The Southeastern Conference has taken its fight with LSU to a new level, filing an amendment Tuesday in a federal lawsuit and asking for “the authority to expel LSU from the league,” according to ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
Thamel reported that the SEC “is not expected to take such action,” but the league’s own statement left the door open in a much more serious way. In its filing, the conference said it was seeking a temporary restraining order in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama “to protect the right of the Conference and its member institutions to govern themselves.”
“The SEC and its member universities have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed. 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.”
Yahoo Sports’ Ross Dellenger reported that the SEC has also set a Sept. 10 meeting to decide “whether to terminate” LSU as a member.
That would be an astonishing move for a program that has been part of the league since the SEC’s founding in 1933. Still, the tension has clearly escalated around LSU’s situation involving the possible addition of former NFL players to its roster.
On Saturday, LSU opened Lane Kiffin’s first game as head coach in Baton Rouge with a 51-10 win over Clemson, though former NFL players Zxavian Harris and Dae’Quan Wright did not play and are not currently on the Tigers roster.
Speaking on “College GameDay,” Kiffin explained the call this way: “I had to make a decision that is for the big picture of LSU and the LSU football program - with the uncertainties of what potentially could have come by adding them to the roster,” Kiffin said Saturday on “College GameDay.”
Kiffin also said the decision not to add Harris or Wright was difficult and that he felt for both players.
Wright played for Kiffin at Ole Miss from 2024-25 and attended NFL rookie minicamp with the Cleveland Browns and Philadelphia Eagles after going undrafted. Harris played for Kiffin at Ole Miss from 2022-25 and was signed by the New Orleans Saints as a free agent in July before being released on Aug. 8.
However this shakes out, LSU is suddenly staring at a surreal reality for a school of its size and profile. The Tigers are set to host Louisiana Tech at Tiger Stadium on Saturday, then head to Oxford on Sept. 19 to face Kiffin’s former program, Ole Miss, in one of the most anticipated games of the college football season.
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