BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Athlete after athlete took the stand in a state courtroom near LSU on Thursday to explain why they should be allowed to return to play college sports after turning pro while the commissioner of the powerful Southeastern Conference argued against them and the league doubled down by filing a lawsuit against the school in federal court.
The extraordinary confrontation came just two days before the 11th-ranked Tigers open the football season at home against Clemson a few miles from the courthouse. East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden scheduled the hearing over his temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from barring former pros or fifth-year college athletes, a stance also taken by the SEC and other Power Four conferences with rules adopted last week.
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 and both took the stand.
Wright testified that he would not have tried to turn pro had he known about the possibility of getting another year in college. He said he was paid a $25,000 signing bonus by Philadelphia and would gladly pay that back for the chance to play for LSU, adding that he made around $1 million during four years in college.
Two LSU soccer players, Jazmin Ferguson and Jocelyn Ollivierre, won court earlier court orders and have already played this season. Ferguson testified that she was paid $4,500 by a USL team, but ended her contract and paid the money back in hopes of clearing the way to play for the Tigers again.
The athletes testified after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was on the stand for more than two hours, defending the league’s authority to enforce its week-old rules barring former pros from returning to play at its 16 member schools. He said school 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.
As he spoke, the SEC filed the federal lawsuit against LSU and its leadership in Alabama, alleging the school had “waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes” in defiance of league rules. The 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.”
Legal experts said the filing was a backup in case the the SEC loses in state court. Outside the courthouse in Baton Rouge, plaintiffs’ attorney Tony Clayton said: “I got a problem with that. I mean, you go around, you can file this suit in any state. You’re suing LSU. Sue them in Louisiana. You go to our nemesis: Alabama. Really? So, so that lets you know what the commissioner is all about.”
Questioning of Sankey turns sharp
In qestioning Sankey, attorneys for the athletes cited numerous examples of when SEC eligibility rules align with NCAA rules, suggesting the potential of 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 school for adding a player with previous pro experience, 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 added a former G-League player.
There was no indication when Jorden might rule but the football season is already underway and most teams playing this weekend. 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.
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 contends 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.
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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AP video journalist Sophie Bates contributed.
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