A Judge Ordered LSU and Will Wade Not to Keep RJ Luis Off the Court: What the Injunction Actually Does
RJ Luis Jr. won a court order in August declaring him eligible to play for LSU. He still is not on LSU’s roster. So on Wednesday his lawyers went back and got a second order, and this one points at LSU.
Judge Ronald Johnson of East Baton Rouge Parish district court signed an order barring LSU, head coach Will Wade and the SEC from keeping Luis off the floor, and barring the SEC from penalizing LSU for playing him. It takes effect Nov. 3, which is LSU’s season opener against LSU New Orleans, and runs until a Nov. 13 hearing. Johnson ordered SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and LSU officials to appear.
What This Case Is Actually About
This has nothing to do with the five-year rule or junior college seasons. Luis declared for the 2025 NBA Draft, went undrafted, signed a two-way contract with Utah and later an Exhibit 10 with Boston’s G League affiliate. He never appeared in an NBA regular-season game. The question is whether a player who entered the draft without properly withdrawing and signed professional contracts can come back to college.
The NCAA said no. Judge Johnson disagreed and granted an injunction against the NCAA on Aug. 24, which cleared Luis to play after he signed with LSU in May.
Then the SEC became the obstacle. The conference ratified a rule last summer barring teams from adding athletes who declared for a pro draft without withdrawing, signed a pro contract, or appeared on a pro roster. LSU never rostered him. Wade said at media days on Oct. 13, “We’re going to follow all the SEC protocols with him. He didn’t travel with us to McNeese and he hasn’t been rostered.”
Nobody has accused Luis of cheating. His attorney Elliot Abrams called him “a young man who has done nothing wrong,” and no source has contradicted that. This is an argument over how a rule applies.
Why LSU Backed Down
Because the SEC has spent two months threatening the school, loudly.
The conference sued LSU in federal court in Alabama on Sept. 3 over a parallel dispute involving former NFL camp players LSU football recruited. In September the SEC amended its enforcement rules to let Sankey suspend coaches, fine a school up to half of a sport’s operating budget, and restrict its conference voting rights. On Sept. 10 the league’s presidents met to discuss terminating LSU’s membership. No vote was taken and no penalties were imposed.
LSU had already declined to roster two former Ole Miss players who held an injunction of their own. That is the precedent Luis’s lawyers are staring at.
The Lawyer Is Now Aiming at the Coach
Tony Clayton, who represents Luis, was blunt Wednesday about where this goes if LSU does not comply.
“I’m telling you we’re going to use the long arm of the law to force Will Wade to play him,” he said. “We would bring in Coach Wade and move to hold him in constructive contempt.” He added that “Coach Wade is an honorable man, but he too has to answer to somebody,” and, on the commissioner, “Sankey is not your god.”
Clayton also said the thing that reveals how little anyone trusts this to resolve cleanly: “I would not count on LSU to roster him.”
That is Luis’s own attorney, on the day he won, predicting the school will keep sitting his client. Under Louisiana law, violating an injunction carries a fine up to $1,000 and up to six months in jail. The SEC has said repeatedly in its federal filings that it is not trying to declare any athlete ineligible.
What Luis Would Give LSU
A 23-year-old, 6-foot-7 wing who was Big East Player of the Year in 2024-25 at St. John’s, averaging about 18 points and 7.2 rebounds with a league-high 10 double-doubles. He played a season at UMass before that.
Two courts hold pieces of this now. State court in Baton Rouge takes it up Nov. 13, and the SEC’s federal case against LSU gets a hearing in Birmingham on Nov. 18. LSU, Wade and athletic director Verge Ausberry did not respond to requests for comment Wednesday, which is its own kind of answer.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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