SEC presidents and chancellors meet without voting on LSU's membership

Southeastern Conference leaders met by video conference on Thursday without holding a vote on LSU's membership.

The SEC had threatened as part of a federal lawsuit against LSU to take such a vote earlier in the week, but decided against it after LSU finalized its football roster without including a pair of NFL signees who had been recruited back to college by first-year Tigers coach Lane Kiffin.

Presidents and chancellors of SEC member institutions discussed “recent matters involving conference expectations and responsibilities,” the SEC said in a statement Thursday evening. “Those discussions will continue as the conference and its member universities work toward an appropriate resolution.”

The meeting was held a day after a scheduled federal court hearing was postponed by a judge in Birmingham, Alabama.

The postponement came as LSU President Wade Rousse sent a one-page letter, obtained by The Associated Press, to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey stating that the league’s claims in its lawsuit against LSU are now moot because Kiffin had complied with a conference ban on rostering players who had previously signed with NFL teams.

The rift between LSU and the power conference that it helped found in 1933 stemmed from Kiffin's recruitment of tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris, both of whom played for Kiffin at Mississippi last year before attempting to make NFL rosters this summer.

Wright spent part of the past offseason with the Philadelphia Eagles and Cleveland Browns. Harris spent part of the offseason with the New Orleans Saints.

LSU has a host of powerhouse athletic programs and has won three of the SEC’s 25 AP national championships in football.

But Sankey and leaders of other SEC schools were bothered not only by LSU's recruitment of former pros, but also the related court drama that ensued — including a marathon hearing last week in which Sankey took the stand to insist the league has the right to enforce its own rules.

The SEC has a long-established rule forbidding teams from putting players with major professional experience on their rosters. In recent weeks, the conference announced updated enforcement provisions to that rule, stating that the commissioner had the power to suspend coaches, fine universities up to half of a sport’s budget and restrict a member university’s voting privileges on conference matters.

Sankey also has stated that SEC presidents are concerned that Rousse and athletic director Verge Ausberry have no “meaningful control” over Kiffin or the football program.

Kiffin’s hiring was one of two coaching changes at LSU involving the highest revenue-generating sports. LSU also brought back Will Wade to coach men’s basketball. Wade was fired by previous athletic director Scott Woodward in the wake of an NCAA investigation into improper inducement payments to recruits when such payments were forbidden.

After serving an NCAA suspension from coaching, Wade returned to coaching at McNeese State for two seasons, followed by one at N.C. State before he was brought back to LSU — a move favored by Gov. Jeff Landry, as well as Rousse, a Landry ally who was McNeese’s president when Wade was there.

Wade has sought to sign RJ Luis Jr., a former Big East player of the year with St. John’s who spent parts of the 2025 NBA offseason with the Utah Jazz and Boston Celtics, but never played in an NBA game.

Luis also has been fighting the NCAA in court in Baton Rouge, where a judge on Aug. 24 issued a preliminary injunction that temporarily blocks the NCAA from punishing LSU if the Tigers play Luis — something that also would violate the SEC rules at the center of the conference’s federal lawsuit against LSU.

LSU’s football team is now ranked eighth in the AP poll following Saturday’s 51-10, season-opening victory over Clemson. The Tigers host Louisiana Tech on Saturday, followed by a much-anticipated visit to No. 9 Ole Miss, where Kiffin will face the team he coached a year ago.

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