Mountain West becomes latest conference to ban professional football players
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
With each of the nation’s Power 4 conferences releasing policies banning professional athletes from playing football, it was a matter of time before a Group of Six conference did the same. That’s exactly what happened on Thursday as the Mountain West joined the P4 in announcing prohibitions against professional football players.
Per a statement released by the MW, the policy passed by an unanimous vote.
Like the Big Ten, the policy only applies to football. It’s not as wide-ranging as the Big 12, which bans professional players from any sport sponsored by the conference. It also doesn’t go as far as the SEC and ACC, which policy applies to the NBA, WNBA, NFL, and other professional football leagues. But the language prohibiting anyone who has participated in a “professional sports league draft” from playing football —not just anyone who has participated in the NFL’s draft or that of another pro football league — almost certainly is there to prevent any loopholes.
With the MW’s policy in place, it’s only a matter of time before other Group of 6 leagues — the American, Conference USA, MAC, Pac-12, Sun Belt — follow suit.
The last few weeks have been intense across the college sports landscape. It was touched off by the NCAA’s 5-for-5 rule that originally wouldn’t apply retroactively to Class of 2022 student-athletes. That portion of the ruling has been challenged in courts.
On top of that, some players who had gone undrafted in the NBA and NFL, some signing either Exhibit 10 (NBA) or UDFA (NFL) contracts, had sought fifth years, touching off an entire wave of controversy.
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
