Despite court victory, LSU doesn’t add former NFL players to roster

FILE – LSU head coach Lane Kiffin on the sidelines before the Kinder’s Texas Bowl NCAA football game, Saturday, Dec. 27, 2025, in Houston. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)

BATON ROUGE, La. (WAKA) – LSU has not added two former NFL players to its roster for its season-opening game against Clemson, even though a judge in Baton Rouge cleared the way for them to play.

CBS Sports reports that neither Dae’Quan Wright or Zxavian Harris will play in the game. Both played for coach Lane Kiffin when they were all at Ole Miss last season before he left for LSU and they signed with NFL teams.

Thursday night, in a courtroom near the LSU campus, a judge not only gave LSU the permission it wanted, he ordered the SEC not to punish LSU if it added the players to its 105-man roster. LSU has space on the roster to potentially add the players later in the season.

Meanwhile, 400 miles away in Birmingham, the SEC’s lawsuit against LSU, Kiffin and others at the university remains in federal court. The SEC wants the court to allow it to enforce its rules. SEC schools recently voted 15-0 to ban professional players from returning to college football, with LSU not voting. The SEC’s ban comes with stiff penalties for violators, including possible game forfeitures.

Harris spent time with the Saints after exhausting his eligibility at Ole Miss under the eligibility rules in place at the end of the 2025-26 season. Wright spent time with the Eagles and Browns after also using his final season of eligibility with the Rebels.

They are among 42 athletes suing the NCAA so they can return for a fifth and final season at the college level. One member of that group is Junior Tuihalamaka, who had played at Notre Dame, who also plans to play for LSU.

The NCAA changed its eligibility rules in June. Players used to be able to compete in four seasons during a five-year window. Now, they can compete in all five seasons of a five-year window. The change created a group of outgoing seniors who were no longer eligible to play under the old rules, but now want one more season. The NCAA has already decided not to give those players that fifth season so that freshman would have more chances to play.

Both Alabama and Auburn are scheduled to play LSU later this season.