BATON ROUGE — LSU did not include former Ole Miss tight end Dae’Quan Wright or defensive tackle Zxavian Harris — both of whom signed NFL contracts this offseason — on the roster it submitted for Saturday’s season opener against Clemson, according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel and CBS Sports’ Brandon Marcello and John Talty.

Neither player will be available for the Tigers’ Week 1 game despite a Thursday preliminary injunction from Baton Rouge Judge William Jorden that cleared a path for LSU to roster them. Wright had told reporters Thursday he expected to play, The Advocate / NOLA.com reported.

Thamel reported LSU submitted 103 players for the Clemson game, leaving two open spots on the 105-player college football roster limit. Both Wright and Harris are enrolled at LSU and could still be added later this season, he and CBS Sports reported. It was not immediately clear when — or whether — that would happen.

The decision comes as the Southeastern Conference digs in against coach Lane Kiffin’s push to bring back former pros. CBS Sports reported earlier this week that conference leaders had discussed game forfeitures, a federal court fight, fines of up to half a program’s operating budget, a half-season suspension for the head coach, and even expulsion pressure if LSU rostered the players. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr urged SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to “take all measures available,” including suspending or removing LSU from the conference, according to that reporting.

On Thursday, while the Louisiana eligibility hearing was underway, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit in Alabama’s Northern District against Kiffin, athletic director Verge Ausberry, the university, and related defendants, seeking to enforce the conference’s ban on former professional players returning to college football, CBS Sports, Sports Illustrated, and WAFB reported. The SEC’s members had voted to bar NBA, NFL, and WNBA returnees, with stiff penalties for violators.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Ryan Downton called leaving Wright and Harris off the initial roster a “measured decision” that should “lower the temperature” and “let level heads prevail” for now, in a Saturday statement carried by The Advocate / NOLA.com. He urged the conference to examine the players’ “actual histories” before escalating further. LSU did add former Notre Dame defensive end Junior Tuihalamaka — also a plaintiff in the Louisiana case but never an NFL signee — according to that outlet.

For one Saturday night in Death Valley, the Tigers are choosing empty roster slots over a direct collision with their own conference’s enforcement machine — a reminder that association rules and punishment threats can matter as much as a state-court win when the whistle blows.

Sources