{"id":881004,"date":"2026-09-05T14:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/881004\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T14:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T14:16:20","slug":"lsu-leaves-off-ex-nfl-players-made-eligible-by-court-ruling-lsu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/881004\/","title":{"rendered":"LSU leaves off ex-NFL players made eligible by court ruling | LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"

LSU football<\/a> has decided not to add two former NFL players<\/a> to its roster on Friday, the day after a Baton Rouge judge granted a preliminary injunction paving the way for them to be eligible to play this season, a source confirmed to The Advocate on Friday.<\/p>\n

Dae\u2019Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, former Ole Miss players who signed contracts with NFL teams this summer, were among the 40-plus athletes seeking an injunction in Louisiana on Thursday from Judge William Jorden.<\/p>\n

LSU has 103 roster spots filled, according to the source, which means LSU has two roster spots available to potentially add Wright and Harris later in the season. The roster limit in college football is 105 players.<\/p>\n

The Tigers, however, have officially added former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka, a source confirmed. Tuihalamaka was also a plaintiff in the Louisiana case but had never signed with an NFL team before Thursday\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Ryan Downton, an attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a statement Saturday morning that leaving Wright and Harris off the initial roster was a \u201cmeasured decision\u201d that should \u201clower the temperature\u201d and \u201clet level heads prevail\u201d \u2014 for now.<\/p>\n

\u201c(SEC) commissioner (Greg) Sankey repeatedly testified that individual circumstances matter,\u201d the statement said, \u201cand acknowledged he was not familiar with the specific circumstances of these two players. We agree. Before this escalates any further, examine their actual histories.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no reason this needs to become a bigger confrontation. Respect the courts, protect the players and let level heads prevail.”<\/p>\n

Tuihalamaka and Wright practiced with LSU this week before Thursday, and Wright told reporters he expected to play in LSU\u2019s season opener against Clemson on Saturday (6:30 p.m., ABC).<\/p>\n

LSU also didn\u2019t add Blake Cotton, a former Utah cornerback, to its roster on Friday. Cotton signed a deal with the Denver Broncos before he was released in August. Cotton, according to a court filing, was intent on seeking \u201ca roster spot at a D-I university in Louisiana,\u201d prior to Thursday\u2019s ruling. Cotton has not publicly committed to LSU.<\/p>\n

Jorden not only ruled in favor of the players but also enjoined LSU in his order, which prevents the school from taking action against the players in their pursuit of a fifth year of eligibility. Downton also told Yahoo Sports after the ruling that he\u2019d ask the court to hold LSU in contempt if the school did not add Harris and Wright to its roster.<\/p>\n

LSU\u2019s actions on Friday do not comply with Thursday\u2019s court order, but they do abide by another lawsuit filed by the Southeastern Conference in federal court on Friday aimed at barring LSU from adding these players to its team.<\/p>\n

In a lawsuit filed in Alabama against LSU coach Lane Kiffin, athletic director Verge Ausberry and the university, the SEC accused them of orchestrating the legal saga that led to Thursday\u2019s ruling, which opened the door for LSU to add former NFL players to its roster.<\/p>\n

By filing the suit against LSU \u2014 and not the players \u2014 the SEC is attempting to enforce its existing rules against the university, which bar conference members from adding players from the NBA, NFL and WNBA. The conference passed the measure shortly after the plaintiffs in the Louisiana case were granted a temporary injunction by the NCAA, which briefly granted them eligibility.<\/p>\n

The SEC\u2019s rule also states that if a member institution adds a player from those leagues, the conference could cut the school\u2019s budget in half, strip the university of its voting privileges and issue a half-season suspension to its coach.<\/p>\n

Sankey, who testified for three hours on Thursday as a defendant in the Louisiana case, had a simple message when asked about the federal lawsuit in Alabama: \u201cWe\u2019ll let that speak for itself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LSU football has decided not to add two former NFL players to its roster on Friday, the day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":881005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-881004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=881004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/881004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/881005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=881004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=881004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=881004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}