> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.redeyebr.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # LSU's own missile crisis - URL: https://www.redeyebr.com/lsu-football-lane-kiffin-wade-rousse-sec/ - Published: 2026-09-10T01:03:05.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-10T01:03:05.000Z - Description: The university blinked before the SEC voted to pull the trigger, but with Lane Kiffin, there's always a next time. - Author: JR Ball - Tags: News The SEC won't be expelling LSU on Thursday. Not that doing so would have been easy, given that the most damning "lack of institutional control evidence" is a Lane Kiffin walking-away halftime comment to ESPN's Holly Rowe. Or the league commissioner still fuming over the courtroom antics of Tony Clayton—the PR-hungry, Johnnie Cochran wannabe, DA-turned-private player lawyer who grilled Sankey for three hours on the stand, then declared the SEC was served "like a cold cup of gumbo and forced to eat it" after a hollow victory for the two “former NFL” players hoping to join the Lane train. But—and it's an important but—the SEC threat to unleash its nuclear arsenal is an unmistakable signal that it's done with Kiffin's quirky "controlled chaos" and the verbal blustering from Louisiana's attention-seeking political class, including the state attorney general, Liz Murrill, who called the SEC's federal lawsuit "garbage." Reminiscent of those 13 tense days in October 1962 between Kennedy and Khrushchev, there is hope that cooler heads prevail. Which is what happened Wednesday. First was the postponement of a scheduled federal hearing between the university and the conference, and then it was reported that the SEC is expected to cancel its planned vote later today on potentially booting LSU from the league. **What it means:** Greg Sankey, the SEC's insulted commissioner, and its hypocrite member CEOs—knowing Tiger football is one of the few things Louisiana truly cares about—want LSU President Wade Rousse to get cease-and-desist control of Kiffin and the state's politicians. In short, LSU needs to wave the white flag of mea culpa. **The roster move:** LSU did that Tuesday night, locking in its 105-man roster with two previously injured players. Leaving Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris off the squad means the SEC's core evidence against LSU amounts mostly to a coach's postgame trolling, rather than an actual roster violation. **An everyday offense:** Hundreds of players from the 2022 recruiting class have sued for a fifth year of eligibility since the NCAA's rule change, and multiple conferences—not just the SEC—have had to navigate the fallout. Multiple SEC schools have players listing an NFL tryout on their resume—though no signed contract—on their rosters today. - Punishing LSU alone for chasing players other programs wanted just as badly—and before an SEC rule banned them—was always going to be a hard case to make stick. This is more about the SEC asserting control and establishing precedent as it prepares for a future in which conferences—rather than the NCAA—govern semi-professional college athletics. It's also declaring the conference won't be strong-armed by the Louisiana Way of doing business. **The divorce:** Tossing LSU was always a long-shot play. Untangling the charter member from the SEC would have gotten messy fast. - On average, member schools, including LSU, received $72.4 million last athletic year in SEC distributions from the conference's media deals, bowl payouts and College Football Playoff revenue—money an independent LSU couldn't replicate on its own. - The Tigers are no afterthought: *Forbes* ranked LSU the nation's fourth most valuable college football program in 2013; *The Athletic* valued LSU football at $1.32 billion this July, 11th nationally among Power 4 programs; and a recent CNBC ranking placed the athletic department 12th nationally and 5th in the SEC. LSU vaulted to No. 8 in Tuesday's AP poll, with five first-place votes. - None of that leverage evaporates just because Kiffin can't stop talking. **The other 15:** LSU's exit wouldn't just cost LSU. It would cost the rest of the conference too. - How much do Ole Miss and the city of Oxford stand to profit off Kiffin's return to Vaught-Hemingway a week from Saturday? - The conference's next media rights deal gets negotiated with a smaller LSU-shaped hole in the inventory, too. - People love to hate the villain, and there's no bigger SEC bad boy than Kiffin. Ole Miss hates him. Tennessee, too. And Alabama and Florida aren't too fond of the hot yoga-loving coach either. Renegades put butts in the seats and make cash registers ring. It just means more when Kiffin and the Tigers roar into town. **And the kids?** LSU's athletes didn't create this mess, but they could end up paying for it too. - Fewer marquee SEC games and diminished brand value mean real NIL money walking out the door—and a plausible lawsuit against the SEC to go with it. **No safe landing:** Unlike Notre Dame, LSU has no built-in television deal or independent-football model to fall back on. The Big Ten is a no-go. The ACC, despite its academic standards, could be money hungry enough; the Big 12 is a step down in prestige. - Existing multiyear scheduling agreements would need to be unwound, and recruiting would take an immediate hit tied to strength of schedule and playoff access. - Notre Dame has the benefit of its sports teams, other than football, tied to the ACC, a scheduling connection that makes Irish football independence possible. **Uncharted territory:** SEC bylaws spell out a withdrawal fee—$30 million with notice, $40 million without—for a school that leaves voluntarily, the way Tulane did in 1966. - Nothing addresses what's owed if a school is involuntarily forced out—a gap that would become its own legal fight. **The bottom line:** LSU is too valuable a brand for the SEC to cut loose, and both sides always knew that. But the nuclear option threat was never really about expulsion—it was a warning shot from the conference reminding Baton Rouge who holds the checkbook and for Rousse to prove he can control his coach before the SEC has to prove it for him. Kiffin and LSU backed down this time, but with Kiffin there's always a next time. ## Free RedEye Daily No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. ****Journalism to kickstart Baton Rouge.**