Big Ten Bans NFL Returnees, SEC Weighs $1 Million Fine as LSU Digs In on Kiffin's Roster Moves

The Big Ten made it official Tuesday: no more NFL returnees, period. The conference unanimously approved a rule barring any athlete who signed a professional contract, declared for the NFL Draft without withdrawing, or set foot in an NFL training camp from playing in the conference, according to Fox News. The SEC is now deciding whether to follow suit, and Lane Kiffin is standing in the middle of it.

LSU has added three former NFL players since a Louisiana state court blew open a legal loophole: tight end Dae'Quan Wright and defensive lineman Zxavian Harris, both recently released by the Cleveland Browns and New Orleans Saints, plus former Notre Dame edge rusher Junior Tuihalamaka, according to CBS Sports. Wright and Harris both played for Kiffin at Ole Miss before he left for LSU in December 2025. A ruling from Louisiana's 19th District Court gave them, and more than 100 athletes across multiple sports, an extra season of eligibility tied to the NCAA's new five-years-to-play-five rule, which didn't grandfather in the 2022 recruiting class.

CBS Sports reported that LSU didn't just wait for the loophole. Sources told the outlet Kiffin and the program reached out to players on NFL rosters, or their representatives, encouraging them to file suit against the NCAA, and that the Louisiana case wasn't filed in Baton Rouge by accident. LSU wasn't first to try this path. Texas added offensive lineman Cole Hutson through a similar Texas lawsuit, and a broader Colorado rule briefly let 2022-class players return, though that didn't extend to athletes who'd already turned pro.

The SEC responded with an emergency video call among conference presidents and chancellors Monday night, then a public statement condemning the practice without naming LSU directly. "College athletes, not former professional athletes, have been at the heart of the Southeastern Conference," the league said, according to Newsweek and multiple outlets that carried the same statement. "Individuals who choose to leave college athletics, sign professional playing contracts, and compete professionally should not then be permitted to return to college competition. Allowing that to occur will blur the line between college and professional sports, create significant competitive equity concerns, and reduce opportunities for high school and current college athletes. College sports are for college athletes."

The stakes for LSU are real money. On3's Pete Nakos reported that an SEC athletic director said the league should disqualify LSU from the season, fine the program $1 million, or both if Kiffin plays Wright or Harris in defiance of a conference rule. "Something has to be done," the AD told On3. "This is the worst I've seen."

Kiffin isn't backing down. On the "Pat McAfee Show" Tuesday, he argued the conferences are picking and choosing which court orders to respect. "All court orders have been followed," Kiffin said, according to Newsweek. "You can't decide, 'Hey, I like that injunction, I don't like that one, that player I kind of like, and I like the way that they got him eligible, so we're going to follow those rules, not these.' It really doesn't work that way." He pointed to precedent set by court-ordered eligibility extensions for players like Diego Pavia and Trinidad Chambliss as evidence the SEC has already accepted this kind of legal intervention when it suited other programs, according to theScore.

Kiffin's specific defense of this case matters here. He told reporters he generally opposes NFL veterans returning to college ball, but argues the 2022 class is a unique situation: those players weren't warned before entering the draft that a fifth year of eligibility might eventually exist under revised NCAA rules. Whether that distinction holds up as a matter of conference policy is exactly what SEC administrators are now debating.

Sports Illustrated's coverage, riddled with duplicated paragraphs in its published version, still captured the key fact: SEC executives, along with counterparts from the Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC, called meetings for this week specifically to respond to the Louisiana ruling and its ripple effects. Kiffin has also repeatedly noted LSU isn't the only SEC program pursuing former NFL players, though sources told CBS Sports some SEC schools have deliberately opted out, unwilling to disrupt their locker rooms or cut walk-ons for a returning pro.

The collision course is set. NFL roster cuts hit their final deadline Aug. 30, which could produce more players in Kiffin's position looking for a legal way back to college football before the SEC decides whether to adopt the Big Ten's outright ban. Whether the SEC's rule, if passed, would apply retroactively to Wright, Harris and Tuihalamaka, or whether LSU would challenge it in court the same way plaintiffs challenged the NCAA, remains unresolved.