All eyes turn to federal court in Alabama as SEC tries again to ban former pros from LSU roster

The Southeastern Conference's next — and maybe last — chance to keep players who spent time with NFL teams this summer from being added to LSU's football roster comes in a federal court in Alabama.

With a Friday night deadline looming for SEC schools to set their rosters for the season, the league went to federal court in Birmingham to sue LSU — along with coach Lane Kiffin and the school's athletic director and president — hoping for a different result than it got Thursday night from a state court in Louisiana.

“LSU respects the judicial process and the court’s decision," LSU President Wade Rousse said in a statement. "Our responsibility is to support our programs while complying with the law and the rules governing our conference.

“We will carefully review the court’s order and continue to work constructively with the SEC and NCAA as this matter moves forward,” Rousse added. “College football does not deserve this kind of ambiguity in eligibility standards.”

If the SEC loses, or doesn't get a ruling, before rosters are due, chances are LSU can place two players who spent time in NFL training camps, Zxavian Harris and Dae’Quan Wright, on its team with the league forbidden by the Louisiana court to stop the move.

“Defendants have continued their campaign to engage in willful efforts to recruit and soon roster professional athletes in direct defiance of the Professionalism Rules,” the SEC's federal lawsuit says. “This conduct is detrimental to the Conference and contrary to its core purpose.”

The disagreement is over the NCAA's new rule that grants players five seasons of eligibility, but did not include those who graduated from high school in 2022. More than two dozen lawsuits have followed with athletes claiming it is unfair for them to be left out, but the situation became far more muddled when players like Harris and Wright sought to come back after joining NFL teams in the offseason.

The SEC and the other three power conferences (ACC, Big Ten and Big 12) passed rules banning former pros from returning to play.

The SEC has framed its federal lawsuit as a First Amendment issue — the conference should not be forced to be in business with people who don't follow its rules or believe in its core values. The lawsuit is really about whether LSU can flout the SEC's rules and bring back the pros.

All of this is playing out as the 11th-ranked Tigers prepare to open their season at home Saturday night against Clemson.

LSU already has a win in state court

The ruling in Louisiana came at the end of a nine-hour session in court that included testimony from SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, along with a number of players, including Harris and Wright. East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden issued a preliminary injunction barring the SEC and NCAA from punishing schools that bring in ex-pros.

“The SEC’s presidents and chancellors unanimously adopted a clear and reasonable standard: Member universities should not place former professional athletes on their rosters," the SEC said in a statement afterward. "The conference and its member universities have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed.

"The SEC will continue to defend this standard, the principle of fair competition and the conference’s authority to govern competition among its members,” the statement concluded.

In its lawsuit, the SEC portrays the banning of players who have entered a pro draft or signed a pro contract as “among the most fundamental” rules in college sports.

“The Professionalism Rules preserve competitive fairness, protect opportunities for high school students and current college athletes and maintain the distinction between college and professional sports,” the lawsuit says. “That distinction is critical to the SEC’s member institutions, their presidents and chancellors and their fans.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who filed a brief on behalf of the athletes in the state case, called the SEC's federal lawsuit — news of which filtered through the courtroom during the hearing — “legal garbage” designed to send a message to the Louisiana judge.

“I don't think this judge was impressed by that threat,” Murrill said.

Neither was Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, who has kept a steady hand in LSU sports and took to social media after the decision.

“Again, they are not professional football players circling back after years in the NFL,” he posted. “They are college players who were told, by the NCAA, that they were done. So they took the only door that was open, only to watch the NCAA change the lock behind them.”