NFL Closes the Last Door: Wright and Harris Barred From Football Entirely in 2026 After the LSU Eligibility Fiasco
The two ex-NFL players at the center of the LSU-SEC eligibility war can now play nowhere in 2026. The NFL sent a memo to clubs on Wednesday declaring that defensive tackle Zxavian Harris and tight end Dae'Quan Wright are ineligible to "visit, try out or sign with an NFL team during the 2026 season" — locked out of the league until 2027. As Yahoo put it: "It seems that Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright won't be playing football anywhere in 2026 — at least not in the NFL or NCAA.12"
The full arc of the saga: both played for Lane Kiffin at Ole Miss, signed with NFL teams after going undrafted in 2025 (Wright with the Eagles and then the Browns' camp; Harris with the Saints) and were waived. They tried to return to college football at LSU, the SEC ruled them ineligible and threatened expulsion, and LSU backed down and never rostered them. A Louisiana judge (William Jorden) later granted a preliminary injunction clearing NCAA/SEC eligibility for more than 40 athletes in similar situations — but LSU still didn't add either player, and now the NFL has slammed the door on the pro option too. The players were reportedly weighing legal options, potentially against the SEC.
Meanwhile the surrounding legal war has escalated on a second front: Ole Miss is suing former players Devin Harper and Princewill Umanmielen — now at LSU — for breach of contract, alleging the pair owe a combined $950,000 in buyouts after signing January revenue-share agreements and leaving for the transfer portal once Kiffin departed for Baton Rouge. Umanmielen was served with the papers Tuesday in the LSU Football Ops parking lot, drawing a public jab from Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry: "The process server found Princewill in the LSU Football Ops parking lot... Keith Carter (Ole Miss AD) could have saved Ole Miss some money and waited until Saturday. He'll be easy to find in the Ole Miss backfield often!" All of it lands four days before LSU travels to Oxford to face Ole Miss on Saturday — with Kiffin's return to his former school already the sport's most charged matchup of the week.
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An instance of A professional contract now locks a player out of college and the pros at once. — Court-cleared players are simultaneously locked out of college eligibility and pro signing windows. ↩︎
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An instance of College conferences now police a hard border against professional players. — The court-ordered eligibility loophole triggers a coordinated cross-level lockdown that now extends the professional hard border to the NFL itself. ↩︎