College football may be fully underway, but a dark cloud hovers over the landscape amid the controversy involving players who got professional experience trying to get back into the ranks with some of the best programs in the country, namely Lane Kiffin’s LSU Tigers program.
The latest from the SEC was an amended complaint filed on Tuesday morning in an Alabama federal court, which indicated the conference wishes to take some serious action against LSU after commissioner Greg Sankey stood in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week to argue the school, Lane Kiffin and the athletic department staffers were preventing the use of First Amendment rights to govern the conference.
All of this to say college athletics has reached a point where former NFL and Maryland Terrapins linebacker Shawne Merriman can’t believe his eyes.
“I think it’s pretty ridiculous,” he told OutKick about athletes returning to college to get their fifth year of eligibility despite going pro just months ago. “Look, I’ve met Lane Kiffin plenty of times. I think he’s great. I got no problem for him wanting to win by putting whoever he can on the roster and making the situation better.
“But there have to be guardrails, because it won’t stop here if you don’t stop it now. That’s the issue.”
Merriman added that college athletics has “always been pure,” and even with name, image and likeness (NIL) deals becoming a key component of why these athletes are willing to stay, or even return, to Division I sports, he believes there was some decorum everyone could agree on.
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Now, it’s a free-for-all, with athletes jumping through the transfer portal chasing the next biggest check from colleges and universities to play for them. And with the NCAA ruling that college athletes have five years to use five seasons of eligibility, players like tight end Dae’Quan Wright, who played four years of college football before going undrafted and getting cut by the Cleveland Browns, are trying to return to play their fifth year in college.
“There has to be some guardrails with the transferring,” Merriman added. “Guys being able to take NIL money, then getting up to leave and go to another program. Now, it’s just kind of the tipping point where a former professional athlete can go back into college. It’s just too much. If they don’t stop it now, it’s never going to stop.”
Amid the college debacle, the NFL sent a memo to its clubs reminding them that players who return to college to play wouldn’t be eligible to be signed during the season. Furthermore, those players are no longer eligible for an NFL Draft, meaning they would have to join an NFL team at some point in a future season as a free agent.
But if that player does end up in a locker room, how would the rest of the team react knowing what happened? Will there be some distain from teammates?
“I think it’s going to be a silent yes,” Merriman responded when posed the same question. “I don’t think a lot of guys will be vocal to it. I even think the NFL is going to have a silence behind it but have a problem with it. There’s been plenty of guys through the past few decades or so that just didn’t cut it, right? For whatever reason, they didn’t make the roster. Maybe they got injured, maybe the coaching staff saw they didn’t line up with their scheme. Plenty of reasons, so why do you get an opportunity to go back and do something else and return?
“Look, I don’t think the return will be taken the right way trying to get back into an NFL locker room because, at that point, all kinds of things will be questioned — Integrity, motive, what kind of guy this is. I’m not going to say that will be the pinpoint conversations, but I think there will be a lot of silence behind closed doors with people having a problem with it.”
What plays out in the courtroom remains to be seen, but as a team like LSU continues its pursuit of a national championship, Merriman knows this controversy can pose a threat to focus.
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“It’s a distraction. There’s a high-risk, low reward to get a couple of guys go out and go play,” he said. “What about the rest of the team that’s got to answer questions? Instead of talking about the game, they’re talking about this. So, I just think that the risk is just too high, and the reward is too low to fight this battle, especially now with the SEC and committee stepping in as a whole.”
Merriman is also focused on the college landscape considering his son, Justin Merriman, is on a path to Division I football in his own right. Justin is one of the top quarterback prospects for the 2029 class, a 6-foot-3-and-a-half quarterback for St. Frances Academy (Baltimore, Maryland), the no. 2-ranked high school program in the country by MaxPreps.
The elder Merriman said he’s grateful to watch his son at this stage of his football career, where he can offer guidance and direction in a world completely different from when he was on his way to playing for Maryland before becoming a first-round NFL Draft pick by the San Diego Chargers.
“He makes all his own decisions, but to be that resource for him and let him know some of this guidance and which directions to take has been really cool for me,” Merriman said.
Justin and St. Frances Academy will be taking on IMG Academy later this season, and it’s not just a clash between two of the top teams in the country, but the latest chapter of a bitter rivalry for these two programs. They kick off on Nov. 13 at St. Frances, which Merriman said is likely to be the most-watched high school football game in the country this season.
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