Power conferences are moving closer to banning former NFL players from playing within their membership across 64 schools.
And the Big Ten is ready to suspend coaches who violate the new ban.
On Tuesday, the Big Ten became the first conference to levy significant penalties when its athletic directors and faculty athletics representatives unanimously approved a ban on former NFL players pursuing a fifth year of eligibility within their league.
Coaches will face a suspension for 50% of their team's remaining games, and the school will also be fined for violating the new policy, sources tell CBS Sports.
SEC athletic directors will meet Tuesday for a pre-scheduled session over the next two days at the conference's headquarters in Birmingham. It's not yet clear whether a similar ban will gain unanimous approval, given that LSU is already flirting with adding two former NFL players to the roster.
The ACC and Big 12 are discussing similar bans for NFL players this week, sources told CBS Sports.
These developments come amid a recent push by former college players seeking another opportunity through the transfer portal, set off by court rulings allowing players seeking a fifth year of eligibility to return to college football.
The Big Ten made it clear that its ban includes players who signed a professional contract, were on a professional roster, or declared for the NFL Draft without withdrawing their names.
Previously, under the Big Ten's Sportsmanship Policy, standard disciplinary measures gave the Big Ten's commissioner the leeway to levy immediate five-figure fines or hand down suspensions on his own authority, while major escalations -- including extended sideline bans or institutional sanctions -- required only the executive committee's rubber stamp.
Such violations will be dealt with swiftly and with tangible punishment. At least, that's the belief. Lawsuits from players -- and potentially schools -- are sure to follow if programs violate the policy to gain a competitive advantage, though that appears unlikely within the Big Ten after unanimous approval by the 18 schools.
"The lawsuits are circumventing the NCAA, but now when the league says you can't do it, now you're dealing with problems with your conference," a power conference head coach told CBS Sports.
Several head coaches told CBS Sports they would like to see further punishment, including game forfeitures, if teams play a former professional athlete.
"This is going to be a much smaller issue now (if all the conferences adopt these same rules)," a power conference head coach said. "... And I'd love for all this shit to get shut down. It's stupid."
The SEC released a statement Tuesday night urging Congress to pass the Protect College Sports Act in September to better protect itself from such developments. Meanwhile, the league, along with other power conferences, are moving toward individual conference-wide policies.
The move also potentially signals the first step toward the long-gestating proposals within the Big Ten and SEC to shoulder enforcement policies under a new rules-and-enforcement model separate from the NCAA. The conferences have been preparing self-governance models in case legislation fails to become law later this year.
LSU has been at the center of the recent controversy after Lane Kiffin has pursued two former NFL players -- defensive tackle ZXavian Harris and former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae'Quan Harris.
LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry has been supportive of Kiffin's plan, though it remains to be seen whether he will vote with his SEC colleagues this week to ban those players from participating in the SEC.
"There are a lot of parts of this I don't like," Kiffin said Tuesday on The Pat McAfee Show. "I don't think professionals should come back to college sports and college football. But in this instance, these are not players who have gone on to play seasons professionally or randomly filed an injunction. This is part of a specific class that was ruled wrong by the NCAA that was supposed to be [five years to play five seasons]."
The NCAA approved a measure allowing players to play up to five seasons within a five-year span, but only for players in the class of 2023 or later. That decision led to former players from the class of 2022 who had exhausted their four years of eligibility to file lawsuits seeking temporary injunctions for a fifth season. Some were successful, leading many players to rejoin rosters across the country -- though LSU opted to seek players who instead landed on NFL rosters.
