Lane Kiffin Named in SEC Lawsuit That Could Reshape College Football Eligibility Rules

The SEC versus LSU battle is taking an aggressive new chapter with a lawsuit being filed against the school and coach.

Two days ahead of LSU's first game under coach Lane Kiffin, the SEC has sued the coach and school. ()Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

The biggest battle in college football is heating up in court just ahead of most teams returning to the gridion. The back-and-forth between the SEC and LSU regarding the Tigers' on-going efforts to add NFL camp exiles to their roster has perhaps reached a fever pitch with a new lawsuit filed by the Conference in the federal court for the Northern District of Alabama against the University, its President, athletic director, and head football coach Lane Kiffin. The suit alleges that LSU has entered a "deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit professional athletes to play football for LSU." The conference is seeking an injunction prohibiting LSU from utilizing such players.

SEC Sues in Alabama Federal Court

The SEC's offices are in Birmingham, Alabama, which is presumably why the Conference filed its suit in the federal court which it chose. In citing a basis for the relief claimed, the Conference argues that LSU's conduct would "violat[e] the Conference's First Amendment rights by compelling the Conference to associate with conduct that is contrary to the Conference's purpose and mission."

SEC/LSU Battle

Less than a year after athletic director Verge Ausberry and coach Lane Kiffin were hired at LSU, both are now defendants in a lawsuit filed by the SEC. (Maria Lysaker-Imagn Images) | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

In recent weeks, LSU has ramped up intensity in its campaign to play former NFL players (or at least NFL training camp invitees) Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright in their season-opening game against Clemson on Saturday night. In another suit in Baton Rouge, a judge is being called on to assess whether a temporary restraining order allowing the players to play will be kept in place.

The LSU vs. SEC dynamic has been fluctuating wildly, with the league asserting that it would honor court orders in the battle for individual players to obtain additional eligibility. That playbook has largely consisted of potential players filing claims against the NCAA for extra eligibility, often in front of friendly local judges inclined to allow extensive eligibility even to players whose dalliances with professional football would have once played them firmly out of bounds for NCAA eligibility.

In Thursday's suit, the SEC denounced these rulings as giving LSU and its administrators "an opportunity to be exploited" and charged that "[t]hey began an orchestrated campaign to recruit professional athletes." The suit goes against a backdrop of voices arguing for or against the LSU/NFL players and represents the NCAA's most strident attempt to bar those players.

Potential Other Measures for SEC

Recent news suggested that the SEC was prepared to ask member schools to boycott competition against LSU or to even expel or suspend the Tigers from the SEC. LSU has been a member of the Southeastern Conference since the organization's 1932 inception. While SEC membership has ebbed and flowed (original members included Georgia Tech, Tulane, and Sewanee) no school has ever been expelled from the Conference., although Thursday's suit leaves that possibility on the table heading into the most chaotic Week 1 in college football history.