Probably the most common descriptor of college athletics over the past three years: chaos. It's never been more true, or more destabilizing, than what's been transpiring in football and men's basketball in the past month. Former college football players who participated in NFL training camps this month are trying to return to college, less than a few days before the 2026 season begins this weekend.
Dozens of college basketball players who exhausted their eligibility this past spring are fighting back and forth with the courts, trying to figure out if they're eligible for the 2026-27 season this fall. In the background of all of this, conferences are taking a stand about professionals returning. The Big 12, Big Ten and SEC all voted this week to approve a ban on professionals returning to the college ranks.
The ACC is planning to vote to adopt a similar policy sometime this week — which would put an end to that madness — while simultaneously creating five more problems in the process. While those policies are likely to apply more so on the football side, there are players — most notably LSU forward RJ Luis Jr. — who fit the bill for the ban on the basketball front. Luis is regarded as the most polarizing case of any player fighting for an extra year of eligibility this offseason.
He went undrafted and signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz last year and last played in college basketball in March of 2025 for St. The former Big East Player of the Year technically falls into the bucket of a Class of 2022 high school graduate seeking an additional year of eligibility. However, his case is far more complicated because his decision to leave school early and declare for the NBA Draft despite not being projected to get drafted remains one of the most puzzling decisions of the NIL era.
Despite being granted a preliminary injunction for immediate eligibility earlier this week, Luis would still be ineligible to play under the new SEC rules, ratified earlier this week. Even though Luis didn't play in a single G League game last season, he would be ineligible because he declared for the draft and signed a professional contract. Luis' teammate at LSU, Saliou Niang, could also technically fall into that bucket because he was drafted No. 58 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2025.
The Tigers only have four players on their publicly disclosed roster and will have to rely on the courts to get players eligible in time for the start of the 2026-27 campaign. LSU first-year coach Will Wade is not alone in trying to figure out who's eligible and who's not for this season. And because of lawsuits in federal and state court — and the appeals that come with them — it's hard to know who will actually be eligible to suit up this season.
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