was final and would not be revisited and that the season was cancelled. What the hell did they expect these kids to do sit on their nuts and not prepare for the league? This includes Ambry and Nico. The idiocy at "The" office in Chicago is stunning.
September 21st, 2020 at 7:37 PM ^
The Big Ten changed its mind. Let the players change theirs.
September 21st, 2020 at 8:05 PM ^
Common sense and NCAA in the same sentence? It really is 2020.
September 22nd, 2020 at 8:12 AM ^
You can say that again.
September 22nd, 2020 at 8:25 AM ^
And so he did!
September 21st, 2020 at 8:05 PM ^
Common sense and NCAA in the same sentence? It really is 2020.
September 22nd, 2020 at 8:24 AM ^
Twice as nice.
September 21st, 2020 at 8:31 PM ^
Now that the season is back on, Ambry and Nico have every reason to want to play.
Because they made their decision at a time when the decision not to have a season was "final", the NCAA should let them.
September 21st, 2020 at 10:08 PM ^
Nico made his decision to leave the team and focus on the draft after the B10 voted to begin the season in October. Little chance he'll change his mind I'd think.
Ambry's family has said he won't be returning to Michigan. They've taken money from his agent, he's moving to one of those facilities where prospects train for the combine.
Sorry to not have more optimistic news
September 22nd, 2020 at 9:46 AM ^
We don't really know if Nico made his decision after the B10 voted to reopen the season. He may have signed with his agent in September and just not announced it until the B10 changed its mind.
September 22nd, 2020 at 10:08 AM ^
Well he was still participating in team activities until then. He didn't clear out his locker until after the announcement.
But for the intents & purposes of the post I was replying to, regarding the possibility of Nico & Ambry returning, your theory ends up with the same result. Unlikely to return, unfortunately ?
September 22nd, 2020 at 3:04 AM ^
So Mayfield just needs to tell his agent “I’ll be back in January”.
IIRC Sam said he hadn’t taken any benefits from the agent yet.
Ambry has, however.
September 22nd, 2020 at 6:19 AM ^
Albert Breer is the OSU mouthpiece who annually filed a "Harbaugh to the NFL" story.