For nearly a month, LSU seemed ready to pick a fight with the NCAA, the SEC, and pretty much anyone else standing in the way of adding two players who’d just come from NFL training camps.

The Tigers went to court and kept two spots open on their 105-man roster as they watched the SEC float penalties that could’ve suspended Lane Kiffin for half a season or even kick LSU out of the league completely. And after all that? LSU used those spots on two injured players already on the team.

Cornerback Aidan Anding and defensive end Gabriel Reliford are on the roster. Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris aren’t. Somehow, the strangest college football story of the young season ended with LSU actually winning the legal fight to get what they wanted — then deciding they didn’t want to deal with the fallout.

That's the second time a school's made that decision this summer.

Two Empty Spots Said Everything

LSU had just 103 players on their initial roster before the season opener against Clemson, leaving two spots open under the new 105-player limit.

That wasn’t some random oversight. Wright and Harris were enrolled at LSU and had taken part in team activities. Both had played for Kiffin at Ole Miss the year before, then signed undrafted free-agent deals in the NFL, got cut, and tried to find a way back to college for one more season.

Wright would’ve been a pretty useful addition, too. He was a second-team All-SEC tight end after catching 39 passes for 635 yards and five touchdowns last season. He signed with Philadelphia and Cleveland, but eventually got let go by both front offices.

Harris went undrafted after four seasons at Ole Miss and signed with New Orleans. The 6-foot-8 defensive lineman spent much of his short time with the Saints rehabbing a foot injury before getting waived in early August.

So no, LSU didn’t leave those two roster spots open just to have a little extra breathing room. The spots lined up perfectly with the two players Kiffin was trying to bring back.

Then the Tigers beat Clemson by 41 points and used those spots on Anding and Reliford, two LSU defenders who were already in the program and had suffered major injuries during the spring. Anding tore his Achilles and was expected to miss the season. Reliford tore his ACL, but his timeline reportedly gives him at least a chance to return late in the year.

After spending weeks treating Wright and Harris like possible final pieces and going to court to fight for them, LSU chose to save those spots for two injured players instead.

That’s a pretty telling decision.

The “NFL Players” Label Did A Lot Of Work

Calling Wright and Harris former NFL players made LSU’s plan sound a lot more ridiculous than it really was.

These weren’t 28-year-old veterans coming back to college after six seasons in the league. They were 22-year-old undrafted rookies who got a taste of training camp and didn’t make a regular-season roster.

Then the NCAA went and decided to implement the new five-for-five eligibility system, allowing athletes to compete for five seasons instead of the traditional four. The catch was that it helped players who started college in 2023 but left the 2022 class, including Wright and Harris, on the outside looking in.

They weren’t the only ones pushing back. The NCAA said roughly 450 athletes had joined eligibility lawsuits around the country, with about 300 receiving at least temporary permission to play.

East Baton Rouge Parish Judge William Jorden eventually granted a preliminary injunction covering Wright, Harris, and 40 other athletes. For the time being, the ruling kept the NCAA and SEC from punishing schools that put those players on their rosters.

That should’ve cleared the way for LSU. Instead, it turned a messy eligibility dispute into a full-blown fight.

Clemson Made The Risk Look Foolish

The SEC didn’t exactly keep their feelings to themselves.

Conference presidents voted 15-0, with LSU sitting it out, to approve massive penalties for any program that added a player who had signed with an NFL, NBA, or WNBA team. The possible punishment included a half-season suspension for the head coach, the loss of conference voting privileges, and a fine worth half of the sport’s operating budget.

That’s not a slap on the wrist. That’s the kind of punishment designed to make everybody else think twice.

The conference also sued LSU, Kiffin, university president Wade Rousse, athletic director Verge Ausberry, and the board of supervisors in federal court. The SEC argued that forcing them to associate with a school ignoring their rules violated the conference’s First Amendment rights.

Clemson’s legal counsel even warned LSU that using Wright or Harris in the opener could violate the contract between the two schools.

So LSU left both players off the roster, and Kiffin admitted the decision “wasn’t easy.” He believed Wright and Harris deserved the same opportunity as the athletes winning similar cases around the country. But once the SEC started threatening serious consequences, he also had to think about what was best for LSU as a whole.

Then the roster LSU already had went out and absolutely wrecked Clemson.

They piled up 644 yards and held Clemson to 145 total yards in a 51-10 win. LSU’s defense allowed just one conversion on 13 third downs and recorded 11 tackles for loss. It was the most lopsided loss of Dabo Swinney’s 18 seasons as Clemson’s head coach.

Could Wright and Harris have made LSU better? Sure. They probably would’ve added some depth.

But that opener made one thing pretty clear: LSU already had enough talent to win without picking a fight with their own conference.

LSU Found An Exit, Not A Resolution

Filling those last two spots ended any chance of Wright and Harris joining LSU this season.

It also gave the school a much cleaner answer for the SEC. Rousse argued that the federal case was now “moot” because LSU wasn’t planning to roster either player anymore. That's pretty hard to argue with.

That doesn’t mean everyone shook hands and moved on. The conference said the discussions would continue, and the bigger fight over who gets to control eligibility is still very much alive.

The SEC believes their members should be able to set common rules for the conference. Wright and Harris can just as fairly say they made career decisions based on one set of rules, only for the NCAA to change those rules a few months later. LSU has another version of this same fight coming in basketball, too, with former St. John’s star RJ Luis Jr. trying to come back to college after spending time with NBA teams.

LSU’s football decision doesn’t settle any of that.

It just shows where the program finally decided to draw the line. The Tigers made their point without either player.

Once LSU had to choose between proving they could add the players and proving they actually needed them, the decision got a whole lot easier.