A day after a legal victory just a few miles up the road from Tiger Stadium, LSU has reportedly opted against rostering players involved in the ongoing eligibility battle with the NCAA.
Tight end Dae’Quan Wright, defensive tackle Zxavian Harris and cornerback Blake Cotton had not been added to the roster submitted late Friday by the Tigers ahead of their season opener Saturday at home against Clemson, according to multiple reports.
The players could still be added to the program’s 105-man roster later in the season as long as they remain actively enrolled at the university, according to On3 college football insider Pete Nakos, who along with ESPN college football senior writer Pete Thamel broke Friday’s news.
Wright and Harris, who played for new LSU coach Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, and Cotton, the former Utah standout, have been heavily tied to LSU during the ongoing push for a fifth and final season of eligibility that has become a controversial topic on a national scale because of time the players spent this offseason with NFL franchises.
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The NCAA overhauled its eligibility system this summer, moving from a longtime system allowing only four years of eligibility outside of certain exceptions and waivers to instead a new “five-for-five” format in which student-athletes enrolling in college no later than the academic year after their 19th birthday would be eligible to participate in up to five years of competition during the next five years.
But, because of the timeline, hundreds of members of the 2022 high school class who had already played four years of college, such as Wright, Harris and Cotton, moved on to attempt to make NFL rosters under the impression their eligibility had been expired.
A series of lawsuits against the NCAA have followed around the country challenging that the athletes who graduated high school in the 2022 class and had expired their eligibility under the previous system and moved on to fringe professional opportunities as a result should still be able to return to the college game for another year.
Baton Rouge judge Will Jorden, of the 19th Judicial District, granted a temporary restraining order Aug. 18 and Thursday granted a preliminary injunction to more than 40 players in the Louisiana suit in their continued push back toward college competition.
The Southeastern Conference has meanwhile announced stern penalties against any coach and program to add any athletes to meet certain requirements its officials deemed as beginning professional career.
Thursday’s ruling would protect any such program from penalty by the SEC or NCAA, but the battle has only appeared to be escalating as the conference filed suit against LSU in a federal court in Birmingham, Ala.
While the issue is nationwide with dozens of cases in several states and spanning multiple sports, the often-controversial and outspoken Kiffin and the Tigers have become the lightning-rod face of the process as the coach has embraced the opportunity to improve the roster.
At least for this weekend, that push appears to have been paused as Kiffin and LSU continue to navigate the tense and shifting waters.
Former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka, who had not joined an NFL team this offseason, was added to the roster, according to Nakos.
