BATON ROUGE, La. — The Southeastern Conference filed a lawsuit against LSU and its leadership in Alabama federal court on Thursday, alleging the school had "waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes" against league rules.
The extraordinary court filing against one of the league's founding members in 1933 seeks an injunction barring LSU from violating the SEC’s First Amendment rights by forcing it to “associate with conduct that is contrary to the conference’s purpose and mission.” It was filed in Alabama because the SEC is based in Birmingham.
The lawsuit was made public as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey testified 400 miles away in a Baton Rouge courtroom not far from Tiger Stadium, defending the league's authority to enforce its week-old rules barring former pros from returning to play at its 16 member schools. Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright, two players who hope to suit up for LSU, sat next to each other in the gallery as the hearing began.
Sankey took the stand to explain that SEC member presidents and chancellors felt that they needed to establish a line between professional and college sports and that there needed to be ways to hold schools accountable.
“The line between professional sports and college sports needs to be maintained,” Sankey testified, adding that the league was concerned about incoming athletes being displaced from limited roster spots.
Questioning of Sankey turns sharp
In their questioning of Sankey, attorneys for the athletes cited numerous examples of when SEC eligibility rules align with NCAA rules, suggesting the potential of illegal collusion. They questioned why league members met last week to adopt stiff penalties for the very actions addressed in the Louisiana state court’s temporary injunction against the NCAA.
The attorneys also asked why the SEC singled out players who signed contracts with specific U.S.-based leagues — the NFL, NBA and WNBA — but not overseas pro leagues or women’s pro soccer leagues. When Sankey tried to qualify an answer about whether the SEC had previously punished a member school for adding a player with previous pro experience, plaintiffs’ attorney Tony Clayton said, “I didn’t ask how to build a clock. I’m just asking what time it is.”
Sankey acknowledged that there had previously been no such punishment, but that it had been considered against Alabama last basketball season when the Crimson Tide briefly played a former G-League player.
East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden scheduled the hearing concerning the status of his temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from ruling recent former pros or fifth-year college athletes ineligible, a stance also taken by the SEC and other Power Four conferences with formal rules adopted last week.
Jorden also wanted the NCAA to explain why it should not be held in contempt after the power conferences set up potential punishments of its member schools who place former NFL or NBA athletes on their football or basketball rosters.
There was no indication when Jorden might rule but the football season is already underway and most teams playing this weekend, including 11th-ranked LSU. The SEC requires its schools to submit final 2026 rosters for the season by Friday.
Players going to court has become common
The players in question also include former Denver Broncos defensive back Blake Cotton, who like Harris and Wright is hoping to join LSU and new coach Lane Kiffin.
Wright, who played for Kiffin last season at Mississippi, started practicing at LSU this week, too late to be eligible for Saturday's home opener against Clemson under the NCAA's required seven days of practice. Harris, who also played at Ole Miss last season, has committed to LSU, while Cotton, who played at Utah last fall, has been recruited by Kiffin.
All three are among a host of athletes who've argued in lawsuits around the country that they are unfairly being denied an opportunity to spend a fifth year in college under newly adopted NCAA rules allowing for five full years of competition. In all, the NCAA says there are approximately 450 athlete plaintiffs seeking additional eligibility through litigation, with some 300 of them winning the ability to play at least for now and about 150 who have been rejected.
The athletes in the case who signed pro contracts have argued they did so only because current rules that would have allowed them another college season weren't adopted until after their decisions to leave for the chance to make an NFL roster.
The SEC filed a brief in the case on Wednesday in which it stated that the question before the judge should be a narrow one regarding whether the conference "can enforce and require its member institutions to comply with SEC rules.” The SEC's proposed punishments include significant fines, up to half-season suspensions for coaches and member universities' loss of voting privileges on league business matters.
Sankey provided an affidavit stating that SEC university presidents had voted 15-0 in favor of the new rules, with LSU's Wade Rousse abstaining. Sankey also said the SEC was acting on its own and not attempting to collude with the NCAA to stop Kiffin from bringing in ex-pros.
The fight over eligibility between schools and their own conferences and the NCAA has simmered for months and spilled into politics.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr reportedly sent a letter of support to Sankey, encouraging him to take “all measures available” to punish LSU if it added former NFL players. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who attended the hearing and chatted with plaintiffs’ attorneys before the proceeding, countered in a brief that the NCAA had subjected athletes in the case to a “classic bait-and-switch.”
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