All it takes is one and Louisiana State fifth-year pitcher Paytn Monticelli and outfielder Jalia Lassiter were the first.
The two Tigers testified in court Thursday as part of the 40-plus student-athlete contingency suing the NCAA for an extra year of eligibility. Both softball players graduated high school in 2022.
Judge William Jorden of the 19th Judicial District Court of Louisiana approved a preliminary injunction prohibiting the NCAA and Southeastern Conference from punishing any school that signs and plays the 44 athletes who sued the NCAA in Louisiana state court as part of Jack Pyburn, et al. v. National Collegiate Athletic Association to play a fifth and final season of college sports.
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Monticelli and Lassiter led the group of student-athletes into the courtroom and came away victorious. On Friday, they joined the Tigers at practice.
Student-athletes from other teams also joined the lawsuit, as three seniors from Mississippi added their names. Pitcher Emilee Boyer and infielders Ryan Starr and Kennedy Bunker were also awarded an extra year of eligibility.
The difference between the schools, however, is that the two from LSU played professional softball during the summer of 2026 and the three from Mississippi did not.
Monticelli won a championship with the Professional Softball League’s Atlanta Smoke and Lassiter was selected from the Athletes Unlimited Softball League reserve pool by the Texas Volts.
Under the SEC’s professional-athlete prohibition, schools cannot roster athletes who previously declared for the NFL, NBA or WNBA drafts, signed professional contracts with teams affiliated with those leagues or appeared on a professional roster.
That left the door open for Monticelli and Lassiter to take the stand and plead their case.
With both Tigers getting a year back, it sets the stage for some bigger names to return to college if they want to. The process isn’t easy, but if they were to file their own temporary restraining order (TRO), it could happen.
A few names who come to mind are UCLA’s Megan Grant, Jordan Woolery and Taylor Tinsley, as well as Karlyn Pickens from Tennessee and Reese Atwood from Texas.
Grant recently signed on to play professionally in Japan and could be done with college completely, but the path back to the Bruins is open for her if she wants to take it.
Other potential returners from the Women’s College World Series include Ava Kuszak, Hannah Camenzind and Lauren Camenzind of Nebraska. Before you ask, Jordy Frahm is not eligible because she was injured during the 2024 season, making 2026 the fifth and final year of her eligibility window.
Ruby Meylan could also return to Oklahoma State.
I’m not saying these names are going to show up in a college uniform again, but if they really wanted to, they could.
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To take things a step further, the SEC could drop the hammer on LSU and has scheduled a vote of the conference presidents on whether to expel the Tigers from the league.
Under SEC rules, a vote of at least two-thirds of all the presidents is required to terminate a school’s membership.
“The SEC and its member universities have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed,” the SEC said in a statement Tuesday. “A commitment to those rules, and to the core principles of the Southeastern Conference, is an essential element of SEC membership.”
“Today’s filing is necessary to defend that right and preserve the Conference’s ability to govern competition among its members.”
An expulsion of LSU would be an unprecedented move, considering it founded the conference in 1933 and while this whole debacle began because of football, it is trickling down and will impact other sports like softball.
The request for a TRO also specifically included State of Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth B. Murrill among the plaintiffs, who also include LSU President Wade Rousse, Athletics Director Verge Ausberry and Lane Kiffin, LSU’s head football coach.
“Forced association with a member whose conduct is antithetical to the SEC’s mission and core values violates the Conference’s fundamental First Amendment rights,” the filing states. “LSU has rejected those core values repeatedly and publicly. An injunction is necessary to prevent the irreparable harm that the SEC will suffer if it cannot remove a member to avoid association of the Conference’s name, brand, championships, and media properties with conduct and views that the Conference and its member institutions have condemned for decades.”
This is a developing storyline. Stay tuned next week for an update in the next edition of Softball Insider from The IX Sports.
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