SEC's Sankey arrives in court in college football fight over NCAA eligibility for former pros

BATON ROUGE, La. — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey arrived early Thursday in a courtroom not far from LSU that is the focus of college football as several dozen athletes seek a ruling that could clear the way for them to play this fall — even after they turned pro.

Attorneys for the athletes, the NCAA and the SEC were slated to appear before East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden, who scheduled the hearing concerning the status of his earlier temporary injunction preventing the NCAA from ruling recent former pros or fifth-year college athletes ineligible — a stance also taken by the Power Four conferences with formal rules adopted last week.

Sankey is expected to testify and defend the SEC's right to enforce its own protocols.

Jorden also wanted the NCAA to explain why it should not be held in contempt after the power conferences set up potential punishments of its member schools who place former NFL or NBA athletes on their football or basketball rosters.

The players in question include former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae'Quan Wright, former New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris and former Denver Broncos defensive back Blake Cotton, who have been expected to join LSU and new coach Lane Kiffin.

Wright, who played for Kiffin last season at Mississippi, started practicing with at LSU this week, too late to be eligible for Saturday's home opener against Clemson under the NCAA's 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.

All three are among many athletes who've argued in dozens of lawsuits around the country that they are unfairly being denied an opportunity to spend a fifth year in college under newly adopted NCAA rules allowing for five full years of competition. In all, the NCAA says there are approximately 450 athlete plaintiffs seeking additional eligibility through litigation, with some 300 of them winning the ability to play at least for now and about 150 who have been rejected.

The athletes in the case who signed pro contracts have argued they did so only because current rules that would have allowed them another college season weren't adopted until after their decisions to leave for the chance to make an NFL roster.

Kiffin said he did not expect anyone from LSU's football program to attend the hearing.

"This is a lot of athletes from a lot of different sports in a lot of different states. So, we don't put any energy into it," Kiffin said earlier this week. "We'll wait to get more information ... and more guidance from the SEC."

The SEC filed a brief in the case on Wednesday in which it stated that the question before the judge should be a narrow one regarding whether the conference "can enforce and require its member institutions to comply with SEC rules." The SEC's proposed punishments include significant fines, up to half-season suspensions for coaches and member universities' loss of voting on privileges on league business matters.

Sankey provided an affidavit stating that SEC university presidents voted 15-0 in favor of the new rules, with LSU's Wade Rousse abstaining. Sankey also said the SEC was acting on its own and not attempting to collude with NCAA to stop Kiffin from bringing in ex-pros.

The fight over eligibility between schools and their own conference s and the NCAA has simmered for months and spilled into politics.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr reportedly sent a letter of support to Sankey, encouraging him to take "all measures available" to punish LSU if it added former NFL players to its 2026 roster of 105 players, which was due to be submitted to the SEC by Friday. He also criticized the judge's injunction.

"It is no coincidence that the very institution set to potentially use this temporary order to flout the SEC's rule is in the trial court's own backyard," Carr wrote.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill also weighed in, writing in a brief that the NCAA had subjected athletes in the case to a "classic bait-and-switch."

"The NCAA's ever-changing rules have consequences beyond these individual athletes," Murrill said. "They affect the universities that recruit them, the other student-athletes with whom they compete, and the coaches and administrators responsible for complying with an increasingly complicated set of rules."

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