Oregon HC Dan Lanning sends strong message on NFL players returning to college
Dan Lanning was asked after Oregon’s second fall scrimmage on Saturday about the players filtering out of NFL training camps and into the college transfer portal, and the first thing he pointed at was the math of a 105-man roster.
“I think there’s a lot of negatives that are involved around this. One, once you go to the NFL, to me, you’re in the NFL. You don’t get the opportunity to come back. Two, most of us have built our rosters and you have a limited roster limit now. So if you invited somebody back to your team, that means you’re kicking somebody else off your team to match your roster limits. I don’t think that’s fair to the players that worked all summer, all spring and put themselves in position to be ready to work for a team to have somebody come back,” Lanning said.
Under the House settlement, schools that opted in cap their football rosters at 105 players, replacing a system that let programs carry 130 or more while offering 85 scholarships. The reduction was projected to remove close to 5,000 athletes across the NCAA’s sponsored sports, and programs were cutting players to meet the number before the settlement was even approved. A returning pro arriving in late August is a subtraction from a roster that was built in the spring. Oregon, ranked No. 2 in the preseason AP poll, is not shopping the pool.
“But ultimately, it used to be once you had an agent or once you went and did the combine, all those things qualified as you were no longer an amateur. You’re a professional now, once you declare for the draft,” Lanning said. “So to let any of those players come back, fair or unfair to them, it’s unfair to the sport and I think it’s unfair to the players that are on current teams for those guys to be coming back.”
NEW: Oregon HC Dan Lanning on NFL players coming back to college football:
“Once you go to the NFL, you’re in the NFL. You don’t get the opportunity to come back.”
“It’s unfair to the sport… It’s unfair to the players on current teams.” 😳 pic.twitter.com/sbZesa4OFb
— College Transfer Portal (@CollegeFBPortal) August 23, 2026
Where Lanning’s argument meets the sport he coaches in
The amateur line he is invoking was retired by the schools themselves. Programs that opted into the same settlement can pay players directly, with the pool starting at roughly $20.5 million per school and rising annually. Players sign contracts with their universities and hire agents to negotiate them. The coaches calling agents about cut NFL rookies this week are offering revenue-share money to do it.
Dae’Quan Wright, waived by Cleveland hours ago, has an agreement to play for LSU if he clears waivers, which would make him the first player to appear for an NFL team and then return to campus. Former SMU running back TJ Harden entered the portal after Seattle cut him. NFL rosters have to reach 53 players by Aug. 30, and the group of players with nothing left to lose grows that afternoon.
A program carrying 105 players in August has to remove one to add a player who spent July in an NFL camp, and the player removed is the one who has been on campus since spring. That part of Lanning’s case works on its own terms, regardless of who anyone decides counts as a professional.
The NCAA is appealing the separate Colorado ruling that gave the high school class of 2022 a fifth year. The Louisiana order came from a state court and covers 16 plaintiffs and nobody else.
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