The focal points of the eligibility battle, Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, were left stranded in football limbo between the NFL and NCAA for the 2026 season. However, one league has now given them hope of seeing the field in the near future.
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“The two players at the center of a legal battle between LSU and the SEC are blocked from playing in the NFL and college this year,” Front Office Sports reported on September 23. “But the UFL confirmed to FOS that Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris are eligible for its 2027 season.”
While a Louisiana judge granted them an injunction to return to school, the SEC passed emergency rules prohibiting players who signed professional contracts from returning to amateur play. When the college route fell through, both players attempted to return to the professional ranks.
However, the NFL corporate office stepped in and issued an official league-wide memo explicitly stating that because Wright and Harris participated in college activities after the opening of NFL training camps, they were completely barred from visiting, trying out for, or signing with any of the 32 NFL franchises for the remainder of the season.
The only league where they have officially bypassed this ban is the United Football League. The spring development league officially confirmed that both players are fully eligible to sign contracts and return to the gridiron starting in April 2027.
After finishing their careers at Ole Miss, both players went undrafted in the 2026 NFL Draft. They signed with NFL teams as undrafted free agents. However, both were subsequently waived before the regular season began.
There was a silver lining after they were released. A state judge in Louisiana granted a temporary restraining order allowing waived NFL rookies to regain their college eligibility. More than 40 college athletes sued both the NCAA and the SEC to reclaim their college careers. In June 2026, the NCAA implemented a new rule allowing athletes an absolute fifth year of eligibility within a strict five-year window.
Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris had just finished playing under Lane Kiffin. The coaching staff did not waste any time and pitched an immediate offer to lure them back to their former coach in a new program. Looking to cash in on a fifth college season, both players agreed to join Kiffin at LSU.
After a long and tiresome battle between LSU and the SEC for recruiting these players, LSU showed the white flag. SEC rules mandated that the university submit its official, finalized 105-man roster. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey retaliated aggressively. He filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama against LSU 24 hours before their season opener. They scheduled an emergency vote among member university presidents to consider completely booting LSU out of the SEC if they played the blacklisted athletes.
The SEC threatened to hit LSU with fines equal to 50% of the football program’s annual operating budget and a half-season suspension for head coach Lane Kiffin. After fearing the immediate wrath of the conference, LSU deliberately left both Wright and Harris off its active game-day roster.
The escapade between LSU and the SEC
The legal and bureaucratic escapade between the SEC and LSU in early September 2026 was a full action movie. It saw a founding conference member threatened with total expulsion over an aggressive attempt to roster former NFL players.
On September 3, 2026, SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey was on the witness stand in a Baton Rouge, Louisiana, state court, defending the league’s rules against allowing former professional players to return to college sports.
The SEC’s legal team then launched a calculated counterstrike. They filed a massive federal lawsuit against LSU, its board, and coach Lane Kiffin in Alabama. The lawsuit accused LSU of engaging in a coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes in direct defiance of league rules.
Even after the SEC filed a federal lawsuit naming him personally, Kiffin refused to immediately back down. Appearing on College GameDay right before the season opener against Clemson, Kiffin openly stated that he believed Wright and Harris still “have an opportunity to play.” By initially keeping two spots open on LSU’s 105-man roster, he signaled to the conference that he was fully prepared to utilize the Louisiana court’s injunction if a settlement could be reached. However, in the end, the entire LSU program had to be protected, not just two players.