The SEC’s move to block former NFL players from competing at LSU may be only the latest twist in a fast-moving eligibility fight, but it’s already putting the conference on a collision course with the courts.
That tension sharpened after Tuesday evening, when the SEC passed a new rule aimed at preventing coach Lane Kiffin from using ex-NFL players on his first LSU roster. The rule came after a Baton Rouge judge, on Aug. 19, granted a temporary restraining order to about 30 athletes who had sued seeking a fifth year of eligibility. That ruling opened the door for Kiffin to begin adding former NFL players, even though neither of those players is eligible under the SEC’s new measure.
The question now is whether the rule will be challenged - and whether it would survive if it is.
The Advocate asked five legal experts how college athletics reached this point and what might happen next. Their answers pointed to the same reality: conference rules may be the next battleground.
Sam Ehrlich, a former lawyer and Boise State professor who studies the legal side of sports, said conference-specific rules generally have a better shot at surviving than sweeping NCAA policies. In his view, the more a rule varies from one league to another, the stronger the argument that the market still has real choices.
“If you don't like the Big Ten rule,” Ehrlich said, “you can go to the SEC or you can go to the Pac-12 or the MAC or anything else, and those can be considered reasonable substitutes within this market.
“So, I think long term, the conference rules are gonna be fine.”
But he also warned that things get messy fast when conferences start lining up with similar rules. That, he said, is when the picture can get “real, real wacky,” especially in cases involving 2022 high school athletes pursuing fifth seasons of eligibility in court.
If plaintiffs decide to fold the SEC, the Big Ten or another league into a broader lawsuit against the NCAA, a judge could decide the conferences are acting together with the NCAA and hold them to the same legal standard. On Wednesday, a Texas judge granted a temporary restraining order to a Texas A&M basketball player who has played in the NBA G League, and in that ruling the judge did not separate the NCAA from the SEC. That could offer a road map for lawyers representing Wright, Harris and the other Louisiana plaintiffs if they decide to challenge the SEC’s new ban on former professional players.
New York sports lawyer Ryan Mulvaney sees conference rules as another clear target for lawsuits.
“That's no different than the issue involving the NCAA,” he said. “If conferences are announcing that (rule), whether now or midseason, I would suspect you'd see orders to show cause be filed, if not joining the conferences with the NCAA or, depending upon what relief has already been provided, against the conferences.”
The NCAA has not been losing every recent court battle, either. It picked up a major win last Friday with a stay in a Colorado class-action case, and also secured rulings in state courts in New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee.
Louisiana could become the next important test. A hearing is scheduled for Monday, and it could decide whether the plaintiffs get a more durable ruling on eligibility.
Still, the experts interviewed agreed on one thing: this NFL-player issue probably won’t linger beyond this season.
Andrew Brandt, a former NFL executive who is now a Villanova professor and author, said the whole situation traces back to the NCAA’s decision in June not to grandfather 2022 high school athletes into its new age-based eligibility rules. The former NFL players showing up in college, he said, are only trying to use the fifth year that others already received.
“They'll have to figure out what to do with these five to 10 players this year that are getting all the attention,” he said. “But it's not an issue for the future.”
Tulane law professor Gabe Feldman and Illinois sports lawyer Mitch Gilfillan said much the same. Feldman called this likely a one-year anomaly, but he also warned that more lawsuits over eligibility could keep college sports in a constant state of upheaval.
“This won't happen next year because everybody will have the full five years,” Feldman said. “So this is probably just a one-year anomaly, but absent federal legislation, there's nothing to stop an athlete from suing next time to say, ‘Well, I want a sixth year.
Why am I only getting five?’ ”
Gilfillan said the fallout was foreseeable, whether or not the NCAA fully appreciated it.
“They did not foresee, or maybe they did foresee, what the fallout could possibly be, and obviously they're suffering the consequences.”
For now, those consequences are landing squarely on LSU and the SEC, with football season underway and a member school suddenly at odds with its own conference.
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With Clemson looming as LSUs opener, those practice impressions carry extra weight because they hint at how sharp and how combative this team may be when the spotlight turns on. The offense is still settling in, the defense is leaning on experienced voices, and the Tigers are trying to make sure the first game of the year feels less like a measuring stick and more like a statement. [Read more 🡒]
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LSU Just Got Caught In Another Frustrating SEC Eligibility Fight
The SEC has drawn a firm line for players trying to navigate the new eligibility landscape, ruling that anyone who has signed contracts with professional football leagues or affiliated basketball leagues cannot come back to compete in the conference. For LSU, the timing matters because the rule directly intersects with the group from the 2022 recruiting class that is trying to squeeze out a fifth year under the new five-for-five framework.
That decision shuts the door on LSUs effort to add tight end DaeQuan Wright, who has spent this offseason with NFL teams. For a program always looking to find experienced help where it can, it is another reminder that the path back to college football is getting narrower, and the Tigers are left sorting through a roster plan that no longer includes one of the options they had hoped would be available. [Read more 🡒]