The Big Ten Conference has officially followed the SEC, Big 12 and ACC in banning former professional basketball players from competing.
According to a statement released by the conference on Monday, the Big Ten unanimously adopted a rule prohibiting men’s and women’s basketball players from maintaining athletic eligibility at a conference institution if they have signed a professional contract with the NBA, G League, WNBA, or a team in one of those leagues.
The rule also applies to players who have been on an NBA, G League, or WNBA roster at any point, as well as players who declared for the NBA or WNBA Draft but did not withdraw or declare their intent to return to college within the required timeframe.
However, the rule does not appear to apply to all players who graduated high school in 2022 and remain eligible to compete in college, according to an unnamed Big Ten general manager in a Monday conversation with The Athletic.
The general manager added that the rule does not apply to 2022 high school graduates currently eligible on Big Ten rosters, despite the fact that those players became automatically eligible for the 2026 NBA Draft after their college eligibility expired.
That would mean the rule wouldn’t prevent players such as Michigan guard Roddy Gayle Jr. from competing this season. Gayle played four seasons of college basketball, spending two years at Ohio State and two at Michigan, before going undrafted in the 2026 NBA Draft. In August, he was granted a preliminary injunction, allowing him to remain eligible for the 2026-27 season.
The new policy could also raise questions for players such as former Purdue forward/ center Trey Kaufman-Renn, who was selected No. 59 overall by the Minnesota Timberwolves this summer but did not sign a professional contract.
The Big Ten said that it will continue “to evaluate potential rules restricting professional athletes in other sports from conference competition.”
The SEC was the first conference to ban professional basketball players, doing so on Aug. 25. The Big 12 followed on Aug. 26, while the ACC implemented its ban the following day. The Big Ten was the first to announce its ban on NFL and professional football players on Aug. 25.
