The SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey are not allowed, at least for now, to punish schools if they play a college football player who returns to campus after signing a contract with an NFL team this summer, according to an order signed Friday by a Louisiana state judge.
The temporary restraining order prohibits the SEC from enforcing a new rule adopted by the conference earlier this week that threatens stiff penalties for any team that uses a player who previously signed a contract to play in the NFL, NBA or WNBA. The league voted to enact the rule after tight end Dae'Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris announced plans to join their former coach, Lane Kiffin, at LSU after leaving NFL training camps.
Their case is one of more than a dozen ongoing lawsuits that challenge the way the NCAA is applying rules that dictate how long athletes can play in college. The two sides are scheduled to argue their case in a Baton Rouge courtroom Thursday, two days before LSU opens its football season and the Kiffin era at home against Clemson.
"If Sankey shows up, I'd like to hear his argument," said Tony Clayton, one of the attorneys representing a group of 42 total athletes listed in the case. "What gives him the right to anoint himself God and take these constitutional rights from these kids?"
An SEC spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Friday's ruling.
The NCAA changed its eligibility rules in June, moving to a system where athletes can now compete for all five seasons during a five-year timespan. The change created a group of outgoing seniors who were not eligible to play in 2026-27 based on the rules in place when they finished their college careers last season. The NCAA's Division I board of directors decided not to grant those players an extra season, saying it would unfairly take away opportunities from incoming freshmen.
Players such as Wright and Harris say they entered the NFL draft (neither were drafted) and signed pro contracts when they believed they had no chance to come back to school. Since that time, several judges in state and federal courts have signed orders that make it possible for the outgoing group of seniors to return for a fifth season. The NCAA is appealing each of these orders and has successfully argued to overturn three of them in the past week.
Wright, Harris and others argue that their brief stop in the NFL shouldn't be used to exclude them from college sports because they made their decision to turn pro during a time when the rules were unclear.
"[The NCAA] created this cluster, and now they've got to lay in that bed," Clayton told ESPN. "If this were going to happen every year, they might be on to something. But this is a one-time deal that they opened up."
With the NCAA temporarily restrained from excluding pro players, all four power conferences voted in the past week to create similar rules to ban the players from returning to campus. The SEC approved punishments for breaking the new rule that include a half-season suspension for the head coach of any team that plays a former pro and a fine that equals 50% of the team's annual operating budget.
SEC presidents voted 15-0 to adopt their new rule this week, with LSU's leaders abstaining, sources told ESPN's Pete Thamel. Kiffin, who has drawn criticism for serving as a catalyst of the lawsuit and attempting to add some of his former players to his new roster, defended the decision in an interview on "The Pat McAfee Show" this week.
"Whoever the first player committed to was going to be the poster child," Kiffin said. "I told my team that. ... There were schools that offered [Wright] a lot to come there, including in this conference, and including his previous school. But he chose us. I said, 'Get ready, guys. This is going to be Lane Kiffin and LSU are doing something nobody else is doing.'"
Clayton and Ryan Downton, co-counsel for the athletes in the Louisiana case, argue that the conferences are doing the NCAA's bidding in an attempt to work around the judge's initial ruling.
"The SEC is acting in concert with the NCAA," Downton said. "The court orders are clear, by saying it's not just the NCAA but anyone acting in concert with them [that is prohibited from excluding the players]. Greg Sankey's conference and other conferences were heavily involved in creating these rules."
Downton is also lead counsel in a case based in Dallas, where a judge signed a similar order Thursday blocking the NCAA, SEC and Sankey from keeping players out of college games. Three players currently on NFL rosters -- Jordan Hudson of the Dallas Cowboys along with the Kansas City Chiefs' Wesley Bissainthe and Omari Evans -- are listed as plaintiffs in that case. NFL teams make their final training camp cuts Sunday.
Most of the players in these lawsuits have not previously signed pro contracts but are asking for permission to return for a fifth season after playing in each of the past four years. Southern's Ckelby Givens is set to be the first "5-for-5" football player to take the field Saturday when his school opens its season under first-year coach Marshall Faulk.
Clayton, who also serves as chair of Southern's board of supervisors, said he was driving from Louisiana to Alabama on Friday afternoon to attend Saturday's game when the judge's order gave Givens and others the green light to play.