I personally am sorry for having to write this, but it seems once again that the legal system has affected the sport we love so much
A Dallas judge signed an order Thursday that prohibits the NCAA, the SEC and its commissioner Greg Sankey from stopping a group of athletes — three of whom are currently listed on NFL rosters — from returning to college sports for one more season of play.
Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jordan Hudson, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and Chiefs wide receiver Omari Evans are among the 41 players listed as plaintiffs on the restraining order. Christeen Iwuala and Bailey Maupin, who both signed contracts with WNBA teams earlier this summer, are also named on the order.
Their case is the latest in a growing number of legal challenges to the NCAA’s eligibility rules. The judge’s order in the Dallas case is the first case to specifically block a conference from creating rules that could punish schools in their league for signing any of the plaintiffs. The order specifically says that the NCAA, SEC and Sankey cannot block the players’ return based on transfer portal rules or their time on a pro roster. It also states that if any of those groups want to prohibit any of the plaintiffs for a different reason, they would need to come to court and argue their case in front of the judge.
In this day and age, a judge is not exactly the best purveyor of truth, especially when it comes to the NCAA. I hesitate to think this is gonna come out in a positive way.
“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,” Judge Martin Hoffman wrote in the order.
All four power conferences voted this week to adopt similar new rules that prohibit teams from playing athletes who have previously signed contracts for a professional sports team. The rules were a direct response to other ongoing legal battles about who is eligible to play college sports.
“The [leagues] can’t come out and create a rule with immediate effect that has such draconian effect punishment that no school will take any of these players,” said attorney Ryan Downton, who represents athletes in the Dallas lawsuit along with cases filed in several other states.
Draconian? That means cruel and unusual by the legal terms, what is cruel and unusual by giving a person a chance to play for four years at a NCAA football program and try to apply for the NFL draft?
If abuse is the defense, then the offense is being paid to play more at the college level than at the pro level?
cry me a river.
Take the money and run. As long as you have free legal in your corner, why not?
I want to get excited, trying really hard, but all the negative things going on just keep getting worse. The sport cannot keep taking these body shots and even come close to what we grew up loving. No answers here but maybe common sense will prevail somewhere down the line. Ain’t holding my breath!😢😢😢😢
The answer…
You may have learned this in ECON 101 – “supply and demand”.
Until the demand is curbed, we will continue to have a supply of incidents that make us long for the days of Allen’s in Normaltown, and rabbits feet sold in the souvenir stands before a 1 pm kickoff.
What fuels demand?
tv revenue fueled by being able to gamble on every single play.
money from very wealthy folks who desire the glory of winning.
I agree on the Econ 101 part. I just don’t know if there will ever be that point where it will happen. Oh, l could use an Allen’s quarter hamburger, cold draft in a frosty mug and a couple of games on the bowling machine! Those some great times!
No, what they didn’t teach in Econ 101 is that once you start making it a little about the money, human nature takes over and it eventually becomes all about the money…..
What is the basis of this ruling? There is no restraint of trade. These guys have access to the NFL and other leagues to make income playing football. The league should immediately appeal.
The basis is they are spoiled and are not getting exactly what they want, when they want it, and how they want it.
That’s clearly the basis of the filing, but I’m wondering on what basis the judge is making the ruling. Other than being paid for by someone in the athletic department, or just being a stupid fan.
Its apparent to me that the courts view college football as just another professional sports league. And its a difficult to make a contrary argument at this point. If the AL said: “we’re not playing with anyone who played in the NL in 2025!” wouldn’t the courts call bullshit? Yes they would. You can’t have artificial restraints on how a man makes a living. Liberty and justice for all.
Of course had the ncaa really embraced amateurism, this could have been avoided.
Then we get NIL. Then in house NIL. Consequences follow. Who would have thought there would be consequences?
Well, I did.
Isn’t that apples and oranges though? The AL is half of the highest level of baseball. The SEC is, at most, 1/4 of the second highest level of football. There are many other options for these players to pursue an income playing football other than the SEC.
I believe what I was told during that same time with regard to “romantic amateurism” was I would have had a better argument if I would have just said I don’t want to pay players.
The highest bidder is LSU. For these players the highest level of football is found on a college campus.
But isn’t the player argument one of restraint of trade? And if that’s the case, doesn’t it fall on its face when you have many other options? Just because the highest bidder has been removed it doesn’t mean they don’t have the opportunity to continue getting more bids.
Restraints don’t have to be absolute. If it were, no one would ever need an antitrust exemption. There is always someone somewhere offering that job.
The issue are:
what is the rule designed to do?
why is the rule there? what is its justification?
does the rule unfairly or irrationally inhibit the earning potential of the aggrieved party?
Got it. As to the final question, is that narrowed only to the players seeking the opportunity or is the larger picture of college football and the impact of them returning to school has on other players on the roster also a consideration?
If you are asking if the courts can require a roster spot be available in this situation, I would just say that a player who was drafted and signed but couldn’t find a place to land would find himself a very inquisitive judge.
In short, somebody is going to want the player and if no one is biting, there’s probably a story and that story is probably an antitrust violation.
To prove an antitrust violation, I believe you have to prove market power if I remember my business law class taught by Professor Jere Morehead. That’s why the NCAA has been the target of all of the lawsuits for NIL and eligibility because they are the source of market power.
The SEC doesn’t have market power. There are lots of other conferences where an athlete may take his/her services. The only way to prove antitrust in this case is to establish some kind of collusion among conferences that creates market power. Enacting similar policies without a smoking gun proving collusion isn’t an antitrust violation.
If this was such a great case, Jeffrey Kessler and/or Tom Mars would be right in the middle of it. Mars is out there saying the SEC should win. Kessler seems to be silent on this.
These local judges are damn ridiculous now. Using this bunch’s logic, can’t a local judge in Tuscaloosa issue a TRO to LSU saying their football team is precluded from entering Tuscaloosa County for any 7-day period including November 7, 2026? Can’t a judge in Pickens County, SC issue a TRO to Clemson University precluding its football team from playing the LSU Tigers due to the presence of professional football players on the Tigers’ roster resulting in an unfair advantage due to the ACC’s ban?
I told all of you when the NCAA refused to litigate the Diego Pavia case as far as they possibly could, this would eventually be the result. I think some here told me I was crazy.
Yet here we are.
Tom Mars actually is on the SEC’s side in all of this. He believes the league will immediately appeal any TRO and also file an action in federal court to set aside these actions. He also thinks the law is on the SEC’s side in these cases because the actions are taken against schools who violate the policy rather than the athletes (I’m guessing Jere Morehead and Mike Raeber – probably a King & Spalding partner or 2 as well – were involved in crafting the rule to hold up in federal court).
I don’t understand all the overwrought handwringing here. Under our current system if LSU is offering 750k and the Browns are offering 275k why can’t the player take the bigger bag?
What rule or value is being exalted by the ncaa or the sec here other than:
We don’t like it!!
Seems a thin case to me. They can’t use amateurism because they already wiped their ass with it. I get the rule if you declare you are ineligible, but what is superior about that rule than if you sell a signature you’re ineligible?
Seems to me that once you go pro, and they have, all your amateur-based rules go with it.
Understand that if it were up to me this would not be an available choice as LSU would have no bag. But as they have been given the option of the bag, what’s the problem?
Bring back amateurism, I know it isn’t. I called this dumpster fire years ago.
I don’t blame Lane if it wasn’t him, it’d be someone else. Lane’s job is to win and to do that he needs to get the players possible.
If the Kifiin Kancer thinks he needs these players from Ole Miss or from Brian Kelly’s LSU to win, maybe he isn’t the coach we all have been led to believe he is (or that he wants to project).
I do believe the next stage of this will be the other members of the SEC are going to step forward and say if you suit up a single one of these players, we will refuse to participate. What happens if LSU calls their threat remains to be seen, but this has the potential to rip the SEC as a league of equals apart.
I think other teams will follow Lane. They won’t risk SEC money to stop scheduling LSU.
If anything I see the NFL getting involved to somehow stop this from happening. The NFL has more competent lawyers to defend their ability to keep their costs down and more easily form a roster.
The NFL hasn’t lifted a finger in 100 years to help college football. The NFL created this whole thing with their requirement that you must be out of high school for 3 years before being eligible for their draft. Past performance is indicative of future results in this case.
What does follow Lane mean? There is no program that is bigger than the brand. LSU’s brand certainly doesn’t qualify (they aren’t one of the 10 most valuable brands in the published valuations). Agreeing to play games vs. LSU this year is saying that.
LSU’s membership in the SEC is voluntary. If they don’t want to comply with the rules they all agreed to, the other members absolutely have the right to tell them to go pound sand.
Let the cry ass babies play. Sankey and the rest (NCAA) get your crap together and get ready for next year (something else will come up).
“Mr. Sankey, Judge Moneymaker is on the line”.
So he got away with this? Un-fucking-believeable! How is it Thst nobody has any power to stop all this bullshit? College sports went from Todd Gurley has to sit to everybody can do whatever they want whenever they want and nobody can do anything about it. Fucking Kiffin. Why is it like everybody just has to let him have whatever he wants?
The next option seems to be among the individual schools. Who is on LSU’s schedule? What if they all refused to play them?
Will the ADs have the nerve to do this? If so, look out.
Clemson’s AD just needs to float the idea in public, they are considering not boarding the plane to got to BR. Wonder how ESPN/Mickey would respond.
They would throw a damn fit. But there wouldnt be much they could do about it. This seems to be the answer. Just tell LSU/Freshwater, “Yeah that’s an impressive team you got there. Be a shame if nobody played them.” Kiffin is not in damn charge of college football and he can be shown.
I am guessing that the other 15 schools in the SEC are discussing this right now as a final resort. I would think Clemson as LSU’s P4 opponent would be telling LSU and ESPN (as the broadcast partner for both leagues) this. Can you imagine LSU being 3-0?
Your TRO may allow you to sign these guys, but you can’t litigate your way into forcing us to show up.
because I couldn’t reply to your thread above re: “LSU’s membership in the SEC is voluntary. If they don’t want to comply with the rules they all agreed to, the other members absolutely have the right to tell them to go pound sand. ”
If it was truly “voluntary”, there wouldn’t be buy out clauses to leave the conference. So I agree it is “voluntary” but not without consequences.
The more interesting question is if they were booted out of the conference without an exit fee, how many other conferences would start throw money at them to join?
The Big 10 would laugh at LSU based on academics. No way would they admit them. Oregon barely got in.
LSU would take a pay cut to join the ACC because the grant of rights is currently the only thing holding it together and admitting an institution with more money would break the whole thing apart.
Unless Cody Campbell and the Mormon church write them an annual check, LSU would also take a pay cut to go to the Big 12.
The remaining members of the SEC hold all of the cards in this case IF they want to play them. There’s a reason Texas Tech backed down when the Big 12 decided to threaten the nuclear option over Sorsby.
Per Nielsen, in 2025, LSU was the 6th most watched team in college football. Given there is only one Big10 School (tOaStU), and no non-SEC schools ahead of it, I seriously doubt they would take a pay cut.
I stand by my point. The B1G would not admit LSU based on academics. The other 2 conferences cannot make LSU whole against what they earn in the SEC currently without blowing up their respective conferences.
It would be really nice if everyone on their schedule used it as motivation to whip their mercenary asses all season long
It is interesting that Kirby has said to each his own, but our guys have worked too hard since February to allow some guy to return and take a spot. He said if others could do it while maintaining culture, more power to them.
I wish there had been a message board in 1982 so we could look back and see how the Georgia fanbase felt about Herschel leaving school early.
Jan Kemp has entered the chat.
I give this reply an A.
How does a ruling by a local judge apply to all schools all over the USA? College sports is clearly, to me, interstate commerce. It is a federal question to be applied in federal courts..
It doesn’t.
I also wonder how a court in Dallas, Texas purports to exercise personal jurisdiction over the Southeastern Conference (unless it has an office there, which would be news to me). Relatedly, presumably the plaintiffs added a Texas defendant (maybe A&M or the Horns) to defeat diversity and prevent the Conference from removing the case to federal court? Raises more issues.
And apparently this TRO was issued without a hearing? Seems pretty outrageous; generally, most court rules require that when an ex-parte TRO is issued, the Court must hold a hearing (giving the defendant an opportunity to be heard) within 2-3 days – will that happen here?
Lots of weird stuff about this case for sure…..
The Texas judge has jurisdiction because the parties do business in that state, period.
Then why didn’t the athletes also get a TRO against the Big 12 as well given the Big 12 is based in the state of Texas?
https://www.espn.com/college-football/story/_/id/49735747/big-12-announces-ban-all-professionals-returning
Maybe no one asked for one…yet? I don’t know.
But the Dallas County Judge would also have jurisdiction over the Big 12.
It just seems all of this is aimed at the SEC because these athletes were being courted (or hoping to be courted) by SEC suitors.
It won’t be long before we get a ruling stating that it’s restraint of trade to require players to be enrolled in school.
Joe Burreaux and Justine Fields never set foot in a class. Cade Mays at least sat next to me in Pre-Calc(my middle aged academic career could be a situational comedy) and played Fortnight until drop/add. The womens basketball player and soccer player rode out the semester. The fact we no longer see academic casualties makes me think enrollment/grades have been hacked. I shudder to think what Lil Stet did academically. AND I DON’T CARE. When Spencer Hall (a proud Gator, I don’t know how those two words go together) refused to rat out Gurley when the little snitch was shopping the story, I figured it was gonna get worse and it has. Sadly, I don’t think it can bottom out or any of us will no longer care enough to see things through. Never thought I’d tap out but it seems like I’m fading to black with all this. I would head to the light but I’m worried I’ll only find a shiny disco ball spinning sausage fest with shirtless Mackerfee bros twerkin to house music, chugging protein/peptide shakes and wondering where the hot chicks are SAD
Ahh, the joy of having your fate determined by elected southern state court judges who are now passing out nationwide TROs like candy. What a joke. I hope the SEC goes to war against Kiffin and LSU if they play these guys. Hell, I would be perfectly fine if LSU was no longer in the conference given the current shady trajectory of their athletic department.
Welp! I was right about a lawsuit being filed immediately and got my answer about why the NCAA and now conferences can’t make their own rules of eligibility…activist judges. (Read Judge Hoffman’s bio and you’ll understand). Bad cases make bad law and as Dawg79 pointed out to me the other day the wheels of justice are going to take time to resolve this mess. Much more than a week for sure. And you just know some jackass state rep can’t wait to file some stupid legislation to make things worse. It’s all for the children of course and Washington’s solution is going to be awful. RIP college sports.
Ya, scary:
https://www.dallascounty.org/government/courts/civil_district/68th/bio.php
I am a legal idiot, but could the prez issue an executive order to stop all this bullshit? I mean I have to ask
An enforceable one?
No.
I am mostly amazed at Kiffin’s continuing self destructive behavior. The man cannot walk the streets of Knoxville or Oxford without body guards, and he looks determined to eventually add all remaining SEC towns to that list. He may end up being the most hated man in the history of college football. Like dammit man, take the high road for once and let someone else play Darth Vader.
The guy has never been successful in a single high-pressure head coaching job. Maybe he’ll change his fortune with the assistance of the Governor of Louisiana, the founder of Raising Cane’s, and the judicial system of Louisiana. Maybe he’ll be tarmac-ed in Athens in a couple of years.
Yeah nobody can save Kiffin from Kiffin. He has gone too far this time and I also do t think there is any way on Hod’s green earth he doesn’t end up in some sort of major trouble on Baton Rouge. Maybe it’s a personal scandal, maybe it involves football. Maybe it’s some combination of. But he is absolutely going to mash the fool button and hold it down. He will not win a championship down there NFL players or not. You heard it here first.
Methinks you are on the right track!!
Where are the university presidents & trustees? I know it won’t happen, but at some point I’d think that some president would stand up and say “We’re an academic institution, not a minor league for the NFL, and we’re not participating in this bullshit. You want to play sports? You get a scholarship, 4 (now 5) years to graduate, and have to maintain a 2.0 GPA to be eligible. If the athletic boosters want to pay you to play, that’s between you and them. BUT, once you leave the university, we’ll thank you for the memories and wish you the best. You can come back to finish an academic degree, but your spot on the team has been given to another student. See you at Homecoming weekend.”
I also believe in the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and that the nice lady dancing on the pole really does love me…
We can dream tho can’t we?
I agree tho. The only answer is Ivy League model.
Let the JUCO’s and community colleges and even Troy State’s of the world try and turn a dime on this bullshit.
I guaran-damn-tee you Sanford will still be full when Auburn comes to town.
And then Auburn will cheat and get banished…
This right here. Each university president can make the right call and would be fairly impervious to these type of court rulings unless collusion could be proven (and probably could be when put on the witness stand and asked about their dinner conversations at the winter resort meetings or the TV contracts). The bigger problem they have is their booster alums insisting on breaking the rules. We’re all blaming Kiffen…don’t be so naive. He’s doing what his money backers demand for that guaranteed contract. Win, win now, win anyway you can.
Not to be contrarian, but the NCAA shares some blame. You make a five year rule, but leave out the current five year players? To make matters worse, you wait until after the draft to make the rule, so all the marginal (in terms of NFL talent) 4 year players have already decided to try to make an NFL team because they have no other option. These players, while iffy in terms of the NFL, are certainly viable in college. By viable, I mean they stand to make $500k plus for their 5th year. You don’t have to be Morgan and Morgan to see the potential lawsuit. So the real question I can’t answer, is why leave out current 5th year players and why wait until some 5th year players made the only choice they had at the time (i.e. enter the draft)?
If your kid could have made half a million dollars this year, just like next years kids will be able to, would you just forget about it?
Every rule has an arbitrary timeline with winners and losers. I’m not buying the argument.
Unfortunately this is only the beginning. College football is becoming (or has become) a full-fledged professional League and unless and until there’s collective bargaining pretty much anything goes. Maybe I am naive and living in the past but there really is little to no connection with college anymore.
Come on!
Its just going to be a couple of guys getting a shoe contract!!
You know like a kid in a dorm making money on an app!!
The water is fine! Jump!!
(Any one who sided with our late host on this argument should not be heard to whine now. You were all warned!!!).
It might have been ok for the SEC to stand alone on this but they had to coordinate with the B1G. That made it for sure restraint of trade.
The Big 10 hasn’t been named in one of these actions. Nothing public seems to indicate the 2 are colluding on this.
how is this different than the bammer G-League player that eventually was told he could no longer play last year?
I’m guessing it was the expanded eligibility rule:
5 years to play 5.
Get ready guys, it’s fixing to get worse. LA judge dropped another ruling! Just a cluster!
It’s time for the other 15 schools in the SEC to fight fire with fire and do with LSU what the Big 12 were planning to do to Texas Tech over Sorsby. If it means kicking LSU (or any other school that does this) out of the SEC, so be it.
Did the NCAA do something stupid with the timing and scope of the 5 for 5 announcement? Yes. Does that change the fact that these athletes made a decision based on the rules in force at the time to forgo the remainder of any eligibility to enter the NFL draft? No.
Now that they are being cut, at risk of being cut, or being potentially offered more to return to college over what their rookie contract would be, they want to come back to college.
Get the hell out of here.
With all due respect to lawyers that are refugees, lawyers & judges are uncessary ,( i cleaned up this comment).
As Ranger Russ, would say, FTMS.
SB would have disagreed. His point was that he was ok with the free market as long as athletes could be represented in the NCAA’s cartel.
No one likes them until they need one. Then they want the best.
The saying is, 500 at the bottom of the ocean is a good start!! Good ones for sure, but the rogues are outnumbering the good ones. Just turn on the TV or even your phone. Once was a noble profession, not so much anymore!!
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”
Written in 1591.
I think the reputation is of long-standing and not altogether undeserved. My initial retort was not a defense of the profession’s merits but of its necessity.
My personal fave insult:
I’d put the profession in the category of necessary evil, like money, interest, taxes, politicians, defense contractors, and insurance companies.
You need them. You just don’t want them. Except the money of course, but never forget Biggie’s cautionary tale…
I would love to see LSU field some of these players next Saturday. Immediately followed by the SEC suspending Kiffin along with fining LSU at the maximum level. Then informing them that all league games with illegal players will be forfeited.
I really don’t care for Lane Kiffin. Laissez les bons temps rouler!
As LSU and their representatives dig their heels in, this thing is headed to a major game of chicken. I don’t see the SEC and its other members backing off.
I for one, hope not. This has got to the crisis stage. Again, ya’ll know what my saying is, Glad l am old!!!