Auburn fans have a strange reason to breathe easy after one SEC rumor started making the rounds: the idea that LSU and Ole Miss might not play their Week 3 game at all.
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that an SEC stakeholder said the matchup could be in jeopardy, with one person inside the league saying, "The game may not be played at all," a stakeholder told Dellenger.
Dellenger also floated another possibility: the game could be turned into a non-conference matchup. That would only happen if LSU were voted out of the SEC on Thursday by presidents and chancellors, a move that would send shock waves far beyond one September game.
That’s the kind of scenario that would reshape the league, not just shuffle a schedule. LSU is a founding member and a program whose identity is tied tightly to the SEC. Pushing the Tigers out would be a massive step, and one that would ripple well past Baton Rouge and Oxford.
The bigger issue behind all of this appears to be control, or the lack of it. The chatter stems from the idea that LSU can’t control Kiffin’s football team.
School presidents, not SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey, hold the real power here. If LSU system president Wade Rousse can’t rein in Kiffin, the questions get bigger fast: how far away is football from the rest of the NCAA structure?
How far away is a college football super league? And where does that leave the idea of a student-athlete?
For Auburn, though, the only question that really matters is whether LSU leaving would help the Tigers. The answer in the piece is simple: no one in the SEC would benefit from that kind of move.
There’s also a growing sense that the whole thing may have been more theater than threat. LSU reportedly will not add tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris to the roster after all.
Instead, the Tigers are adding defensive end Gabriel Reliford, who tore his ACL, and corner Aidan Anding, who tore his Achilles, to get to the 105-man roster limit. Neither is expected to play this season.
That leaves open the possibility that this was all a calculated bit of chaos from Kiffin, designed to fuel the kind of hate and noise that follows him everywhere. The article even suggests he may be trying to build a "Louisiana vs. Everybody" mindset.
If that was the plan, it worked at least for a moment. Louisiana politicians are backing LSU, Tiger fans are going to bat for the program on social media, and the whole SEC briefly found itself staring at a very real-looking mess.
For Auburn fans, though, the bottom line is pretty clear: the sky is not falling. At least not yet.
In Other News...
Auburn Just Lost A Former Blue-Chip Safety Before The 2026 Season
Auburns secondary took another hit ahead of the 2026 season with the departure of safety Jacoby Mathews, a former Texas A&M standout and five-star recruit whose college career never quite settled in at his new stop. Mathews had transferred to Auburn with plenty of pedigree, but he struggled to carve out meaningful playing time in a deep defensive backfield and appeared in only one game last season.
For Auburn, the loss is less about one players production and more about the depth chart it leaves behind. The Tigers had enough talent in the secondary to make snaps hard to come by, but every exit tightens the margin for error as the program heads into a new season and tries to sort out who will be ready to step into bigger roles. [Read more 🡒]
Bryce Cain Just Gave Auburn A New Weapon To Watch
Bryce Cain did a little bit of everything in Auburns season-opening 17-16 win over Baylor, and that was exactly the point. The receiver-turned-all-purpose contributor showed up on special teams and offense, making a key punt coverage tackle before breaking free on a 25-yard reverse that helped set up a touchdown. It was the kind of opener that can quickly turn a role player into someone worth tracking every week.
Auburn coach Alex Golesh has already noticed the versatility, with Cain also spending time working at defensive back and flashing the sort of playmaking presence that can travel in different spots. For a team that needed every edge it could find in a one-point game, Cains early imprint stood out, and the bigger question now is how much more Auburn can ask him to handle as the season settles in. [Read more 🡒]
Auburn Has Early Reason To Watch Floridas Eric Singleton Situation
Eric Singleton Jr.s move to Florida was supposed to make him one of the more important pieces in the Gators offense this fall, which is why Auburn fans had a reason to follow his debut week so closely. The former Auburn and Georgia Tech wideout suffered an ankle injury in Floridas Week 1 game against Florida Atlantic, and the early read out of camp is not encouraging as the Gators head into their Week 2 matchup with Campbell.
Jon Sumrall has already labeled Singleton as highly questionable, while offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner said the injury was a disappointment. For Auburn, it is another reminder of how closely transfer storylines can linger after a player leaves campus, especially when the expectation was that Singleton would play a major role right away for his new team. The next update on his status will tell a lot about how soon Florida can count on one of its most anticipated additions. [Read more 🡒]