Judge Jorden ruled for the players. After a hearing that ran roughly nine hours, including more than three hours of testimony from Greg Sankey, the Baton Rouge judge converted his temporary restraining order into a preliminary injunction. The order bars both the NCAA and the SEC from punishing any school that puts the named plaintiffs on the field while the case proceeds. It covers only the athletes in the lawsuit, not former pros generally, but Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris are both in that group, which means LSU can list them on the roster it owes the SEC office Friday without conference penalties attaching under this order. The SEC’s federal suit in Alabama, described below, is unaffected by the ruling and is now the conference’s remaining path.
Originally published Thursday, September 3, 2026, before the ruling. The reporting below reflects the day as it unfolded.
The Southeastern Conference sued one of its own schools on Thursday. A complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, first reported by On3’s Pete Nakos, names LSU, head coach Lane Kiffin, president Wade Rousse and athletic director Verge Ausberry as defendants and asks a federal judge to bar the school from putting former NFL players on its roster. It was filed the same morning that Commissioner Greg Sankey walked into a Louisiana state courtroom two hours’ drive away to argue the other half of the same fight.
| Plaintiff | The Southeastern Conference |
| Defendants | Louisiana State University, Lane Kiffin, president Wade Rousse, athletic director Verge Ausberry |
| Court | U.S. District Court, Northern District of Alabama, where the SEC is headquartered |
| What it asks for | A preliminary and permanent injunction stopping LSU from rostering former professional players |
| The legal theory | First Amendment freedom of association: LSU is compelling the conference to associate with conduct contrary to its mission |
| The players named | Dae’Quan Wright (ex Browns), Zxavian Harris (ex Saints), and by reference Jack Pyburn (ex Buccaneers, now with the Chiefs) |
| The clock | LSU’s roster is due to the SEC office Friday, 24 hours before kickoff against Clemson |
What the Complaint Says
The SEC’s filing accuses LSU of waging what it calls a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes to play football for LSU in 2026, and names the three NFL teams whose former players were involved: Cleveland, New Orleans and Tampa Bay. It asks the court to enter a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from violating the conference’s First Amendment rights by compelling it to associate with conduct that is contrary to its purpose and mission.
That is a freedom of association argument, and it is the one Sankey has been building toward all week. In an affidavit filed Wednesday he described the SEC as a voluntary association whose presidents voted 15 to 0 for the ban on former pros, with LSU’s Rousse abstaining, and said the conference is not an agent or functionary of the NCAA. The federal complaint takes the next step: if a Louisiana state court can stop the SEC from punishing LSU, the SEC will ask a federal court to stop LSU directly.
Why Alabama, and Why Today
The SEC is based in Birmingham, so the Northern District of Alabama is its home court, and a federal filing there sits outside the reach of Judge William Jorden’s orders in East Baton Rouge Parish. The timing is the point. Jorden’s temporary restraining order currently bars the conference from penalising schools that play the protected plaintiffs, and Thursday’s hearing is about whether that order becomes a preliminary injunction that lasts through trial. The SEC asked him to dissolve it. It filed in Alabama before he ruled, which means that whatever happens in Baton Rouge, there is now a second court with a live question in front of it.
Georgia’s attorney general had written to Sankey on Wednesday encouraging the conference to use all measures available against LSU, up to suspension or expulsion, and South Carolina’s attorney general made a similar statement Thursday morning. Louisiana’s attorney general, Liz Murrill, filed on the players’ side and attended the hearing.
What Was Happening in Baton Rouge
Sankey arrived early. Wright and Harris sat together in the gallery. At least seven bailiffs were on hand for a hearing involving 43 athletes across several sports and states, all of whom hold temporary protection from NCAA eligibility rulings after signing professional contracts. The athletes’ lawyers asked Jorden to extend that protection and to make it clear the SEC cannot use conference penalties to accomplish what the court has told the NCAA it cannot do. The SEC’s position, in its Wednesday brief, is that those are two different questions: it does not intend to declare anyone ineligible, and it retains independent authority to enforce its rules against member schools. Jorden had also asked the NCAA to explain why it should not be held in contempt after the power conferences adopted their bans.
Our NFL returnees tracker has the status of every player in the case.
What LSU Has Said
Kiffin said on Wednesday’s SEC coaches call that the program does not put any energy into the litigation and would wait for more information, and that Wright has been practising. Earlier in the week he said he intends to play the players if they are eligible. Rousse’s abstention from the conference vote is the only formal position LSU has taken. Clemson’s Dabo Swinney, whose team is Saturday’s opponent, said this week that college football has no rules and no governance.
The Penalties on the Table
The SEC rule adopted August 25 provides for a half season suspension of the head coach, a fine equal to half of the football program’s annual operating budget, and loss of conference voting rights for a school that rosters a player who has signed a professional contract. The Georgia letter urged the conference to go further. None of it can be enforced against LSU while Jorden’s order stands, which is exactly why the SEC has gone to a second court. Our page on whether conferences can ban NFL returnees covers the legal question underneath.
What Happens Before Saturday
The first of three things has now happened. Jorden granted the preliminary injunction Thursday evening, so the SEC’s penalties stay blocked for the named players through the life of the case. Next, LSU submits its roster to the SEC office by Friday, and only players already enrolled can be added after that. Then Clemson kicks off in Tiger Stadium on Saturday night with or without Wright and Harris. A federal judge in Alabama is unlikely to act on the SEC’s request in 48 hours, so the more immediate decision belongs to LSU: whether to put two players on a roster that its own conference has now sued to prevent. Our LSU returnees page tracks the three players still tied to the program.
The Bottom Line
The SEC sued LSU, Lane Kiffin and two LSU administrators in federal court in Alabama on Thursday, asking for an injunction to stop the school from playing former NFL players, on the theory that LSU is forcing the conference to associate with conduct it has voted against. It was filed the same morning as the Baton Rouge hearing that, by Thursday evening, had gone against the conference: Judge Jorden granted a preliminary injunction barring the SEC and NCAA from punishing any school that plays the named plaintiffs. LSU’s roster is due Friday, Clemson is Saturday, and the state court has cleared the way for Wright and Harris to be on it. What the SEC does next runs through Alabama.