LSU keeps Dae'Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris off Clemson roster

This was supposed to be the moment LSU called the SEC's bluff. A Baton Rouge judge had granted Wright, Harris and dozens of other 2022-class players a preliminary injunction against the NCAA and SEC, clearing a path for guys who'd already been through NFL training camps to suit up for a fifth college season. Wright got cut by the Browns on Aug. 24 after a brief run with Cleveland; Harris was waived by the Saints in early August and, according to his attorney, received all of $190 in gas money for his trouble. Instead of jamming them onto the 105-man roster and daring the conference to act, Lane Kiffin left both names off the sheet submitted ahead of the Clemson opener.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Sources: LSU has not added Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris to the team’s roster for the Clemson game. They could potentially be added later in the year, as both are enrolled in school. LSU has 103 players on the roster submitted, and that leaves them two spots.

The timing mattered. Pete Thamel reported LSU submitted 103 players, two spots light of the max, which is the whole ballgame here: rosters lock the night before Game 1, but per an SEC bylaw adopted in April, teams can still add enrolled players later in the season as long as they left room. LSU left room on purpose. Nicole Auerbach called it what it was on X — 'a significant decision by LSU to back down for now' — after the SEC had made clear the penalties for defying the ban on ex-pros would be severe, up to and including suspending Kiffin and torching half the athletic department's operating budget.

It's not like LSU walked into this blind. The conference had already sued the school in federal court in Alabama, arguing that rostering Wright and Harris violates the SEC's own First Amendment right of 'expressive association' — a fight over what the league gets to say college football is. Clemson's general counsel had also flagged potential contractual issues in the leadup to Saturday's game. Against that backdrop, keeping two players on ice while a fifth Notre Dame transfer, edge rusher Junior Tuihalamaka, sails onto the roster untouched tells you exactly how radioactive Wright and Harris specifically had become.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Statement from attorney Ryan Downton of Texas Trial Group: “LSU has made a measured decision to keep these two young men off the roster for now while preserving a path for them to be added later. Everyone should use that space to lower the temperature and look at the facts. Neither player was drafted, made an NFL roster or practice squad, or even played a pre-season game. One received just $190 in gas money, and one never participated in a single practice because of college injury. Commissioner Sankey repeatedly testified that individual circumstances matter and acknowledged he was not familiar with the specific circumstances of these two players. We agree. Before this escalates any further, examine their actual histories. There is no reason this needs to become a bigger confrontation. Respect the courts, protect the players, and let level heads prevail.”

Plaintiffs' attorney Ryan Downton framed the decision as strategic patience rather than surrender, stressing that neither player was ever drafted, made an NFL roster, or even played in a preseason game in Harris's case. He's not wrong that the door stays open — Pete Nakos reported the same thing hours before LSU's roster even went in: as long as Wright and Harris stay enrolled, they can be added mid-season. But there's a real cost to waiting. Thamel later noted a wrinkle: because the roster's locked and they're not on it, NCAA rules bar both players from even practicing with the team until they're added.

Kiffin didn't sound thrilled about any of it when he addressed it on College GameDay. 'That wasn't easy,' he said, framing the call as one made 'for the big picture of LSU and the LSU football program with the uncertainties of' adding them now. He insisted the fight for Wright and Harris isn't over and that the decision was made in the 'best interest of the team and university' — the kind of language coaches reach for when they know a chunk of their locker room and fan base wanted them to just go for it.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Lane Kiffin to the @CollegeGameDay crew: “A lot of times to do great things, you are going to be hated”

So this is a pause, not a resolution. LSU still has two open roster spots, a court injunction in its pocket, and a lawsuit from its own conference hanging over the season. Whether Wright and Harris ever actually suit up for the Tigers probably comes down to how the SEC's federal case and the Louisiana injunction shake out over the next few weeks — and whether Kiffin decides the 'big picture' risk is worth it once the temperature Downton wants everyone to lower actually comes down.