Tennessee linebacker Arion Carter had entered the draft. He’s now exiting.
Via Steve Wiltfong of On3.com, Carter has decided to return to college and enter the transfer portal.
Carter explained the decision in an email to coach Josh Heupel and A.D. Danny White.
“Just the simple fact of me being able to go and finish my degree I only have a couple credit hours left,” Carter said in the message. “I’ll be the first in my family to graduate college. I just want to go and have a full season healthy. I had been dealing with turf toe in my feet all year and wasn’t able to play to my expectation. Being able to come back and have a full year of training and sharpening my tools and being a better linebacker and setting out to do everything I want to accomplish this next year.”
Carter is not expected to return to Tennessee.
There’s a question of whether Carter will be able to return to college football, after entering the draft. NCAA rules presumably don’t allow it. However, plenty of NCAA rules violate federal antitrust laws — as evidenced by the fact that the NCAA recently granted basketball player James Nnaji four years of eligibility even though he was previously selected in the first round of the NBA draft, but didn’t sign a contract.
If the NCAA tries to block Carter from returning, the NCAA presumably would lose in court.
Recently, former Alabama quarterback Ty Simpson declared for the draft, before multiple teams started making multi-million-dollar NIL offers. He eventually decided to proceed on a path to the NFL.
The Nnaji precedent presumably would allow Simpson and any other drafted player with remaining eligibility to change his mind, unless and until he signs an NFL contract.