John Urschel, football-playing math instructor and top Canadian prospect, isn’t on the CFL list

One of the most interesting potential future CFL players is a guy who isn't even on the top prospects list. That would be Penn State offensive guard John Urschel, who graduated in three years with a mathematics degree and is now doing graduate work while also teaching an undergrad course in trigonometry and analytic geometry and still finding time to play NCAA football. Urschel, who has a very appropriate Twitter handle of @mathmeetsfball, has maintained a 4.0 GPA during his time at Penn State, is a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection and a first-team Academic All-American, and has already published a 32- page paper on "Instabilities of the Sun-Jupiter-Asteroid Three Body Problem" in the Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy journal, but he's a star on the gridiron too; he was named a first-team all-Big Ten selection last year. He has a good Canadian connection too, as he's a dual citizen who was born in Winnipeg, and TSN's Duane Forde recently listed him as the top Canadian to watch in the NCAA this year:

Urschel's a smart guy both on and off the field. Here's a video of him teaching Penn State students math from this spring:

With all that in mind, it's interesting that Urschel wasn't mentioned in this year's CFL Scouting Bureau September list of top prospects for the 2014 CFL draft, so I asked CFL director of communications Jamie Dykstra about that. Here's what he said:

According to the CFL's non-import player rule page, non-imports must be "physically resident in Canada for an aggregate of 7 years prior to turning 15 or if he’s a Canadian citizen, was physically resident in Canada for an aggregate period of 5 years prior to turning 18." Urschel is a Canadian citizen, but he did play high school football in New York State, so if he wants to be considered as a non-import, he'd have to show that he spent five years or more in Canada before turning 18. It's unclear what would happen if Urschel did apply for non-import status, though; under the new rules, he'd be in the 2014 draft as a redshirt senior (and Forde lists him as 2014-eligible), but under the old ones, he should have gone through last year's draft (and thus might be considered a CFL free agent).

This all may be a rather moot point for Urschel, though. He'd seem to have the option of either an NFL career or an academic career ahead of him, both of which tend to be far more lucrative than playing in the CFL (especially for offensive linemen). Still, it's interesting that one of the best potential Canadian talents out there isn't on a list of top prospects. It shows the many complications involved in preparing for each year's CFL draft.