Lane Kiffin’s roster gamble just turned into a full-blown SEC fight.
A Thursday night ruling gave LSU temporary protection for two recent NFL commits, Dae'Quan Wright from the Cleveland Browns and Zxavian Harris from the New Orleans Saints, and now the Tigers are trying to add cornerback Blake Cotton from the Broncos as well. That would make it three players in the mix, with LSU set for Saturday’s home opener against Clemson.
Judge William Jorden granted a temporary injunction against the NCAA and the SEC after the back-and-forth over Kiffin’s former Rebels and now-former NFL athletes. The ruling opens the door for Kiffin to place the trio on the roster, but it is still unclear whether all three, or even any of them, will actually be on that controversial list.
The SEC, unsurprisingly, is pushing back hard. The conference had already enforced strict punishments on a program and its head coach for listing a player on a roster if that player had signed with or appeared on an NFL roster. The ruling cuts straight at that policy, and it also shields Kiffin and LSU from it for now.
Now the SEC is taking the fight to court. It has filed a federal lawsuit against Lane Kiffin and LSU, arguing that Kiffin and his program violated the conference’s First Amendment right to expressive association by ignoring the rules on adding former pro players.
Before that lawsuit, the rest of the conference got a chance to vote on whether any team should be allowed to list NFL players on its roster at all. LSU did not participate, and the result was 15-0 against allowing NFL players on a college football team.
That leaves LSU in a strange spot. Up to 40 players who were NFL-ready just a couple of days ago could now be eligible to return to college, and if they want to play in the SEC, LSU may be the only place they can go.
Unless the rest of the league decides to keep pushing back and make the whole thing even messier by recruiting from the NFL after voting against it.
For now, all the attention is on LSU - not just for Saturday’s home opener, but because the Tigers pulled off something nobody in the conference seems willing to accept.
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