Loopholes

 Well. I guess that solves THAT.

Maybe.

For now.

Because ...

Because, listen, loopholes are slippery things, and sneaky, and most of all stubborn. So even though the SEC and Big Ten walked away this week brushing their hands and saying, "So much for another pro football or basketball player sneaking back into OUR game," the Blob's sense is they're either charmingly naive or willfully oblivious.

This after both conferences unanimously pushed through rules banning athletes who've been on an NFL or NBA roster from returning to Northern Tech State to take advantage of the fifth year of eligibility just granted them by the courts. What sparked this was a former Ole Miss tight end named Dae'Quan Wright, who was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Cleveland Browns, dressed for at least one preseason game and then was cut on Monday.

After which he announced he was entering the transfer portal to suit up for LSU as a fifth-year eligible.

"Wait, can he do that?" you're saying now.

Apparently so.

Until, that is, the SEC said, uh-uh, no way, this is a bridge too far even for us. You can't be on an NFL roster one day and then come back to a college roster the next. It would be like a kid who gets cut from his college team deciding to go back and play another year of high school football.

The problem, of course, is it's not like that at all.

The problem is football (and basketball) as they're presently constituted in big-boy conferences like the SEC and Big Ten are every bit as professional as the NFL or NBA. The dynamic is the same: Schools indirectly pay kids to play through NIL deals, and the deals are essentially the same sort of free-agent contracts Dae'Quan Wright signed with the Eagles and Browns. That's because the kids are themselves free agents thanks to the unregulated transfer portal, chasing dollars just like an NFL or NBA free agent.

And so ...

And so, Dae'Quan Wright going from the Browns to LSU isn't a whole lot different than when he went from Virginia Tech to Ole Miss. Or an MLB player being sent down from the big club to its Double-A affiliate.

Which I imagine is going to be the argument when players like Wright inevitably take the SEC and Big Ten to court to challenge their hastily drawn-up new rules. You can't function as professional or quasi-professional entities for decades and then turn around and go all sis-boom-bah on everyone, the suits will argue. Can't sign mega TV and equipment deals, pay your coaches like CEOs and then say, "Wait, we're not the pros! We're about academics and student-athletes and education, not ... you know, not ..."

My perhaps un-bold prediction is the judge won't buy those groceries for a second. He (or she) will say, essentially, "Boys, you made this bed. Now you gotta sleep in it."

And that stubborn loophole everyone thought was closed will come bursting back into the room like Mr. Kool-Aid bursting through the wall in the old commercial.

"Oh, YEAH!" Mr. Loophole will cry.

Oh, no.