The ongoing battle between LSU, the SEC and former Boston Celtics guard RJ Luis is not over, apparently.

As noted by Jeff Borzello of ESPN, Luis' lawyers filed a petition in state district court on Tuesday, asking a judge to block the SEC from punishing LSU if Luis is added to the roster for this upcoming season, which begins on Monday.

It's a complex and layered story, so let's break it down as simple as we can.

So, this summer, the NCAA adopted a new "age-based eligibility model." What this means is that student-athletes, moving forward, get five years to play five seasons of their sport. If a player is healthy for all five seasons, then they basically get a bonus year that other athletes previously haven't had. 

There are no redshirts though. So if a player gets injured, they are still using up their clock, and they will hope to be healthy enough to have the traditional four years to play.

Current student-athletes were given this extra year also, meaning if you were a freshman last year, you STILL have four years to play if you want.

However, student-athletes who graduated high school in 2022 and then graduated college in 2026 were NOT given this extra year. They were simply told to graduate, meaning they got four seasons in four years.

All over the country, players who fit that mold have tried to fight for the extra fifth year they feel they also deserve. Maybe they want to come back to school to chase a championship, or chase NIL money, but they want to come back. Many of them have been injunctions to play.

Well, Luis played three consecutive college basketball seasons from 2022-25. He spent one year at Massachusetts and two at St. John's. He left college after those three seasons to play professionally. Despite winning the Big East Player of the Year in 2024-25, he went undrafted. He ended up spending time with the Celtics during the preseason, meaning that he signed a pro contract. He did not appear in a game for the Celtics or in the G-League, but he still had a pro contract.

In his mind, he played three seasons in three years, and then missed a year of college, and he feels he should get that fifth year to play his fourth season. The problem is that the SEC has banned players who signed pro contracts from coming back to school. That's what Luis is fighting now. If LSU rosters him, they'll be punished. This lawsuit is seeking to get them out of punishment.

Luis scored six total points for the Celtics in the preseason before the 2025-26 season.