SEC Sues LSU Over Plan to Play Former NFL Players — SkimNews
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- SEC filed suit in U.S. District Court in Alabama against LSU, its board of supervisors, president Wade Rousse, athletic director Verge Ausberry, and football coach Lane Kiffin, claiming LSU is ignoring rules barring former professionals from college competition.
- LSU allegedly 'waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign' to recruit athletes who had signed NFL contracts with the Cleveland Browns, New Orleans Saints, and Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the 2026-27 season, with at least two already practicing on campus.
- LSU president Wade Rousse voted in favor of the SEC's Aug. 25 statement reaffirming the professionalism rules before LSU allegedly moved to violate them, according to the conference's complaint.
- Louisiana state Judge William Jorden ruled Friday that the SEC and commissioner Greg Sankey cannot punish member schools for playing the former NFL players, blocking penalties that included a half-season coach suspension, a fine equal to 50% of the sport's annual budget, and revocation of league voting rights.
- Former Ole Miss players Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris announced plans to join their ex-coach Lane Kiffin at LSU after leaving NFL training camps, triggering the SEC's enforcement push and prompting a prior temporary restraining order against the NCAA's five-for-five eligibility rule.
- The federal lawsuit was filed mid-testimony while Sankey appeared at a separate state-court injunction hearing in Baton Rouge, an overlap that visibly caught the courtroom off guard.
Why it matters: LSU is openly defying the very professionalism rule its own president helped reaffirm, and a state judge has already sided with LSU's defiance — meaning the SEC's steepest penalties (50% of the football budget, coach suspensions, revoked voting rights) are blocked while the federal case plays out, threatening the conference's ability to enforce its founding amateur-athlete framework during the 2026-27 season.
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