Dallas Judge Blocks the SEC Ban, Coaches Still Face Fines

Dallas County Judge Martin Hoffman signed a 14-day order on August 27 that bars the NCAA, the SEC, and commissioner Greg Sankey from blocking 41 athletes from college sports in 2026-27. The NCAA attended the hearing. The freeze is the first to restrain a Power conference after the SEC and its peers moved this week to keep former professionals off campus rosters.

The paper does not put anyone in a game. Schools still have to offer a spot, and the people who sign those spots are coaches and presidents staring at a half-season suspension and a fine equal to half a sport’s operating budget.

A 14-Day Order Does Not Fill a Roster

Hoffman restrained the NCAA and the SEC from using the NCAA five-year rule, or any other NCAA or SEC bylaw, to keep the plaintiffs out of Division I in 2026-27 on the ground that they have already played four seasons. If the league wants to sit one of them for some other reason, it has to come back and argue that reason in his courtroom.

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.

Martin Hoffman, Dallas County district judge, August 27 order

He wrote that the court’s aim is to put the plaintiffs back where they stood at the end of their last college season. The order lasts 14 days, with a hearing set for September 11, and it tells the NCAA to open the transfer portal for one week for this group alone.

WHAT THE DALLAS ORDER DOES

• The freeze: It blocks Bylaw 12.6 and any SEC rule used to keep the 41 out because they already played four seasons.
• The portal: The NCAA must open a one-week window so this group can move.
• The burden: Any other reason to sit a plaintiff has to be argued in front of Hoffman.
• The limit: No school is required to offer a roster spot, and the order expires in 14 days.

Jordan Hudson, a Dallas Cowboys receiver who played at SMU and TCU, and Wesley Bissainthe, a Kansas City Chiefs linebacker from Miami, are on the list even though neither played in the SEC. The portal week is how they would reach a new campus at all. Whether a coach will take that call is a separate question, and that is where the SEC’s own penalties still sit.

LSU Voted Yes, Then Sat Out the Punishment

SEC presidents, chancellors, and athletic directors met in Birmingham on August 25 and voted 16-0 to keep off their rosters anyone who declared for the NFL, NBA, or WNBA draft and did not withdraw the right way, signed a pro contract, or appeared on a pro roster. LSU president Wade Rousse and athletic director Verge Ausberry voted with the rest on that rule.

The next day the league asked the same group to bless the punishment. Rousse abstained. The penalty vote passed 15-0. LSU football coach Lane Kiffin had already been recruiting former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright, former Ole Miss defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, and former Notre Dame edge Junior Tuihalamaka, and men’s basketball coach Will Wade had been chasing former St. John’s guard RJ Luis Jr. after a Louisiana judge let Luis practice.

Kiffin said the injunctions mean those players will land somewhere, so LSU recruited them. He also said that if a court later reverses course, the Tigers will follow the SEC rule. That split, a yes on the ban and a pass on the fine, is why the rest of the league is watching Baton Rouge instead of Dallas.

At the end of the day, through these injunctions, they’re going to play for you or play somewhere else around the country. So we made the decision to recruit them, like most people probably are.

Lane Kiffin, LSU football coach

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the conference’s stance ridiculous and said, “Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman, who chairs the SEC’s executive committee, answered for the other 15 schools this week.

We didn’t just cook up a rule. It’s not a new rule. The way we see it, we are a voluntary membership organization, and we have a right to set and enforce our rules. You don’t get to un-sign it and come back.

Donde Plowman, Tennessee chancellor and SEC executive committee president

The Fine Equals Half a Football Budget

The August 26 memo is the part coaches actually have to live with. A school that puts a covered athlete on its roster is looking at a head-coach suspension for half the season, a fine equal to 50 percent of that sport’s operating budget, and the loss of voting rights on conference business. Sankey already had written, in a Louisiana affidavit, that letting signed professionals return “fuels disruption” and is a threat to the integrity of college sports.

LSU’s public athletics filing for fiscal 2025 lists football operating costs at $50.74 million. Half of that is $25.37 million, which is the number sitting on Kiffin’s desk if the SEC can still collect. The conference’s own statement on August 25 said college athletes, not former professionals, sit at the heart of the league, and that people who leave, sign, and compete in the pros should not come back.

THE SEC PENALTIES ON THE TABLE

A team is not in violation until it finalizes a roster the day before its opener. For LSU that lock is Friday, September 4. The Dallas freeze tries to stop the SEC from punishing a school that suits up one of Hoffman’s 41, but Kiffin is still asking the league for guidance, which is how a 14-day court paper and a conference fine can both be true at once.

Big Ten, ACC and Big 12 Followed Within Two Days

The SEC did not invent the wall. The Big Ten voted first on August 25, limiting the ban to football and hanging a half-season coach suspension plus a school fine on anyone who crossed it. The SEC went further that same evening and folded in NBA, G League, and WNBA contracts. The Big 12 voted on August 26 and applied the ban to every conference sport. The ACC boarded last on August 27, the same day Hoffman signed in Dallas, and covered football and basketball. The Mountain West, outside the Power group, passed a similar bar hours after the ACC.

THE POWER LEAGUES THIS WEEK

Hoffman’s order names the NCAA, the SEC, and Sankey. It does not name the Big Ten, the ACC, or the Big 12. Language in the filings talks about NCAA conferences in general, and the one-week portal is an NCAA door, but a coach in those other leagues still has a home rule that says do not play a former pro. A Dallas freeze on Sankey does not, on its face, rewrite an ACC board vote.

Why the Class of 2022 Was Cut Off

The fight started with a rule the NCAA sold as simpler. On June 23 the Division I Cabinet approved age-based five-year eligibility rules that replace seasons of competition and most redshirt waivers with a clock that starts at full-time enrollment or the academic year after a 19th birthday, whichever comes first. NCAA president Charlie Baker said members and athletes wanted rules that were easier to understand.

The association was clear about who was left out. Student-athletes who used their final season under the old rules in 2025-26 get no extra year. Current athletes with eligibility left after 2025-26, and new students enrolling in 2026-27, get whichever model helps them more. The Class of 2022, which spent its career against extra-year players from the COVID waiver, was the group that ran out of seasons this spring and then watched the new model start without them.

Lawsuits followed in state after state. A Colorado federal judge tried a class-wide extra year in July, and an appeals court later stayed that order. Hoffman’s Dallas paper is one more state-court patch, aimed at 41 named people rather than a national class, and it is already running on a two-week clock. A South Carolina judge this week denied a similar temporary order, which is why no one in an athletic department is treating last Thursday as the last word.

Who the Dallas Order Covers

The 41 names mix football, basketball, and a few other sports. Three are on NFL rosters: Hudson with the Cowboys, Bissainthe with the Chiefs, and former Penn State and Washington receiver Omari Evans, also with Kansas City. Two signed WNBA deals this spring and have not played a regular-season game: Christeen Iwuala, who signed a rookie-scale contract with the Washington Mystics, and Bailey Maupin, who signed a training-camp contract with the Golden State Valkyries.

THE NAMES DRAWING THE PRO BAN

• NFL rosters: Jordan Hudson (Cowboys), Wesley Bissainthe (Chiefs), Omari Evans (Chiefs).
• WNBA contracts: Christeen Iwuala (Mystics) and Bailey Maupin (Valkyries), neither in a regular-season game.
• Other paths: Former Georgia safety JaCorey Thomas went through a Panthers minicamp; former Ohio State kicker Jayden Fielding signed in the CFL; SMU safety Ahmaad Moses did not sign a pro deal and has been in camp with the Mustangs.

Moses is the reminder that not every plaintiff is a bounce-back from a pro camp. The SEC and ACC bans are built around contracts, drafts, and rosters. A player who never signed can still need a fifth year, and Hoffman’s order covers that group too. The conference fight, and the $25.37 million problem, is about the ones who did sign.

Thursday in Baton Rouge Comes First

A second courtroom is moving faster than Dallas. On August 28 a Louisiana judge added the SEC and Sankey to an existing order in a case built around Class of 2022 football players, including several Kiffin wants. That hearing is Thursday, September 3, in Baton Rouge, two days before LSU’s season opener against Clemson on Saturday, September 5.

Wright took a walk-through on Monday, August 31. The NCAA’s seven-day practice rule means that even if Thursday goes his way, he is short of the days required to play Saturday. Tuihalamaka, who did not sign an NFL contract, has been practicing longer. LSU soccer already tested the other Louisiana order on August 30, when Jazmin Ferguson and Jocelyn Ollivierre entered a match against Arizona in the 21st minute, the first SEC athletes to compete under that freeze.

THE CLOCK FROM THE BAN TO KICKOFF

1. August 25: Big Ten and SEC vote to keep former professionals off their rosters; LSU votes yes.
2. August 26: SEC presidents approve the penalties 15-0; LSU abstains. The Big 12 extends its ban to all sports.
3. August 27: The ACC joins. Hoffman signs the Dallas order covering 41 athletes.
4. August 28: A Louisiana judge adds the SEC and Sankey to the Baton Rouge football case.
5. August 30: LSU soccer plays two athletes under the Louisiana freeze.
6. August 31: Wright joins an LSU walk-through. Kiffin says he is waiting on Thursday and staying on Clemson.
7. September 3: Baton Rouge hearing on whether the SEC can punish schools that play the Louisiana plaintiffs.
8. September 4: LSU’s roster lock for the opener.
9. September 5: LSU hosts Clemson. Hoffman’s Dallas hearing is still six days away, on September 11.

Kiffin said Monday that all he wants is clarity from the SEC, and that the league cannot give final clarity until Thursday’s ruling. He also said there was never an intent to play someone against an SEC rule. University presidents around the conference have been blunt about their frustration with LSU since the Louisiana add-on, and Texas coach Steve Sarkisian said the presidents got this right.

Hoffman’s 14-day paper is still in force through September 10, and the 41 names in Dallas still have a September 11 date. The people who have to print a depth chart this week are not in that courtroom. They are in Baton Rouge, staring at Friday’s roster lock, a half-season on the sideline, and a $25.37 million line in a football budget, while a different judge decides whether the SEC can still collect.