SEC will defend its effort to ban former NFL players in court on Thursday

The legal imbroglio over former NFL players returning to play college football is far from over.

Last week, a temporary restraining order prevented the SEC from enforcing its prohibition on its member schools using players who have spent time with NFL teams. This week, the SEC will try again.

Via Mark Schlabach of ESPN, the SEC intends to contest the TRO during a hearing set for Thursday.

"The order entered against the SEC and commissioner Sankey is a temporary restraining order, not a final ruling on the merits," the SEC said in a statement Sunday, via Schlabach. "The SEC and commissioner Sankey are prepared to contest the allegations in the plaintiffs' petition at Thursday morning's hearing and defend the SEC's rights as a voluntary association to fulfill its mission to its member institutions.

"In the meantime, the SEC and commissioner Sankey will continue to comply with the court's order. Following the hearing, the SEC will carefully review the court's decision and determine the appropriate next steps."

The uncertainty lingers as college football season commences. No one knows what the rule will be. And it serves only to highlight the sense of chaos that the college football fat cats surely hope to parlay into the passage of the Protect College Sports Act, under the idea that it's the lone antidote to restoring sanity to an insane situation spawned by decades of blatant antitrust violations that robbed players of the ability to get fair compensation for their abilities, efforts, and sacrifices in the name of "amateur athletics."