BATON ROUGE, La. – The scene outside a district court just miles away from LSU’s campus was the epicenter of college athletics, as the NCAA and SEC appeared in court to argue their case against athletes with NFL ties returning to college athletics.
A sea of reporters swarmed Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill as she exited her vehicle, opening her short media scrum with a “Go Tigers,” which set the scene for what was a wild day inside the 19th District Court.
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At the forefront of this case, with LSU head coach Lane Kiffin emphasizing multiple times that the Tigers were just obeying a court order that was previously issued allowing the school to roster athletes like former Cleveland Browns training camp tight end Dae’Quan Wright, was the argument that players with NFL or professional ties should not be allowed back in college athletics.
What started in one state court has now spread across the country, with a plethora of athletes filing lawsuits against the NCAA, and now SEC, over new guidelines enacted pertaining to the five-for-five eligibility.
Inside the Baton Rouge courtroom, lawyers for the plaintiffs, NCAA and SEC argued over whether these athletes should be granted a temporary injunction.
In the end, Judge William Jorden ruled in the favor of athletes, granting them an injunction that will allow them to be rostered this upcoming season by any school that will take them.
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A day that felt more like a John Grisham novel unfolding in real-time had lawyers from all sides arguing over what is right and what is actually legal.
There was the testimony of SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, who was on the stand for over three hours, being peppered with questions from plaintiff attorneys about how the conference can allow professional athletes who have played overseas be granted the ability to play over five seasons, compared to these plaintiffs who turned pro under the previous guidelines that left them without eligibility.
Three minutes after Sankey took the stand, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama against LSU and Kiffin, accusing them of orchestrating the recruitment of multiple athletes who would then go on to sue the conference in a Louisiana court.
This sent shockwaves through the courtroom, after plaintiff attorney Tony Clayton asked three different times whether the SEC had filed a lawsuit this morning in Alabama. It played out in real time, as lawyers for the plaintiffs were checking their phones after notifications started going off that showed the SEC had filed their suit in federal court.
Call it gamesmanship, or the SEC trying to distract from what was transpiring in Baton Rouge, but it turned out to be one of the crazier things we’ve seen in these eligibility lawsuits.
The following three hours were both entertainment and the plaintiffs trying to prove that the SEC colluded to enact new guidelines pertaining to former pro-athletes returning to college in the days after the initial court order was issued in this same court.
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This part was an aspect of the case that Judge William Jorden could not get past.
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