STAFF: The SEC Has Lost Its Mind Going After LSU and Lane Kiffin

The Southeastern Conference should be embarrassed.

LSU and Lane Kiffin did not cheat. They did not secretly pay players under the table, falsify academic records or violate recruiting rules. They attempted to give two young men an opportunity to use a year of college eligibility that a Louisiana court said they were entitled to use.

For that, the SEC threatened LSU with fines, suspensions, loss of voting rights and even expulsion from the conference.

That is not leadership. It is bureaucratic intimidation.

Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris briefly signed with NFL teams but were waived without playing a regular-season game. A Louisiana judge ruled that they and other similarly situated players could pursue an additional year of college eligibility. LSU followed that ruling and explored adding them to its roster.

Lane Kiffin’s job is to build the best football team possible within the law. That is exactly what he attempted to do. If the players were legally eligible and available, Kiffin would have been negligent not to consider recruiting them.

The SEC’s response was to change its rules, sue one of its own member institutions and threaten unprecedented punishment—all because LSU was willing to challenge the status quo.

Let us be honest about what happened: LSU found an opportunity before everyone else did.

If Alabama, Georgia or Texas had identified these players first, the national sports media would have praised their coaches as innovators. Because Lane Kiffin and LSU did it, we were subjected to lectures about the “integrity” of college athletics from the very people who have spent years dismantling the old system whenever more money was available.

College football already has multimillion-dollar coaching contracts, unrestricted transfers, revenue sharing and enormous NIL deals. The notion that briefly signing an NFL contract suddenly makes a player too “professional” for college football is difficult to take seriously.

The SEC cannot celebrate the free market when it increases television revenue and then condemn it when LSU uses the same changing landscape to improve its football team.

There is also a more fundamental issue at stake. A Louisiana court issued an order protecting these players’ eligibility. The SEC responded by running to federal court and threatening Louisiana’s flagship university for respecting that decision.

That should concern every LSU supporter—and every Louisiana elected official.

The SEC exists because of institutions like LSU. Tiger Stadium, LSU fans and Louisiana’s passion for college football have helped make this conference the most powerful and profitable league in the country. LSU is not some disposable guest that Commissioner Greg Sankey can bully into submission.

Threatening to expel LSU was especially absurd. The idea that the SEC would remove one of its most valuable and historic programs over two players who never even appeared on LSU’s final roster proves how badly conference leadership overplayed its hand.

This dispute never required lawsuits, emergency meetings or public threats. It required a clear, prospective rule that applied equally to every school. If the SEC believes former professional players should be prohibited from returning to college, it can establish that policy going forward. What it should not do is invent new punishments after LSU identifies an opportunity under the rules and a court confirms the players’ rights.

Louisiana should stand firmly behind LSU and Lane Kiffin.

The university did not damage the integrity of college football. It exposed how unprepared its governing institutions are for the new reality of the sport. Instead of fixing that broken system, the SEC tried to make LSU the villain.

LSU was aggressive. Lane Kiffin was innovative. Neither is a crime.

The SEC should drop the lawsuits, end the threats and apologize to LSU. Then it should do what competent organizations do: write clear rules before the game begins—and apply them equally to everyone.