LSU’s roster decision on Tuesday may have answered one question, but it opened the door to another fight.
Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, both LSU enrollees and football commitments, were not placed on Lane Kiffin’s final 105-man roster for the 2026 season. Instead, Kiffin added two familiar names back into the mix: cornerback Aiden Anding and defensive end Gabriel Reliford, both LSU returnees from 2025 who had previously been off the roster because of season-ending injuries.
That move keeps Wright and Harris out of LSU’s plans for now, in line with the demands Greg Sankey had pushed from the SEC side. But their legal situation is far from finished.
West Baton Rouge District Attorney Tony Clayton, who has been representing Wright and Harris in their lawsuit against the NCAA and SEC, said the pair could still pursue more action.
“They have a plethora of avenues that they could take,” Clayton told Tiger Rag on Wednesday. “I don’t want to jump the gun on what they may do.”
Wright and Harris were central pieces of Kiffin’s 11-1 Ole Miss team last season, the one that finished 7-1 in the SEC and reached the College Football Playoff before Kiffin left for LSU after Ole Miss told him he could not coach the Rebels in the playoff.
Both players had already exhausted their eligibility in 2025 as seniors and 2022 signees. Then came the broader fight over the NCAA’s new five-seasons-in-five-years rule, which replaced the old four-in-five framework and did not include 2025 seniors. Hundreds of those seniors from the 2022 class across all sports sued for another year in 2026.
Temporary restraining orders issued by judges around the country opened the door for many of those players to compete again in 2026, including Wright and Harris. In Louisiana, they were part of an eligibility case that led to a preliminary injunction from Louisiana 19th Judicial District Court Judge William Jorden in Baton Rouge on Aug. 19 against the NCAA and the SEC, allowing them to return for a fifth season in 2026.
Wright, after being cut by the Cleveland Browns, committed to LSU and enrolled. Harris, who had previously been cut by the Saints, did the same.
That ruling also blocked the SEC from enforcing its ban on NFL, NBA and WNBA players.
Clayton said he and Texas Trial Group Managing Partner Ryan Downton are still working through what comes next.
“We will meet with the players and make sure that they are represented and they are protected,” Clayton told Tiger Rag.
One possible path could involve seeking monetary damages from the SEC, with Sankey’s pressure on LSU to keep Wright and Harris off the roster serving as part of the case. Sankey’s threatened consequences for rostering and playing them were severe: a fine equal to 50 percent of the school’s football operating budget, a half-season suspension for Kiffin and the revocation of LSU president Wade Rousse’s SEC voting rights.
Clayton has also said the SEC’s actions hurt the value of his clients’ Name, Image & Likeness opportunities.
“And what I mean by devalue - they completely destroyed the character of these players, the credibility of these players,” Clayton told The Advocate, “And the SEC has been a colossal failure to college sports by singling out these young athletes, and putting a scarlet letter around the neck of each and every one of them.”
He has said he does not intend to take action against LSU, though the school could still be drawn into the dispute through contempt concerns. LSU was included with the NCAA and SEC in the preliminary injunction, which barred any of them from taking action that could hurt the plaintiffs. Clayton said he asked for that protection because he expected the SEC to try to work around the ruling through a federal case and force LSU to comply.
The SEC did continue its federal case against LSU with a rewritten amendment, but on Wednesday a judge in Birmingham delayed the matter to an unknown date, if it moves at all. That postponement came after Kiffin kept Wright and Harris off the roster, which was exactly what Sankey had wanted.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, named as a defendant in the amended SEC suit on Monday, called the lawsuit “strange” during an interview with Tiger Rag Radio on Tuesday night. She also said she was never served.
“And a further strange allegation was that I conspired with Lane Kiffin, whom I’ve never met. That was pretty interesting. That allegation was pretty curious,” Murrill said.
Clayton said he expected LSU to follow its members’ lead.
“I knew that LSU would act in accordance with their members,” Clayton told Tiger Rag.
He added that he stays in regular contact with Wright and Harris and expects to meet with them again in the “not-so-distant future,” though he did not give a date.
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The conference had threatened to expel LSU before later backing off once the Tigers filled those spots with eligible student-athletes and moved on from the former pros. Even with the league closing the book, the conversation has lingered around Baton Rouge, and LSU coach Lane Kiffin added to the noise with his own remarks during the game against Clemson, keeping the controversy from fading quietly into the background. [Read more 🡒]