Notre Dame ‘aligned’ with SEC and B1G’s policies banning pro football players, per report
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
The SEC and Big Ten have banned professional football players from competing in the conference, with the Big 12 mulling a similar policy.
Don’t expect to see them at Notre Dame, either. The university is “adamantly opposed to adding pro players,” according to Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellinger.
“Notre Dame officials have communicated to both the SEC and Big Ten that the school is aligned with the prohibition on signing players who have been part of professional organizations,” Dellinger said.
What remains to be seen is what form a formalized policy would take at Notre Dame, whether it mirrors the B1G’s of banning football players or the SEC’s wider-reaching one touching the NBA, WNBA, and NFL. That said, it may just be semantics at this point.
The player at the center of the college football world right now seems to be Zxavian Harris. He played for Ole Miss for four years, signed a UDFA contract with the New Orleans Saints, and was later waived. Now, he is looking to return to the college ranks after committing to LSU. The SEC’s policy enacted on Tuesday, though, will prevent him from doing so.
With the SEC and B1G aligned and the Big 12 and ACC potentially on the verge of doing so, Notre Dame’s decision isn’t surprising. When the smoke clears, the decisions by the Power 4 conferences and Notre Dame should have a trickle-down effect on the Group of Six as well.
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.
