I don't know from personal experience, but I do know others have posted here that the academic world is also very competitive, so you won't be leaving that behind you if you join it. Are you already licensed?

School will always be there--it's basically the socially acceptable safety net for a lot of recent grads so don't worry about that opportunity disappearing.

You know you can get in (again) so if it's not the right decision now, why jump into it? Academia is changing now as the other poster said, with fewer tenure and mostly disposable adjuncts paid peanuts but cover the same workload. Not something you want to do as a primary job but should be fun as part of a workweek. They'd probably want a Master's teaching but there might be other shorter programs depending on your existing degree type. 

Friend once told me that going to school was like a track race of running hurdles, that once you stop you lose cadence, wouldn't wait too long. Big world but from where I come from having a diploma from one of those schools is like a first-class ticket.... never could figure out if it was that these schools were plucking talent or students plucking the name, all I know is that when a resume with those names on it crossed my desk I always interviewed them no matter who they were... just the way this world works..... you don't get successful at anything by passing up opportunities and this looks like an opportunity to me.

If you want to teach, just go get a PhD, it's becoming the norm (w/o a lot of top level experience) - you might even be able to do it while working (maybe).  If you have the finances or are getting the help you need, it may be easier to do it now rather than later (physically) but be more beneficial when you know what it is that you want to explore (otherwise you're just going to be another 'product' that program spits out).