BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — 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. East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden issued his ruling the night before LSU presented its 105-man roster to the Southeastern Conference, which last week announced stiff potential punishments for football and basketball teams that hire former professionals. way for LSU to include some former NFL players on its roster. It remains to be seen how many games they might be eligible to play as the matter continues to move through the courts. Jorden said he considered sanctions against the SEC and NCAA, but ruled he was not ready to issue any at this time. Jorden’s decision followed a nearly nine-hour hearing in a courtroom near the LSU campus in 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 him, 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 to prevent former pros from playing this season. The courtroom confrontation came just two days before No. 11-ranked LSU opens the season at home against Clemson. Jorden scheduled the hearing on his temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from banning former pros or fifth-year college athletes, a stance reiterated by the SEC and other Power Four conferences in potential punishments adopted last week. Former NFL players testify about modest salaries in pros Former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright, two players hoping to fit in at LSU, sat next to each other in the gallery as the hearing began and both took the stand to say they wouldn’t have tried to turn pro if they’d known they could get another year in college. Harris and Wright said they each earned about $1 million in college. Harris said the Saints paid him only $190 in travel expenses and he spent all of his time with the club rehabbing a foot injury. Wright said Philadelphia paid him a $25,000 signing bonus before his brief time with the Browns and he would gladly return it for the opportunity to play for LSU. Two LSU football players, Jazmin Ferguson and Jocelyn Ollivierre, won previous injunctions and have already played this season. Ferguson testified that a USL team paid him $4,500, but he terminated his contract and returned the money in hopes of paving the way for him to play for the Tigers again. Two LSU softball players also testified. Sign up for Top 25 Poll Alerts: Receive email alerts for every Top 25 College Football Poll poll release. 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 week-old rules barring former professionals from returning to play at its 16 member schools. He said school presidents and chancellors felt they needed to draw a line between professional and college sports and that there needed to be ways to hold schools accountable. “The line between professional sports and college sports needs to be maintained,” Sankey testified, adding that the league was concerned that incoming athletes would be displaced from limited roster spots. As he spoke, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama against LSU and its leaders, alleging that the school had “conducted 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 prohibiting LSU from violating the SEC’s First Amendment rights by forcing it to “associate in conduct contrary to the purpose and mission of the conference.” Legal experts said the filing was a backup in case the SEC lost in state court. Outside the Baton Rouge courthouse, plaintiffs’ attorney Tony Clayton said, “I have a problem with that. I mean, you can file this lawsuit in any state. You’re suing LSU. Sue them in Louisiana. You’re going to our enemy: Alabama. Really? So that lets you know what the commissioner is all about.” Questioning of Sankey turns pointed In questioning Sankey, attorneys for the athletes cited numerous examples of cases in which SEC eligibility rules align with NCAA rules, suggesting the possibility of collusion. They questioned why league members met last week to adopt harsh sanctions for the same actions addressed in the Louisiana state court’s temporary injunction against the NCAA. The lawyers also asked why the SEC singled out players who signed contracts with specific US-based leagues (NFL, NBA and WNBA) but not foreign professional leagues or women’s professional soccer leagues. When Sankey attempted to qualify an answer about whether the SEC had previously punished a school for adding a player with prior professional experience, Clayton said, “I didn’t ask how to build a clock. I’m just asking what time it is.” Players going to the court have become common. The players in question also include former Denver Broncos defensive back Blake Cotton, who like Harris and Wright hopes to join LSU and Kiffin. Wright, who played for Kiffin last season at Mississippi, began practicing at LSU this week, too late to be eligible for Saturday’s home opener against Clemson under the NCAA-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. The three are among a number of athletes who have argued in lawsuits across the country that they are being unfairly denied the opportunity to spend a fifth year in college under the NCAA’s newly adopted rules that allow for five full years of competition. In total, the NCAA says there are approximately 450 plaintiff athletes seeking additional eligibility through litigation, and about 300 of them have been granted the ability to play at least for now. The athletes in the case who signed professional contracts have argued that they did so only because the current rules that would have allowed them another college season were not adopted until after their decisions to leave for a chance to make an NFL roster. and require its member institutions to comply with SEC rules.” The SEC’s proposed punishments include significant fines, suspensions of up to half a season for coaches and member universities that lose their 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. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill spoke with the attorneys of the plaintiffs before the hearing and filed a brief on their behalf. Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry posted in They are college players who were told by the NCAA that they were done. So they took the only door that was open, only to watch the NCAA change the lock behind them.” 25 here and see complete AP college football coverage here
