LSU appears poised to move forward without adding any of the players currently suing the NCAA and SEC for their final year of eligibility.
The Tigers reportedly added injured cornerback Aidan Anding (Ruston) and defensive end Gabriel Reliford (Evangel Christian) to finalize their 105-man roster without former Ole Miss standouts Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, according to On3 national college sports reporter Wilson Alexander.
Coach Lane Kiffin and company’s decision to effectively lock their roster without further pushing the ongoing legal issue by adding or potentially playing Wright or Harris came on a day on which the SEC made headlines by amending a federal suit against LSU officials and referencing a vote to determine the university’s future with the conference.
The suit against Kiffin, athletic director Verge Ausberry, president Wade Rousse, the board of supervisors and Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill is now slated to be heard at 1 p.m. Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Birmingham, Ala., with the SEC planning to meet Thursday to weigh LSU’s membership amid the escalating issue.
“Today, the Southeastern Conference, headquartered in Birmingham, Alabama, filed a request for a temporary restraining order in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama to protect the right of the Conference and its member institutions to govern themselves,” the conference released in a statement Tuesday. “The SEC and its member universities have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed. A commitment to those rules, and to the core principles of the Southeastern Conference, is an essential element of SEC membership. Today’s filing is necessary to defend that right and preserve the Conference’s ability to govern competition among its members.”
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.
A series of lawsuits against the NCAA 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.
Judge William Jorden granted a temporary restraining order Aug. 18 in his 19th Judicial District court and heard the case this past Thursday as dozens of athletes, headlined by Wright and Harris, sought a preliminary injunction in their continued push back toward college competition.
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.
The SEC voted last Tuesday, Aug. 25, to ban athletes participating in the league after having declared for the NFL, NBA or WNBA draft and no appropriately withdrawn, signed a contract with the leagues or affiliates or been listed on the leagues’ (or affiliate leagues’) rosters.
The following day, potential penalties were announced that included a suspension of up to half the season for a program’s head coach, a fine up to as much as 50% of the sport’s annual operating budget, a loss of voting privilege on SEC matters and additional sanctions imposed by Sankey.
The conference was added to the players’ lawsuit as a result, which prompted the federal suit and a a trip by commissioner Greg Sankey’s trip to Baton Rouge.
Jorden ruled in the players’ favor, but issue as a whole and the tension around it only continue to build, including now the SEC’s federal suit and membership vote.
