La. — Dae’Quan Wright and Zxa after brief stints in the NFL, according to a judge’s orders issued Thursday evening, setting up a dramatic showdown between the SEC and LSU leading into its season-opening game this weekend
Wright and Harris, both former Ole Miss players, said in a lengthy court hearing Thursday they intend to join their former coach Lane Kiffin during his debut season at LSU, which opens play Saturday night against Clemson. They are among 42 athletes from various sports — including former Notre Dame pass rusher Junior Tuihalamaka, who also plans to play for LSU — who are suing the NCAA to play a fifth and final season of college sports.
After the ruling, Wright said he plans to be ready to play against Clemson on Saturday. Harris said he will need a couple weeks but will be ready for LSU’s game against Ole Miss on Sept. 19.
“I look forward to putting on a college uniform again,” Wright said.
The two former Rebels are among a handful
The two former Rebels are among a handful of football players who have successfully petitioned state courts in Texas and Louisiana for permission to play in college after signing pro contracts and spending most of August in NFL training camps. Administrators at the NCAA, SEC and most of their schools are adamantly opposed to the players’ return, but Judge William Jorden approved a preliminary injunction Thursday that prohibits the NCAA and SEC from punishing any school that puts them on the field. The ruling does not apply to all athletes, only those named in the lawsuit.
Attorneys representing the SEC in court say they plan to file an appeal to Jorden’s decision as soon as possible.
The SEC says it reaffirmed a rule last week that was designed to allow its commissioner, Greg Sankey, to punish any school that added a former NFL, NBA or WNBA player to its roster by suspending the team’s coach for half of his program’s season and levying fines that could reach tens of millions of dollars. The players’ attorneys argued that the league added more specifics to its professional ban last week in an effort to work around the judge’s orders.
That sounds an awful lot like wide-open collusion,
“That sounds an awful lot like wide-open collusion,” Jorden said from the bench while listening to closing arguments Thursday.
Every school except for LSU voted to approve the suggested sanctions, Sankey said in court Thursday.
Multiple university presidents from SEC schools told ESPN this week they “will not budge” on their stance against pro players returning to college. The SEC would be violating a court order if the league office sanctioned LSU. The league filed a separate lawsuit against LSU and Kiffin on Thursday morning, asking a federal judge in Alabama to give the SEC a clear path to enforcing the new punishments established last week. The judge in that case has not issued any ruling.
LSU must finalize its roster by Friday,
LSU must finalize its roster by Friday, and might have to make that decision with the uncertainty of conflicting court orders.
The dramatic showdown between LSU and the rest of the SEC is an early test to the league’s ability to govern itself in the absence of effective oversight from the NCAA. Thursday’s hearing, which unfolded less than 3 miles and 48 hours from the start of LSU’s football season, captured the current nationwide turmoil of a college sports industry that is struggling to agree on and enforce a stable set of rules.
“Honestly, it’s embarrassing,” Clemson coach Dabo Swinney told reporters earlier this week. “We have no rules. There’s no governance. It’s a joke. There are zero rules, and when you enforce rules, someone just goes and finds a judge that says, ‘No, you can’t enforce that.'”
The NCAA changed its eligibility rules in June,
The NCAA changed its eligibility rules in June, moving from a system that allowed players to compete in four seasons during a five-year window to a system that allows players to compete in all five seasons of a five-year window. The change created a group of outgoing seniors who exhausted their eligibility under the old rules, but would have one more season under the new rules. The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors did not grant those players an extra season, saying it would unfairly take away opportunities from incoming freshmen.
Hundreds of outgoing seniors who competed in each of their first four years on campus joined a wave of lawsuits in the past several months, claiming the NCAA was illegally denying them a fifth season of eligibility. They’ve had mixed results, with some judges granting injunctions or restraining orders to allow athletes to compete this season while others have denied similar requests. The NCAA has appealed each of the restraining orders.
A small number of those athletes signed contracts with teams in pro leagues during the short timespan when they believed they had no chance to play another season in college. Those players and their attorneys say this specific group should not be punished for joining NFL teams during a time when the rules for playing in college were uncertain. They also argue that the NCAA and its conferences are unfairly attempting to block them from playing while dozens of current college athletes are allowed to compete despite having previously earned money in European professional basketball leagues.
Jason Williams, one of the lawyers representing
Jason Williams, one of the lawyers representing the SEC on Thursday, said granting an injunction in this case would harm the “bright line” that separates college and pro sports. Ryan Downton, one of the players’ attorneys, argued that European players and other exceptions the NCAA has made in the past have already blurred that line.
“If the line is so clear, why can’t they articulate it?” Downton asked in court.
Many college sports officials say they are afraid that the judges’ orders set a precedent that future athletes could use to jump back and forth between college and pro teams, further eroding one of the last barriers that separates the NCAA from professional sports. All four power conferences created similar new rules last week in an effort to ban players who have signed some types of pro contracts.
In a separate lawsuit filed in Texas last
In a separate lawsuit filed in Texas last week, a judge granted similar protection to three other players who signed NFL contracts — linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and receivers Jordan Hudson and Omari Evans. None of that trio has said which college team they would want to join if they return to school. Another player initially involved in the Louisiana case, former LSU linebacker Jack Pyburn, remained in the NFL after being signed by the Kansas City Chiefs this week.
Wright had 39 catches for 635 yards as a tight end for Ole Miss last season and would join an LSU roster that currently features preseason All-SEC tight end Trey’Dez Green. Harris is a 6-foot-8, 330-pound defensive tackle who had 58 tackles and three sacks last season.
College football teams are allowed to keep 105 players on their roster. LSU players told the judge Thursday that the team would not have to cut players to remain under the 105-player limit if it adds Wright, Harris and other players in the lawsuit. Kiffin told reporters earlier this week he “struggled” with the impact the late additions could have on his locker room, but said his current players were in favor of adding new players to the team days before the season begins.
“Every one of them was emphatic about, ‘If they can help us win, bring ’em,'” Kiffin said Monday at his weekly news conference. “We understand we have a team that’s practiced together and worked together all offseason, but one of them said, ‘Hey, this is how it works at the next level, and this is how the real world works.'”
Source: www.espn.com
