Ex-NFL star Shawne Merriman gives take on pro players trying to return to college: 'Pretty ridiculous'

College football may be fully underway, but a dark cloud hovers over the landscape amid the controversy involving players who got professional experience trying to get back into the ranks with some of the best programs in the country, namely Lane Kiffins LSU Tigers program.

The latest from the SEC was an amended complaint filed on Tuesday morning in an Alabama federal court, which indicated the conference wishes to take some serious action against LSU after commissioner Greg Sankey stood in a Baton Rouge courtroom last week to argue the school, Lane Kiffin and the athletic department staffers were preventing the use of First Amendment rights to govern the conference.

All of this to say college athletics has reached a point where former and Maryland Terrapins linebacker Shawne Merriman cant believe his eyes.

"I think its pretty ridiculous," he told OutKick about athletes returning to college to get their fifth year of eligibility despite going pro just months ago. "Look, Ive met Lane Kiffin plenty of times. I think hes great. I got no problem for him wanting to win by putting whoever he can on the roster and making the situation better.

"But there have to be guardrails, because it wont stop here if you dont stop it now. Thats the issue."

Merriman added that college athletics has "always been pure," and even with name, image and likeness (NIL) deals becoming a key component of why these athletes are willing to stay, or even return, to Division I sports, he believes there was some decorum everyone could agree on.

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Now, its a free-for-all, with athletes jumping through the transfer portal chasing the next biggest check from colleges and universities to play for them. And with the NCAA ruling that college athletes have five years to use five seasons of eligibility, players like tight end DaeQuan Wright, who played four years of college football before going undrafted and getting cut by the Cleveland Browns, are trying to return to play their fifth year in college.

"There has to be some guardrails with the transferring," Merriman added. "Guys being able to take NIL money, then getting up to leave and go to another program. Now, its just kind of the tipping point where a former professional athlete can go back into college. Its just too much. If they dont stop it now, its never going to stop."

Amid the college debacle, the NFL sent a memo to its clubs reminding them that players who return to college to play wouldnt be eligible to be signed during the season. Furthermore, those players are no longer eligible for an NFL Draft, meaning they would have to join an NFL team at some point in a future season as a free agent.

But if that player does end up in a locker room, how would the rest of the team react knowing what happened? Will there be some distain from teammates?

"I think its going to be a silent yes," Merriman responded when posed the same question. "I dont think a lot of guys will be vocal to it. I even think the NFL is going to have a silence behind it but have a problem with it. Theres been plenty of guys through the past few decades or so that just didnt cut it, right? For whatever reason, they didnt make the roster. Maybe they got injured, maybe the coaching staff saw they didnt line up with their scheme. Plenty of reasons, so why do you get an opportunity to go back and do something else and return?

"Look, I dont think the return will be taken the right way trying to get back into an NFL locker room because, at that point, all kinds of things will be quest