The LSU Tigers have continued moving forward with plans to bring several players onto their roster who have already signed professional contracts. However, the team has been facing some significant pushback, and now the Georgia Attorney General has weighed in.
As LSU prepares for the upcoming season, it has ignited a firestorm throughout the SEC after it began securing commitments from former NFL players. While those players are technically barred from joining the team by NCAA and SEC rules, a Louisiana court ruling has opened up the possibility of those players joining the LSU roster. But that fight clearly is not over.
LSU Looks to Add Pro Players
LSU and head coach Lane Kiffin have continued moving forward with plans to add at least three players who signed professional contracts this summer, including former Ole Miss players Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris at tight end and defensive tackle, respectively.
Bringing those players onto the roster would violate two separate league rules, with the SEC prohibiting players from joining the conference after signing a professional contract while also barring intraconference transfers outside of the designated portal window.
However, a Baton Rouge judge has blocked both the NCAA and SEC from enforcing their restrictions involving eligibility, the transfer portal, and professional players returning to college football.
The league has since indicated that it and commissioner Greg Sankey will comply with the court order, which would seemingly clear the way for the athletes to sign with LSU and compete this fall. But that hasn’t stopped the pushback.’
‘College sports are for college athletes only’
As the season inches closer, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr has spoken out on the issue, encouraging the SEC to “take all measures” if LSU does indeed move forward with its plans to include former professional players on the roster.
Carr went as far as to push for the SEC to remove LSU from the conference altogether.
“If LSU does in fact roster one or more pro athletes or demonstrates concrete plans to do so, we would strongly encourage the SEC to take all measures available to address this conduct, up to and including suspending and/or removing LSU from the Conference,” Carr wrote in a Wednesday letter to the SEC, via Front Office Sports.
“College sports are for college athletes only, and we are grateful that the SEC has taken swift action to maintain that standard,” Carr added. “However, rules cannot be ignored or twisted to benefit one coach, one institution, or one program, and we refuse to stand by while that happens.”
LSU Removed From SEC?
Carr is certainly not the first person to suggest that LSU should be removed from the SEC altogether.
According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo! Sports, some of the SEC’s highest-ranking officials are considering “extreme measures” as LSU continues with its plans to add former professional athletes to its roster, with the possibility of expelling the Tigers from the conference being among the options.
“High-ranking SEC university executives are exploring legal and internal avenues intended to address the school’s plans to add former professional athletes to its rosters, including extreme measures such as boycotting competition against the Tigers, sanctioning the school with probation or even expulsion, and/or filing a federal legal challenge,” Dellenger wrote for Yahoo Sports this week.
Dellenger also cited multiple sources who confirmed that expulsion is, in fact, one of the possibilities currently being discussed.
“It is fair to say we are discussing multiple options, including that,” said one league stakeholder. “Enough is enough. This is ridiculous.”
“These conversations are serious,” added another school official.
“There are plenty of other schools that would take [LSU’s] place,” a high-ranking SEC official told Dellenger.
This is certainly a wild storyline just days before the start of the college football season.
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