Wetzel: Mad about CFB eligibility chaos? The NCAA should have seen it coming - ESPN

The Cleveland Browns (of the NFL) are cutting rookie tight end Dae'Quan Wright who, upon clearing waivers, plans on signing with LSU (of the NCAA).

Yes, you read that correctly; a boomerang roster move that perfectly encapsulates the state of college athletics. Absurd and outrageous, of course; also somewhat comical and entirely preventable.

Leave it to LSU, Lane Kiffin and an East Baton Rouge Parish judge to turn the transfer portal into a pros-to-college rotating door. Go ahead and curse them, but know that while they might be first, they are unlikely to be last.

College athletics is always about self-dealing and self-interests.

They talk a good game about «student-athletes» and paint slogans like «family» and «team» on the weight room wall, but if some NFL camp roster cut might help convert on third down, many won't hesitate to dial up a sympathetic magistrate and bump a sophomore down the depth chart.

The NFL waiver wire is the new national signing day.

Hey, let's send a scout to Detroit this weekend, we need a linebacker.

So go watch the King High opener?

No, the Lions preseason finale.

Those old «going pro in something other than sports» commercials have taken on new meaning.

There is plenty of blame to go around here, but in the end this falls on the NCAA, which keeps getting caught flat-footed legally while pursuing pie-in-the-sky federal legislation rather than seeking practical solutions.

«As a group, the NCAA is particularly incapable of seeing around corners,» said attorney Tom Mars, who has specialized in NCAA cases but isn't involved with Wright's.

In this instance, it was a well-meaning but clumsily executed decision this summer to give every athlete five years of eligibility over a five-year period.