{"id":864340,"date":"2026-08-20T00:08:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/864340\/"},"modified":"2026-08-20T00:08:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-20T00:08:26","slug":"louisiana-court-order-gives-players-signed-by-nfl-teams-a-shot-at-returning-to-college-sports-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/864340\/","title":{"rendered":"Louisiana court order gives players signed by NFL teams a shot at returning to college sports \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several athletes, including some who signed contracts with NFL teams, were granted a temporary restraining order by a Louisiana court that would make them eligible to return to college athletics, ESPN reported Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Former Oregon State running back Anthony Hankerson (Seattle Seahawks), former Florida and LSU pass rusher Jack Pyburn (Tampa Bay Buccaneers) and ex-Mississippi starters Dae\u2019Quan Wright (Cleveland Browns) and Wydett Williams (Arizona Cardinals) are on NFL rosters and were part of the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

NFL teams are deep into training camp, and rosters have to be cut to 53 players by Aug. 30. Many who don\u2019t make those clubs could look for a fallback plan in college football, barring a successful appeal by the NCAA.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"FILE
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – Tennessee runs onto the field before an NCAA college football game against Georgia, Sept. 13, 2025, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo\/George Walker IV, File)<\/p>\n

According to ESPN, 16 football players were part of the lawsuit that included 33 athletes across several sports who are seeking a fifth year of eligibility.<\/p>\n

The NCAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The governing body for collegiate sports has been dealt a series of legal setbacks regarding its eligibility rules.<\/p>\n

On July 31, a federal court in Denver ruled that all high school class of 2022 athletes who exhausted their fourth season of college eligibility this spring are eligible for a fifth season this academic year.<\/p>\n

That decision came a little more than a month after the NCAA passed a rule that gives athletes five years to complete five seasons of competition, starting with those who enroll in the fall of 2027. The Colorado ruling eliminated the waiting period.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

\n Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here, visit the Top 25 here and see AP\u2019s full college football coverage here<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several athletes, including some who signed contracts with NFL teams, were granted a temporary restraining order by a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":864341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-864340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=864340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/864340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/864341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=864340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=864340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=864340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}