With quarterback Brendan Sorsby's NCAA eligibility in question because of alleged gambling, many football fans are wondering whether Sorsby might pursue the NFL's supplemental draft after the residential treatment program he reportedly entered.
Sorsby played the past two seasons for the Cincinnati Bearcats after spending his first two seasons at Indiana.
Sorsby has been considered a potential NFL draft first-round pick in 2027. If he learns he can't play college football in 2026, he could enter the NFL's supplemental draft.
The NFL doesn't hold a supplemental draft every year.
The supplemental draft was created in 1977 for draft-eligible players who failed to declare for the regular NFL draft.
The league only has a supplemental draft when players are eligible. Players declaring for the supplemental draft usually do so because of an issue involving college eligibility.
The most recent supplemental draft was in 2023. No eligible player was selected.
The last time a player was selected in a supplemental draft was in 2019, when the Arizona Cardinals picked safety Jalen Thompson.
An NFL team selecting Sorsby in a supplemental draft would forfeit a draft pick.
If Sorsby enters the supplemental draft, any team that chooses to pick him would forfeit a draft pick in 2027.
The supplemental draft order is determined by a lottery system related to win-loss record from the previous season.
A team expresses interest in drafting a player by bidding on that player in a certain round.
If multiple teams submit bids in the same round, the team picking first in the draft order gets the player.
The team loses its pick in the same round of the regular draft that it used in the supplemental draft.
When would the NFL supplemental draft be held?
If there are eligible players, the draft would take place on or before the seventh day before the opening of the first training camp.
That would place a supplemental draft sometime in early-to-mid July.
The last quarterback to be selected in an NFL supplemental draft was Ohio State's Terrelle Pryor in 2011. The Raiders selected Pryor in the third round of that supplemental draft.
Pryor had been dismissed from Ohio State because of NCAA violations related to the sale of memorabilia.
Commissioner Roger Goodell suspended Pryor for five games as a condition of his eligibility, meaning Pryor couldn't practice or play with the Raiders until the team's sixth game of the 2011 regular season.
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: For Brendan Sorsby, NFL supplemental draft may be an option
