Who’s in Charge Here? NCAA, LSU, SEC Dispute College Football Eligibility

Week one of college football brought not only the buzz of early favorites for the playoff, players to watch for the Heisman Trophy, and schools eager to see their new coaches in action, it also swept in a flurry of last-second litigation that raises the question: in college sports, who has the final say on rules?

Traditionally, it was the NCAA’s way or the highway. But debate surrounding LSU’s roster going into their first game challenged who gets to make the final call on what is allowed and what is not. Following NCAA rule changes and other litigation this summer about fifth-year eligibility for college athletes, the SEC unanimously adopted a standard mandating that SEC universities should not place former professional athletes on their rosters. But LSU intended to include two players—Zxavian Harris and Dae’Quan Wright—on its roster despite the fact that Harris and Wright both signed NFL contracts in the offseason after playing for Ole Miss last year. 

What happens when—after the SEC adopts a rule against it—an SEC team intends to play athletes who spent most of the previous month at NFL training camps? Is that team “legally” allowed to do that? Who adjudicates whether that is allowed? If it is not allowed, who decides the consequences? Civil courts? The NCAA? Congress? Conferences such as the SEC? Those questions remain unanswered and the tension continues to simmer—even after LSU elected not to include Harris and Wright on the final roster for their first matchup. 

“I had to make a decision that is for the big picture of LSU and the LSU football program, with the uncertainties of what potentially could have come by adding them to the roster," LSU Head Coach Lane Kiffin explained on College Gameday on Saturday, September 5. "We couldn’t get exact reasons or … what that would mean if we added them." Aiming to make the decision in "the best interest of the team and the university,” Kiffin said, he removed them from the roster for Saturday’s game. 

Harris and Wright, along with 40 other athletes, sued the NCAA in Louisiana state court seeking a ruling that would declare them eligible to play a fifth year of college sports. That court issued a preliminary injunction barring the SEC and NCAA from punishing schools that roster and play an athlete who has signed a professional sports contract or even trained with a professional sports team. That ruling seemed to clear the way for Harris and Wright to take the field for LSU on Saturday.

But while the parties were attending the contentious hearing in Baton Rouge on Thursday, the SEC separately filed a lawsuit against LSU in Alabama federal court. The SEC asked the federal court for a preliminary and permanent injunction “prohibiting the defendants from violating the conference's First Amendment rights by compelling the conference to associate with conduct that is contrary to the Conference's purpose and mission” and “barring Defendants from seeking to deter, coerce, prevent, or punish the Conference for exercising its First Amendment rights.” The federal court did not issue any rulings in the SEC’s newly filed case before kickoff on Saturday. 

Even the question of which court’s rulings prevail is up in the air. By invoking the First Amendment, the SEC would presumably argue that the federal court’s ruling trumps any ruling from the Louisiana state court under the Supremacy Clause. On the other hand, LSU could argue that the basis for the Louisiana court’s decision was a matter of state law, and point to precedent holding that federal courts cannot overturn a state court’s interpretation of its own state’s laws. 

The SEC is not waiting to find out. On Tuesday morning, it amended its federal court complaint to add a request that the court affirm the conference’s authority to expel LSU altogether. In doing so, the SEC also disclosed that the SEC presidents and chancellors are set to meet on September 10 to decide whether to terminate LSU’s membership. The SEC framed its decision as one to reinforce its ability to self-govern, saying it was acting “to protect the right of the Conference and its member institutions to govern themselves” and that they “have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed.” This is the first clear attempt to gain some control over the governance chaos. 

However, looming in the background is the Protect College Sports Act making its way through U.S. Congress, which does not directly address this fifth-year of eligibility issue, but would introduce an entirely new layer of governance on college sports. The NCAA’s rules—once the end-all be-all of college sports—now hang in an unprecedented and precarious balance with the NCAA, conferences, member universities, state courts, federal courts, state legislatures and Congress all staking out their authority on college sports. As the boundaries of both longstanding and new rules continue to be pushed, expect to see more legal Hail Mary plays from all involved.

So, who is in charge? We may well learn the answer soon enough.