Should College Football Players Be Allowed To Leave For The NFL Any Time They Want?

Jim Harbaugh says and does a lot of goofy things, but the latest idea floated by the Michigan head coach this past week actually makes some sense – certainly more than most of his game plans against Ohio State.

In a letter directed to selected media outlets Harbaugh proposed allowing college football players to leave for the NFL at any time during their careers. Current rules require college players to be three years removed from high school before applying for the NFL Draft.

Let’s make this clear from the outset: There are far more negatives than positives to Harbaugh’s proposal for college players leaving early. According to statistics, one-third of the players who apply for early entry to the NFL (and NBA) go undrafted. The NFL has also released statistics that say players with college degrees earn 20 to 30 percent more during their careers and that 50 percent of players with college degrees have longer careers (the belief being they have allowed themselves to mature physically during their college days).

But empowering college athletes is a movement gaining momentum every day. Basketball players can leave the college ranks at any time. That hasn’t killed the game. Why not college football players as well?

Times change. Remember the outrage decades ago when freshmen were finally allowed to be eligible? College sports survived. Remember when a fifth year of eligibility was a long, detailed process? Now players routinely get sixth years, graduate transfers are commonplace and the transfer portal – a term that didn’t even exist five years ago – is brimming with players that college football coaches can cherry pick from.

Under Harbaugh’s proposal players would be allowed to return to college if they go undrafted and do not take money from an agent. That seems to make plenty of sense since the new NIL plans would allow college athletes to sign with an agent – but not for the purpose of turning pro or signing with an NFL team.

As with college basketball players declaring early, plenty of college football players will get lost in the system, wash out, end up as busts and have nothing (though in basketball there are other money-making opportunities besides the NBA – i.e. Europe; that isn’t the case with football). But isn’t that a player’s choice to make?

One more statistics to consider: According to the NFL the average pro career is 3.3 years. So there is precious little time to waste if the NFL is the goal. Some players won’t be ready physically, of course. But plenty of skill players, specifically running backs – who have the shortest average career span of all NFL positions – will be.

Don’t expect the NFL to embrace the idea. The league wants physically mature players. It also wants players it can have plenty of film on, players it can scout, evaluate and test exhaustively. A player leaving after his freshman or sophomore year means fewer opportunities to do that.

With NIL money-making ability about to come into play, maybe fewer college football players will even want to turn pro early since money will be less of an issue going forward. But that should be their choice. Times change. So do loyalties and the way players have now taken control of their college careers. Just look at the transfer portal.

So kudos to Harbaugh for this idea. Now he just has to figure out a way to beat Ohio State.