Judge sides with LSU football players seeking 5th year of eligibility
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BATON ROUGE — Lane Kiffin and LSU football can continue their pursuit and addition of ex-NFL players and other Class of 2022 athletes to their team.
Inside an East Baton Rouge District Court on Sept. 3, Judge Will Jorden ruled to keep the temporary retraining orders in place that have paved the way for a fifth year of college football eligibility for 31 plaintiffs of a complaint against the NCAA and now the SEC and SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey.
Former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae'Quan Wright, who has been practicing with LSU this week ahead of its 2026 season opener against Clemson, as well as former New Orleans Saints defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, can now be added to the roster and play for the Tigers.
The NCAA and the SEC argued former college student-athletes who opted to join professional sports in any league should be deemed ineligible to return to collegiate competition. The plaintiffs argue that, as members of the high school football class of 2022, they were unfairly denied a fifth-year of eligibility, which forced them to pursue those professional opportunities.
Kiffin and LSU have added former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka to the team but he never signed a professional contract, therefore his situation is a little less sticky, but Thursday's ruling provides clearance for him, too.
While Thursday's hearing transpired, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit against Kiffin and LSU administrators in an Alabama court, Louisiana attorney general Liz Murrill confirmed to The Daily Advertiser.
The suit names LSU school president Wade Rousse, athletics director Verge Ausberry and Kiffin as defendents. In it, the SEC complained, “Defendants waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes to play football for LSU during the 2026-27 season, including players who had signed NFL contracts with the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers."
Murrill called the timing of the SEC's suit "legal gamesmanship" and criticized its validity.
"To be clear, I think the lawsuit in federal court in Alabama is garbage," Murrill said.
"(Louisiana) has sovereign immunity and LSU is an arm of the state. So they can't sue LSU. They can't get an injunction against LSU in federal court. They have to sue individuals and then claim that those individuals are violating somebody's constitutional rights," Murrill said. "But there aren't anybody's constitutional rights that are being violated here.
"The only (violated right) they have identified is the right to expressive association," Murrill said. "Nobody has done that to them."
Kiffin told reporters earlier this week he struggled with bringing in players this late in the preseason but that leaders of LSU's team told him there were OK with the additions.
"I met with our leadership committee of our players and I asked, 'What do you want to do?" Kiffin said. "Every one of them was emphatic about, if they can help us win, bring them."
The crux of the argument has been whether or not a faction of class of 2022 college graduates were not given ample heads-up from the NCAA that it would be passing a new eligibility rule that allow for student-athletes to have five years in college to play sports.
"We all were nothing but excited for the opportunity to bring guys in to help us win some games," LSU starting quarterback Sam Leavitt said this week. "I don’t really know why there’s such an issue with a fifth year. Everybody gets five years in college. I don’t know the exact details on everything, I am just here to play ball. But (Kiffin) came and talked to the leadership council and everyone was onboard with making it happen if everything falls into place and it’s legal."
Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: Judge sides with LSU football players seeking 5th year of eligibility
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