Louisiana high school football on pause after judge grants preliminary injunction against LHSAA

Posted: Aug 22, 2023 / 08:59 AM CDT

Updated: Aug 22, 2023 / 09:47 PM CDT

Editor’s note: The date of the hearing has been corrected. We apologize for the error.

BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — Judge William Jorden on Monday, Aug. 21, granted a temporary injunction against the Louisiana High School Athletic Association for its playoff rules.

Nine schools sued the LHSAA over a change made to the select designation last year.

LHSAA Executive Director Eddie Bonine and the executive committee amended the definition of “select” in the LHSAA glossary, which is a defining document for the organization.

The schools allege he made the change without the required vote of members in the summer of 2022. They argue that changes to the LHSAA bylaws and constitution can only be made by members after a vote, not the executive director, executive committee or board of directors.

The changed definition is:

“Select shall mean private or public schools that have a state or parish-approved designation as a lab school, magnet school(s) with one or more magnet component(s), approved charter schools, parish-wide approved open enrollment, state recovery district (RSD) application-based parish schools, tuition based schools and/or any established academic and/or retention days based criterion schools.”

The schools argue it’s a substantial change that was made without the proper authority. It affected competitions in the 2022-23 academic year by moving about a dozen programs into select. Private and public schools then played each other in playoffs because of the way enrollment was defined.

The 2023-24 season will be the same if no change is made.

The schools claim the change cause “irreparable harm” and have asked the court for a temporary, then permanent injunction to prevent the LHSAA from continuing to use the amended definition.

The plaintiffs include: