Just when you thought the transfer portal couldn’t get any crazier, college football may be about to cross another line that once seemed unthinkable.
An NFL player is on the verge of returning to college football.
And, naturally, he’s headed to the SEC.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported Sunday that the Cleveland Browns are waiving tight end Dae’Quan Wright and, assuming he clears NFL waivers, Wright has an agreement in place to play for LSU during the 2026 season.
Wright would become the first known player to potentially go from an NFL roster back to playing college football.
Welcome to college football in 2026.
Wright went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft before signing with the Philadelphia Eagles. Cleveland later claimed him off waivers, but Wright also became the first active NFL player to enter the college football transfer portal earlier this week.
That became possible because Wright was among a group of former college athletes who received temporary legal relief in Louisiana in their fight against the NCAA over eligibility rules.
Now, instead of fighting for an NFL roster spot, Wright could end up playing for Lane Kiffin at LSU.
For the Big 12, Big Ten, ACC and everyone else trying to keep up with the SEC, this is worth watching closely.
College football’s talent-acquisition model has already been completely transformed by NIL, revenue sharing and the transfer portal. Programs aren’t simply recruiting high school players anymore. They’re recruiting players off other college rosters and, apparently, we may now need to add NFL training camps to the list.
And if this becomes anything more than an unusual one-off created by a specific court case, who benefits the most?
It’s difficult to imagine the answer being anyone other than college football’s wealthiest programs.
The Big 12 has spent the last several years proving it can compete in the new world of college athletics. Texas Tech has become one of the country’s most aggressive programs in player acquisition, while schools across the conference have increasingly invested in revenue sharing, NIL and roster retention.
But there is still a financial arms race taking place.
If NFL fringe players eventually have a legitimate avenue to return to college football, another market for experienced talent suddenly exists. A player deciding between an NFL practice squad opportunity and a lucrative college offer isn’t necessarily going to make that decision based solely on which option gets him closer to the NFL.
He’s already been there.
Wright is an especially interesting example because he isn’t some longtime NFL veteran looking for one last payday. He played at Virginia Tech and Ole Miss, earned second-team All-SEC honors in 2025 and went undrafted just a few months ago. He caught 113 passes for 1,603 yards during his college career.
In other words, this is exactly the type of player who could immediately help a major college football program.
There are significant legal and eligibility questions still surrounding this situation, and Wright must first clear NFL waivers before his LSU plan can move forward. So this shouldn’t yet be viewed as the beginning of an unrestricted NFL-to-college pipeline.
But we’ve also learned something over the last five years of college athletics: once one barrier falls, don’t assume it will be rebuilt.
First came unrestricted transfers.
Then NIL.
Then revenue sharing.
Then players receiving additional years of eligibility through the courts.
And now we may be days away from watching a player leave an NFL organization and suit up for an SEC team during the same football season.
For the Big 12, that’s another development worth paying very close attention to.
Because if NFL roster cuts ever become college football’s newest version of the transfer portal, the arms race for talent just found another battlefield.
