BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) \u2014 LSU coach Lane Kiffin’s chances of fielding former NFL players improved Thursday night when a Louisiana judge issued a preliminary injunction against the NCAA in a high-profile eligibility case.<\/p>\n
East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden issued his ruling the night before LSU was due to submit its 105-man roster to the Southeastern Conference, which last week announced heavy potential punishment for football and basketball teams that bring in ex-pros.<\/p>\n
The ruling clears the way for LSU to list some former NFL players on its roster. How many games they might be eligible to play remains to be seen as the matter continues working its way through the courts.<\/p>\n
“It’s not about coach Kiffin. It’s not about LSU. It’s about treating these kids fairly,” said Tony Clayton, an attorney for the athletes. “Today, justice was served. And justice was serve to the SEC. It was served like a cold cup of gumbo. And that judge forced him to eat it.”<\/p>\n
Jorden said he considered sanctions against the SEC and the NCAA but ruled he was not ready to issue any at this time.<\/p>\n
Jorden’s decision followed a nearly nine-hour hearing in a courtroom near the LSU campus during which athlete after athlete took the stand to explain why they should be allowed to return to play college sports after turning pro. The commissioner of the powerful SEC argued against them, and the league doubled down by filing a lawsuit against the school in federal court. That lawsuit could now become the SEC’s best chance at preventing former pros from playing this season.<\/p>\n
The hearing was attended by Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill, who filed a brief in the case on behalf of the athletes. While she did not make any arguments in court, she spoke after the ruling and referred to the SEC’s federal lawsuit against LSU as “legal garbage.”<\/p>\n
“It was an attempt at a collateral attack on this judge that it was a message to say that, ‘If you rule against us here, that we’re going to try and go to federal court in Alabama and get a ruling that is a federal ruling that binds you,'” Murrill said. “I don’t think this judge was impressed by that threat.”<\/p>\n
The courtroom confrontation came just two days before 11th-ranked LSU opens the season at home against Clemson. Jorden scheduled the hearing over his temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from barring former pros or fifth-year college athletes, a stance reiterated by the SEC and other Power Four conferences in potential punishments adopted last week.<\/p>\n
Former NFL players testify about modest pay in pros<\/p>\n
Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright, two players who now expect to suit up for LSU within weeks, sat next to each other in the gallery as the hearing began and both took the stand to say they would have not tried to turn pro had they known they might get another year in college.<\/p>\n
Harris and Wright said they each earned about $1 million in college. Harris said he was paid just $190 in travel expenses by the Saints and spent all of his time with the club rehabbing a foot injury. Wright said he was paid a $25,000 signing bonus by Philadelphia before his brief time with the Browns and would gladly pay that back for the chance to play for LSU.<\/p>\n
While both former Mississippi players were unsure how soon they might make their LSU debut, they said after the hearing that they expect to play when the Tigers visit Ole Miss on Sept. 19.<\/p>\n
Two LSU soccer players, Jazmin Ferguson and Jocelyn Ollivierre, won earlier court orders and have already played this season. Ferguson testified that she was paid $4,500 by a USL team, but ended her contract and paid the money back in hopes of clearing the way to play for the Tigers again. Two LSU softball players also testified.<\/p>\n
The athletes testified after SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was on the stand for more than two hours, defending the league’s authority to enforce its longstanding rules barring former pros from returning to play at its 16 member schools, and enforce newly outlined fines and suspensions against programs and coaches. He said school presidents and chancellors felt that they needed to establish a line between professional and college sports and that there needed to be ways to hold schools accountable.<\/p>\n
“The line between professional sports and college sports needs to be maintained,” Sankey testified, adding that the league was concerned about incoming athletes being displaced from limited roster spots.<\/p>\n
As he spoke, the SEC\u00a0filed the federal lawsuit in Alabama against LSU<\/a>\u00a0and its leadership, alleging the school had “waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes” in defiance of league rules. The court filing against one of the league’s founding members in 1933 seeks an 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.”<\/p>\n Legal experts said the filing was a backup in case the SEC lost in state court. Outside the courthouse in Baton Rouge, Clayton said: “I got a problem with that. I mean, you go around, you can file this suit in any state. You’re suing LSU. Sue them in Louisiana. You go to our nemesis: Alabama. Really? So, that lets you know what the commissioner is all about.”<\/p>\n Questioning of Sankey turns sharp<\/p>\n In questioning Sankey, attorneys for the athletes cited numerous examples of when SEC eligibility rules align with NCAA rules, suggesting the potential of collusion. They questioned why league members met last week to adopt stiff penalties for the very actions addressed in the Louisiana state court’s temporary injunction against the NCAA.<\/p>\n The attorneys also asked why the SEC singled out players who signed contracts with specific U.S.-based leagues \u2014 the NFL, NBA and WNBA \u2014 but not overseas pro leagues or women’s pro soccer leagues. When Sankey tried to qualify an answer about whether the SEC had previously punished a school for adding a player with previous pro experience, Clayton said, “I didn’t ask how to build a clock. I’m just asking what time it is.”<\/p>\n Sankey acknowledged that there had previously been no such punishment, but that it had been considered against Alabama last basketball season when the Crimson Tide briefly added\u00a0a former G League player.<\/a><\/p>\n Players going to court has become common<\/p>\n The players in question also include former Denver Broncos defensive back Blake Cotton, who like Harris and Wright is hoping to join\u00a0LSU and Kiffin<\/a>.<\/p>\n Wright, who played for Kiffin last season at Ole Miss, started practicing at LSU this week, too late to be eligible for\u00a0Saturday’s home opener against Clemson<\/a>\u00a0under the NCAA’s required seven days of practice. Harris has committed to LSU, while Cotton, who played at Utah last fall, has been recruited by Kiffin.<\/p>\n