The SEC’s fight with LSU appears to be easing, at least for now.
A preliminary hearing in the conference’s lawsuit against LSU was postponed Wednesday afternoon, and the vote the SEC had lined up for Thursday on whether to expel LSU is no longer expected to happen. The change comes after LSU president Wade Rousse sent SEC commissioner Greg Sankey a letter dated Wednesday aimed at “clear up the allegations against LSU.”
In that letter, obtained through a public records request, Rousse said the two biggest flashpoints in the dispute are now moot.
One issue centered on LSU’s roster and two players who signed NFL contracts, Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris. Rousse said LSU chose not to add either player and instead used the final two roster spots on other players. That decision, he wrote, left LSU’s roster “locked for the season” and in line with SEC rules.
The other issue was Thursday’s scheduled meeting of SEC presidents and chancellors. Rousse said LSU would not “challenge, disrupt or seek to cancel or postpone” that gathering.
That meeting was at the heart of the conference’s amended federal lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday. A hearing on the case was supposed to happen Wednesday in Birmingham, Ala., but was postponed just before it was set to begin.
No new written order rescheduling it has been entered yet.
There is still a Thursday call involving SEC presidents and chancellors, though it had already been on the calendar. That means the group could meet without taking up the LSU matter.
Even with the temperature coming down, the underlying friction hasn’t disappeared. The SEC’s legal filing says LSU coach Lane Kiffin was driving the player lawsuits and that LSU administrators were not stopping him. It also says Rousse and athletics director Verge Ausberry “have no meaningful control over Kiffin or the football program at LSU.”
Administrators have mostly stayed quiet, but Louisiana politicians have been loud.
Gov. Jeff Landry played a major role last year in ousting then-AD Scott Woodward, bringing in Ausberry and hiring Rousse.
U.S. Sen.
John Kennedy went even further Tuesday, calling the idea of the SEC kicking out LSU “bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid” and saying it would leave him and other members of Congress on the SEC “like a hobo on a ham sandwich.”
That night, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill took a similar line in an interview with Tiger Rag Radio, blasting the SEC’s First Amendment argument as “garbage” and saying it was part of a broader effort to “demonize Lane Kiffin.” Still, Murrill left room for the dispute to cool further, saying she hoped the federal judge would send the matter to a different court so everyone could “let the rest of the week play out.”
“A lot of things can change in the next 24 hours,” she added.
The conference has drawn a hard line on players who signed pro contracts returning to college, even if they never appeared in an NFL game. SEC presidents and chancellors approved punishments for schools that allow that, including a fine, a half-season suspension for the coach and a loss of votes on league business, along with the commissioner’s ability to add more penalties.
The fact that Kiffin did not back off - and that LSU’s leadership did not force him to - only deepened the frustration.
“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. LSU has rejected those core values repeatedly and publicly,” the SEC filing reads.
The SEC has never expelled a member. Sewanee left in 1940, Georgia Tech in 1964 and Tulane in 1966, all on their own.
In the Big East, Temple was kicked out in 2001, but that was for performance. For a major-conference precedent, the closest example goes back to 1929, when the Big Ten removed Iowa over paying players before readmitting the Hawkeyes less than a year later.
LSU is coming off a 51-10 win over Clemson on Saturday night. The No.
8 Tigers host Louisiana Tech this Saturday before Kiffin returns to Ole Miss on Sept. 19.
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