Report: AAF to follow NFL eligibility rules

They'll need to wait until 2021. Probably.

NBC Sports reported Tuesday that a spokesman for the upstart Alliance of
American Football said the league will use the same eligibility rules as the
NFL. That means a player can't join the league until at least three years have
passed since his high school class graduated.

So under that scenario, Lawrence and other players who were true freshmen in
the 2018 season can't be selected by the NFL until the 2021 draft, or join the
AAF until then.

The AAF opens play in its inaugural season on Feb. 9.

The XFL, however, hasn't committed to such a timeline. The eight-team XFL is
scheduled to begin in 2020.

In an interview with podcast host Brian Berger of the Sports Business Radio
Road Show in December, XFL commissioner Oliver Luck said, "We're not subject
to that."

"Theoretically we could take a player right out of high school. I doubt we'll
do that," Luck said, taking note of the physical differences between teenagers
and players in their mid-20s.

"But I wouldn't rule it out," he said. "Nor would I rule out taking a player
who played a year of college football and let's say isn't eligible
academically, which happens. Or a player who is two years out of college, and
is transferring, and would have to sit out a year. A lot of guys don't want
to."

--Field Level Media