The SEC just got dragged deeper into the eligibility mess that has picked up another rather serious complication. A Louisiana judge has temporarily blocked the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey from punishing schools or coaches for using players who previously signed professional contracts. As On3 stated, the ruling also gives 42 athletes a fifth year of eligibility. 

“The order states the SEC, at least for now, can’t enforce its new penalties on schools and coaches for playing a former pro,” On3’s Wilson Alexander posted. “The case will be heard Thursday in Baton Rouge, two days before LSU’s first game.”

The Louisiana ruling puts the SEC’s new punishment rule in limbo, with the judge’s order going further than simply giving players another season. The athletes involved cannot be kept from competing in 2026-27 because they failed to enter the NCAA transfer portal or broke an SEC transfer rule. Players who previously competed at junior colleges also cannot have that season counted against their NCAA eligibility under the ruling.

Then there’s this big hit on the SEC’s new policy. The plaintiffs can return to college competition despite having signed a professional contract or an agent agreement, or having played professionally after their 2025-26 college season. They must first end those agreements and repay the money received before appearing in a college game.

“To be clear, it is the Court’s intention to place Plaintiffs in the position they were in at the end of their last college sports season,” the order stated. “As long as they would have been eligible to continue playing college sports in the following semester if they had a fifth year of eligibility, they are eligible today.”

The SEC cannot respond by going after the school. The order temporarily blocks the NCAA’s Rule of Restitution, the “ghost transfer” rule, and any SEC rule or proposed penalty against the players, their new schools, or coaches. It also protects schools and coaches who play against them. That’s what makes this ruling a big headache for the NCAA. 

The SEC had unanimously approved its new penalties only days earlier. The conference, along with the other Power Four leagues, was trying to draw a hard line against former professional athletes returning to college. This latest ruling just blurred that line.

LSU plays a big role in the eligibility mess

LSU isn’t an innocent bystander here. Former Ole Miss players Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris are among the plaintiffs. Both were recently cut by NFL teams and have committed to play for LSU and new coach Lane Kiffin. Former Florida and LSU DE Jack Pyburn is also part of the case. He could return to LSU if he is waived before the Sept. 1 deadline set out in the Louisiana proceedings.

So while lawyers argue over eligibility rules, Lane Kiffin is dealing with the much less theoretical problem of building a football roster. And LSU is not the only school caught in this legal traffic jam. The NCAA says nearly 60 lawsuits have been filed challenging Division I’s age-based eligibility rules, with 24 arriving in a single week. Of 322 former athletes named as plaintiffs, 184 currently have some form of active relief. Men’s basketball accounts for 96 of those athletes. Football has 45.

The NCAA is pushing back. Chief legal officer Scott Bearby said the association has won appellate relief in several cases and defeated preliminary injunctions in Colorado, Nevada, and New York. The NCAA is also appealing the Wisne decision, with its opening brief due Sept. 1. But the courts keep producing new headaches. There are already more hearings lined up, including multi-plaintiff cases in South Carolina, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Jersey, and California.

The NCAA says roughly 75,000 Division I athletes are already on campus or will be soon. Compared with that number, 322 named plaintiffs might look small. The impact is anything but small. Now the SEC has its own problem. A rule it adopted has run directly into a judge’s temporary order. Thursday’s hearing could change the picture again. Until then, though, the conference cannot enforce the penalties against the athletes covered by the ruling.