Jackson Jambalaya

 Whoa!  Southeastern Conference  members are going to discuss kicking LSU out of the conference Thursday.   

The SEC sued LSU's President, Athletic Director, and Head Football Coach last week in federal court over LSU's recruiting of former college football players who signed NFL contracts but did not make rosters.  The conference filed another creeping barrage of paperwork this morning, including an amended complaint. The new complaint announced: 

Pursuant to Section 4.1.2 of the SEC Constitution, the Conference’s CEOs are vested with “plenary power and authority with respect to all affairs of the Conference of any type or nature whatsoever,” including the power to “[t]ake all actions specified and contemplated in Article 3 [of the Constitution] in their sole discretion.” Section 3.1.5 of the SEC Constitution and Bylaws provides in full that:

Membership of a member may be terminated involuntarily at a meeting of the Chief Executive Officers. A vote of at least two-thirds of all the Chief Executive Officers is required to terminate membership. motion to terminate membership shall specify the effective date of the proposed termination.

Pursuant to notice properly given under Section 5.1 contemporaneously with the filing of this First Amended Complaint, the CEOs will meet on September 10, 2026, to decide whether to terminate Louisiana State University (“LSU”) as an SEC member institution pursuant to Section 3.1.5 of the SEC Constitution and Bylaws.

The complaint also states the SEC will ask for a temporary restraining order stopping LSU from taking any action to block the scheduled meeting. 

This mess about some mess began when the NCAA passed a rule giving athletes five years to complete their eligibility earlier this year. The NCAA later amended the rule to include players enrolled in 2022, a Covid year.  Unfortunately for all, the NCAA bumbled things as it usually does and amended the rule after players signed contracts with NFL teams thinking they had exhausted their NCAA eligibility and therein lies the rub.  

LSU Coach Lane Kiffin made no bones about signing such players and started recruiting said players to his roster.  

Ex-LSU football player Jack Pyburn and 31 other former players sued the NCAA in District Court in Baton Rouge last week and obtained an injunction allowing them to sign with college teams.  The SEC in turn sued LSU, LSU officials, and Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill in the northern district of Alabama in federal court Thursday. 

The SEC claimed it had a right to freedom of association under the First Amendment.  Such a right allows the conference to create rules and discipline members.  

The TRO, argues the SEC, is a textbook case of prior restraint: 

74. Neither the TRO, the Amended TRO, nor the Preliminary Injunction (when entered) impose or can impose prior restraints on speech in violation of the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of speech or impose a viewpoint- and content-based ban on speech by the SEC, its Commissioner, or its member institutions. Those orders similarly do not and cannot restrain the rights of the SEC and the 15 member institutions other than LSU to disassociate themselves from LSU by terminating LSU’s membership in the Conference.

Why was General Murrill added to the complaint? The SEC accuses the Louisiana Attorney General of helping LSU break SEC rules: 

* General Murrill tweeted "Dae’Quan Wright, who played for Ole Miss, says he lost out on seven-figure NIL money in a fifth year. Mississippi didn’t fight for him, but Louisiana will.” 

* The Attorney General told the media "Geaux Tigers" as she walked into the Baton Rouge hearing. 

* The Attorney General filed an amicus curiae brief in support of the players. 

* The defendant called the SEC was "legal garbage" and "frivolous"

* General Murill criticized the SEC Commissioner publicly. 

(Warning to SEC: Unlike our Attorney General, General Murrill likes a good fight.  Ask the folks in New Orleans.). 

The SEC CEO's met Thursday and expressed great concerned over the Baton Rouge injunction. 

The complaint accuses LSU President Wade Rousse and Athletic Director Verge Ausberry of having no meaningful control over the football program.  The plaintiff takes particular exception to Dr. Rousse voting for the SEC's policy while his school took no action to comply with the policy. After eviscerating the LSU President, the SEC hit LSU with the dreaded "lack of institutional control" charge: 

82. The consensus at the September 4 meeting was and continues to be that LSU’s demonstrated lack of institutional control at the University level—including complete lack of control over Defendant Kiffin’s actions—and other conduct alleged herein that is inconsistent with the principles and purposes of the Conference as set forth in Section 1.2 of the Constitution, made it imperative for a meeting to be called to consider the termination of LSU’s membership in the Conference pursuant to Section 3.1.5 of the Constitution.

The amended complaint charges the defendants with violating the SEC's first amendment rights and seeks injunctive relief protecting those rights. 

So will the SEC kick out LSU? Stay tuned.