BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — 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 step against one of the league's founding members in 1933 came as SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey testified 400 miles away in a Baton Rouge courtroom not far from Tiger Stadium, defending the league's ability to enforce its rules as multiple athletes try to play this fall after they turned pro.
Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright sat next to each other in the gallery as the hearing began, with Sankey taking the stand a short time later. At least seven bailiffs were on hand.
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 then questioned why league members met last week to adopt stiff penalties for the very actions addressed in the court’s temporary injunction against the NCAA.
Sankey said SEC member presidents and chancellors felt that they needed to establish a line between professional and college sports, and establish clear accountability standards for crossing that line.
“The line between professional sports and college sports needs to be maintained,” Sankey said on the witness stand, adding that the league was concerned about incoming athletes being displaced from limited roster spots.
The athletes' attorneys also asked why the SEC singled out players who signed contracts with specific US-based leagues — the NFL, NBA and WNBA — but not overseas pro leagues or women’s pro soccer leagues. Sankey said the SEC simply hasn’t had time to research all details.
Plaintiffs' attorney Tony Carter also sought to point out that administrators like Sankey, who is paid about $4.8 million annually and flew to Baton Rouge on a private jet for the hearing, are limiting the earning potential of athletes seeking only a fifth year to play a major college sport.
The lawsuit asks for a court 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 northern Alabama because the SEC is based in Birmingham.
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.
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 to its 2026 roster of 105 players, which was due to be submitted to the SEC by Friday. He also criticized the judge's injunction. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill countered in a brief that the NCAA had subjected athletes in the case to a “classic bait-and-switch.”
“The NCAA's ever-changing rules have consequences beyond these individual athletes,” said Murrill, who attended the hearing and chatted with plaintiffs' attorneys before the proceeding. “They affect the universities that recruit them, the other student-athletes with whom they compete, and the coaches and administrators responsible for complying with an increasingly complicated set of rules.”
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