A Texas Judge Freezes the SEC Ban on Pro Returnees

A Dallas County judge on Thursday barred the NCAA, the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey from blocking 41 athletes from one more college season. District Judge Martin Hoffman signed a temporary restraining order after a hearing the NCAA attended, and he gave the group a one-week window in the transfer portal.

The paper lasts 14 days. Schools still have to decide whether to put those players on a roster while half-season coach suspensions and fines equal to half a sport’s operating budget remain the conference’s published price.

The Order Reopens a One-Week Portal

Hoffman restrained the NCAA and the SEC from using NCAA Bylaw 12.6, or any other NCAA or SEC rule, to keep the plaintiffs out of Division I in 2026-27 because they already played four seasons. The Athletic, which obtained the order, called it the first major court ruling against an individual conference after the Power 4 spent the week writing bans on athletes who had signed professional contracts.

Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Jordan Hudson, Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Wesley Bissainthe and Chiefs wide receiver Omari Evans are among the plaintiffs and are listed on NFL rosters. Christeen Iwuala, who signed a rookie-scale deal with the WNBA’s Washington Mystics in April, and Bailey Maupin, who signed a training-camp contract with the Golden State Valkyries, are named too. Reuters reported that neither woman has played a regular-season WNBA game.

Hudson played at SMU. Bissainthe played at Miami. The Athletic noted that neither came through the SEC, which does not shrink what the order does to the conference’s new rule. SMU safety Ahmaad Moses is on the list as well. He was a first-team All-ACC pick last season, had spinal surgery, went undrafted, and never signed a pro contract. He has been practicing with the Mustangs. For now, Hoffman’s order makes him eligible to play.

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, temporary restraining order

The signed pages say the court intends to put the plaintiffs back in the position they held at the end of their last college season. ESPN reported that the NCAA, the SEC and Sankey cannot block a return based on transfer-portal rules or time on a pro roster, and that if they want to keep someone out for another reason they have to argue it in front of Hoffman. The NCAA must open the portal for this group for one week. A hearing is set for Sept. 11.

Mitch Gilfillan, a sports lawyer who consults for the National Basketball Players Association, wrote that Hoffman, a University of Texas law graduate, “left very little room for the NCAA or any conference to bylaw around this.” Ryan Downton, who represents the Dallas plaintiffs, told ESPN the leagues “can’t come out and create a rule with immediate effect that has such draconian effect punishment that no school will take any of these players.”

Fifteen Schools Signed Off on the Fine

Two days before the Dallas order, SEC presidents confirmed a penalty package built to make rostering a former pro a ruinous choice. The Athletic, citing a person familiar with the vote, reported that the tally was 15-0, with LSU abstaining. A day earlier the same presidents had voted 16-0, LSU included, to enforce a ban on fielding athletes who had left for the NFL, NBA or WNBA.

On Monday night the conference’s presidents and chancellors had already drawn the line in public.

After a Monday evening videoconference of the Presidents and Chancellors of the Southeastern Conference, the Conference is issuing the following statement: pic.twitter.com/kwWxGz5CQ3

— Southeastern Conference (@SEC) August 24, 2026

“College athletes, not former professional athletes, have been at the heart of the Southeastern Conference,” that statement said. “Individuals who choose to leave college athletics, sign professional playing contracts, and compete professionally should not then be permitted to return to college competition.” The text closed by tying the mess to Congress and calling for passage of the Protect College Sports Act of 2026.

Tuesday night’s policy, issued after meetings in Birmingham, said an SEC school is not permitted to have an athlete on its roster who has done any of the following:

• Drafted, no withdrawal: Previously declared for the NFL, NBA or WNBA draft and did not withdraw as NCAA rules allow.
• Signed a contract: Signed with an NFL or other pro football league, the NBA or G League, or the WNBA or an affiliate.
• Made a roster: Been listed on any of those professional rosters.

Sankey was “authorized to enforce this expectation with penalties against member institutions.” By Wednesday morning the schools had the numbers: the head coach suspended for half the season, including recruiting and administrative duties; a fine of 50 percent of that sport’s operating budget for the fiscal year; loss of voting privileges on conference business; and whatever else the commissioner and the presidents added. Those terms sit next to the NCAA’s own “ghost transfer” sanctions, which already pair a 50 percent coach suspension with a 20 percent hit to a football budget for adding players outside the portal window.

Why the Class of 2022 Was Left Out

The lawsuits all run through the same hole. On June 23 the NCAA Division I Cabinet approved an age-based eligibility model that generally gives athletes who enroll by the academic year after their 19th birthday up to five years. The association’s own explainer says a continuous five-year eligibility period starts at full-time enrollment or at the academic year after the 19th birthday, whichever comes first, and that the clock does not pause for a redshirt, a transfer or time away.

The transition table on that page is blunt for one group: “Student-athletes who used their final season of competition (under previous rules) during 2025-26. No additional eligibility.” Those are the high school Class of 2022 players who burned four seasons under the old four-in-five standard and were not grandfathered when the new clock arrived. Attorney Ryan Downton told the Associated Press in June that those athletes “spent their entire college careers competing against fifth- and sixth-year players due to the COVID waiver,” and that courts should let them play in 2026-27.

State judges have been doing that in pieces. A Louisiana court on Aug. 19 granted a 10-day order covering more than 30 athletes, 16 of them football players, and opened a one-week portal. That order said players who had signed pro deals could return if they terminated the contracts and repaid what they had earned. Several of those plaintiffs entered the portal the next day, including former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright, then on the Cleveland Browns’ roster, and former Ole Miss defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, waived by the New Orleans Saints. A California order covered about 73 athletes. A nationwide class order out of Colorado was later stayed. The Athletic reported that the NCAA has won stays in multiple states even after losing the first round.

LSU Backed the Ban and Skipped the Vote

LSU is the school the rest of the league wrote the penalties to reach. Football coach Lane Kiffin has recruited Wright and Harris, both of whom played for him at Ole Miss last season and signed as undrafted free agents. Former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka, a plaintiff in the Louisiana case with no NFL contract, committed to the Tigers. Former LSU edge Jack Pyburn, on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as an undrafted free agent, has said he wants to return if he does not make the roster. Men’s basketball coach Will Wade has been in the same market, including a pursuit tied to former St. John’s forward RJ Luis Jr., who had been with the Boston Celtics and already won a separate injunction.

President Wade Rousse and athletics director Verge Ausberry voted for Tuesday’s ban. Rousse abstained when the penalty sheet came up Wednesday, CBS Sports reported. Kiffin, Wade and the administration have not offered a public comment since the SEC announced the enforcement plan. On Aug. 24, before the penalty vote, Kiffin had already defended the additions. “They were granted a fifth year by a judge saying that they were wronged by the NCAA and that they should’ve had the fifth year all along like all the kids moving forward will have a fifth year,” he said.

The Tigers open against Clemson on Sept. 5. The Louisiana case, now amended to name Sankey as a defendant according to reporting in Baton Rouge, has a hearing set for Aug. 31. That calendar is tighter than Dallas. It is also the reason LSU could put former NFL camp players in pads before Hoffman’s Sept. 11 date, if a judge in Baton Rouge goes further and if the school is willing to spend the political capital it declined to spend on Wednesday’s vote.

What Half a Football Budget Looks Like

The 50 percent figure is not a talking point. Public SEC programs report football operating expenses to the NCAA, and those filings, compiled in the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database and reported by The Dispatch in Starkville, show what the fine would mean on last year’s books. Alabama spent $82.86 million on football in fiscal 2025. LSU spent $50.74 million. The conference average among the 15 public schools was $59.4 million. Extra Points, which publishes the underlying football operating budgets for FY25, draws the same NCAA reports.

Those totals are operating costs, not NIL, and they exclude Vanderbilt, which does not file public numbers. A 50 percent fine on LSU football would still clear $25 million on last year’s spend, before any extra sanction Sankey chose to add, and before the head coach lost half the season. That is the price the other 15 campuses voted to hang on anyone who follows Kiffin through the portal Hoffman just reopened.

Conference Bans Now Run Through Dallas County

The SEC was not first and was not alone. The Big Ten moved earlier in the week. The Big 12, ACC and Notre Dame followed with versions of the same rule: no return after a professional contract or a pro roster spot. Hoffman named only the NCAA, the SEC and Sankey. The Athletic wrote that it is not yet clear whether the Dallas order can be stretched onto the other Power leagues, and that other athletes in Louisiana are expected to file similar challenges against conference rules.

1. June 23, 2026: The NCAA Division I Cabinet approves the age-based eligibility model and withholds extra seasons from athletes who used their final year in 2025-26.
2. Aug. 19: A Baton Rouge judge grants a 10-day restraining order for more than 30 athletes and opens a one-week portal.
3. Aug. 24: SEC presidents and chancellors issue the “college sports are for college athletes” statement.
4. Aug. 25: SEC schools vote 16-0 to enforce the pro-return ban; the other Power leagues lock in matching rules.
5. Aug. 26: SEC presidents vote 15-0 on the 50 percent coach-and-budget penalties. LSU abstains.
6. Aug. 27: Hoffman signs the 14-day Dallas order against the NCAA, the SEC and Sankey and requires a one-week portal for 41 plaintiffs.

USA TODAY described the Dallas pages as also stopping the SEC from punishing schools that play the plaintiffs. Lawyers reading the signed order on Friday argued it reaches coaches as well. That reading, if Hoffman holds it on Sept. 11, is the piece that actually changes a campus meeting. Eligibility for 41 people is a court result. Immunity from a $25 million fine and a half-season without a head coach is a roster decision.

A Roster Spot Still Has to Be Offered

WHAT WE KNOW

• The clock: The Dallas order expires in 14 days unless Hoffman extends it, with a hearing on Sept. 11.
• The window: The NCAA must open the transfer portal for these 41 plaintiffs for one week.
• The holdouts: Hudson, Bissainthe and Evans remain on NFL rosters and would have to leave those jobs before a college game.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Other leagues: Whether the Dallas pages bind the Big Ten, Big 12 or ACC, which passed parallel bans this week.
• Playoff risk: Whether the College Football Playoff would treat a team that dresses these players as ineligible for ranking, a point raised as soon as the order landed.
• Who signs: Whether any Power program, LSU included, will put a Dallas plaintiff on a fall roster while the penalty sheet is still in the conference’s files.

Moses can stay at SMU and play if the order holds. Hudson cannot wear a college helmet until he is off the Cowboys. Wright and Harris already committed to LSU under the Louisiana papers, which is a different caption and a different judge. The Dallas group has a week in the portal and two weeks of paper. Someone on a campus still has to offer a meeting, a scholarship and a locker, and that person now has Hoffman’s order in one hand and Sankey’s fine sheet in the other.