Louisiana judge temporarily blocks the SEC from sanctioning LSU for playing ex-pro RJ Luis Jr.

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge has granted a request by lawyers for RJ Luis Jr. — who was briefly under contract with two NBA teams but never played in a game — to temporarily block the Southeastern Conference from punishing LSU if Luis is added to the Tigers’ roster.

The order on Wednesday by state district Judge Ronald R. Johnson in East Baton Rouge Parish also blocks LSU from using SEC policies as a reason for declining to play Luis.

The injunction takes effect on Nov. 3, the day of LSU's regular-season opener against LSU-New Orleans, and lasts until Nov. 13, when Johnson has scheduled a hearing on the matter and ordered SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, as well as LSU officials, to appear.

Johnson's ruling came a day after Luis' lawyers — Elliot Abrams of Raleigh, North Carolina, and Tony Clayton of Port Allen, Louisiana (in suburban Baton Rouge) — requested an expansion of a preliminary injunction against the NCAA that Johnson issued in late August.

The NCAA has argued that Luis should be ineligible because he did not properly withdraw from the 2025 NBA Draft.

While the SEC did not immediately comment on Wednesday's ruling, the conference has accused LSU in a related federal case of exhibiting an “ongoing defiance of the conference’s professionalism rules” by trying to add Luis to its roster.

The SEC has a long-established rule forbidding teams from adding players with major professional experience to their rosters. In September, the conference announced updated enforcement provisions to that rule, stating that the commissioner had the power to suspend coaches, fine universities up to half of a sport’s budget and restrict a member university’s voting privileges on conference matters.

Under threat of being voted out of the SEC by fellow league members, LSU elected in early September not to add to its football roster two players who’d spent part of the offseason with NFL clubs before being recruited back to college by Tigers first-year coach Lane Kiffin.

Those players, Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris, had played for Kiffin at Mississippi. During Week 1 of the season, they were granted a preliminary injunction against the NCAA and SEC by another state judge in Baton Rouge.

That case led the SEC to file a federal case alleging that LSU, by attempting to circumvent SEC rules, was violating the league’s First Amendment right to freedom of association. In other words, the SEC essentially argued it has the right to enforce rules governing competition among members who all chose to join the league.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill has mocked the SEC for taking that position, calling its federal case “garbage.” She has filed briefs supporting LSU and urging dismissal of the case, in which she has since been named as a defendant.

Abrams and Tony Clayton represent only Luis in the case. They do not represent LSU, and in fact asked the judge to also block LSU from following any SEC directives that would bar Luis from playing.

Luis, the 2025 Big East Player of the Year with St. John’s, played three seasons of college basketball with two teams before declaring for the 2025 NBA draft.

He went undrafted, but briefly was under contract with Utah and Boston. Will Wade, hired last spring to coach LSU for the second time, recruited Luis to return to college.

The NCAA balked at allowing Luis to regain his eligibility because he’d elected to leave college for the NBA and never followed NCAA protocols for retaining eligibility by withdrawing from the NBA draft.

Wade for comment but that he was scheduled to meet with reporters on Thursday. Wade has previously stated that he intended to follow “SEC protocols” regarding Luis.

AP Sports Writer Aaron Bread in Raleigh, North Carolina, contributed to this report.

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