09/08/26 04:37:00
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09/08 16:36 CDT Southeastern Conference leaders to discuss expelling LSU over
player eligibility dispute
Southeastern Conference leaders to discuss expelling LSU over player
eligibility dispute
By EDDIE PELLS
AP National Writer
Leaders of the Southeastern Conference will meet Thursday to discuss whether to
take the extraordinary step of kicking LSU out of the league in the wake of an
ugly feud over first-year coach Lane Kiffin's effort to field several players
who signed contracts with NFL teams as undrafted rookies last spring.
On Tuesday, the SEC amended the federal lawsuit it filed against LSU last week,
asking the judge to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the school
from taking action to block or interfere with a scheduled meeting Thursday of
SEC member university presidents and chancellors.
A vote of at least two-thirds of the conference's top leaders would be needed
to dump LSU, which was a founding member of the nearly century-old conference
in 1933. LSU has a host of powerhouse athletics programs and has won three of
the SEC's 25 AP national championships in football.
A declaration that Commissioner Greg Sankey included with the league's legal
filing made the planned meeting sound like more than posturing; Sankey noted
that school presidents met to discuss LSU last Friday, a day after a marathon
court hearing in which Sankey took the stand to insist the league has the right
to enforce its own rules.
"The consensus ... was and continues to be that LSU's continued membership in
the conference would be inconsistent with the publicly stated values and
principles of the conference and its remaining member institutions," even if
LSU doesn't put the former NFL players on its roster, the comissioner said.
An LSU spokesman declined immediate comment.
The SEC has a long-established rule forbidding teams from bringing players with
major professional experience onto their rosters. In recent weeks, the
conference announced updated enforcement provisions to that rule, stating that
the commissioner had the power to suspend coaches, fine universities up to half
of a sport's budget and restrict a member university's voting privileges on
conference matters.
But last Thursday night, a judge in Baton Rouge barred the league from
enforcing any rules regarding former pros --- a decision celebrated heartily by
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry and the state attorney general, Liz Murrill, who'd
filed a brief in the case on behalf of the athletes.
Murrill called the SEC's lawsuit "legal garbage" shortly after it was filed
last week. Now the SEC is listing Murrill as a defendant in its federal lawsuit.
Two of the players, Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright, have been participating
in team activities, but were not placed on the roster in advance of last
Saturday's 51-10, season-opening victory over Clemson.
They still could be added, and Sankey made note of two roster spots that LSU
has left open for that possibility.
In a statement, the SEC said it has the right to establish rules, stressing
that "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," the statement said.
Sankey took it a step further, saying in his declaration that SEC presidents
were concerned LSU's president, Wade Rousse, and athletic director Verge
Ausberry had no "meaningful control" over Kiffin or the football program.
"In light of the recalcitrance, lack of institutional control, and serious harm
caused by the statements and conduct of LSU," the school presidents, other than
Rousse, called for the meeting, Sankey said. "Lack of institutional control" is
a phrase often used by the NCAA for the most serious infractions by its
membership.
Sankey said the meeting was to consider kicking out LSU, "whether LSU renounces
its intention to roster and play professional players on its football team, or
not."
Kiffin's hiring was one of two notable coaching changes at LSU involving the
highest revenue-generating college sports: football and men's basketball.
LSU also has brought back Will Wade to coach men's basketball. Wade was fired
by previous athletic director Scott Woodward in the wake of an NCAA
investigation into improper inducement payments to recruits when such payments
were forbidden.
Wade served a suspension from coaching in college before returning in the
2023-24 with McNeese State. He spent two seasons with the Cowboys and one with
North Carolina State before he was brought back to LSU --- a move favored by
Landry, as well as Rousse, a Landry ally who was McNeese's president when Wade
was there.
Wade has sought to sign RJ Luis Jr., a former Big East player of the year with
St. John's who spent parts of the 2025 NBA offseason and preseason with the
Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics, but never played in a regular season NBA game.
Luis also has been fighting the NCAA in court in Baton Rouge, where a judge on
Aug. 24 issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks the NCAA from
punishing LSU if the Tigers play Luis --- something that also would violate the
SEC rules at the center of the league's federal lawsuit against LSU.
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AP Sports Writer Brett Martel contributed from New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
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