Southeastern Conference leaders met by video conference Thursday without holding a vote on Louisiana State University’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 the school finalized its football roster for the 2026 season without including a pair of NFL signees who had been recruited back to college by Lane Kiffin, who is in his first season as head coach of the Tigers.
Presidents and chancellors of SEC member institutions discussed “recent matters involving conference expectations and responsibilities,” the SEC said in a statement released 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 powerful conference it helped found in 1933 stemmed from Kiffin’s recruitment of defensive tackle Zxavian Harris and tight end Dae’Quan Wright and, both of whom played for Kiffin at Ole Miss last year before attempting to make NFL rosters this summer.
Harris spent part of the past offseason with the New Orleans Saints. Wright spent part of the offseason with the Philadelphia Eagles and the Cleveland Browns.
LSU has a host of powerhouse athletic programs and has won three of the SEC’s 25 AP national championships in football.
However, 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 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 Louisiana’s McNeese State for two seasons, leading the program to a pair of Southland Conference titles, followed by one at Atlantic Coast Conference member North Carolina State before he was brought back to LSU — a move favored by Louisiana 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 Boston Celtics and the Utah Jazzz, 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 ranked eighth in the AP Top 25 after opening the season last Saturday with a 51-10 home win over ACC member Clemson. LSU will host Louisiana Tech on Saturday, followed by a much anticipated visit to No. 9 Ole Miss, where Kiffin will face the program he coached to its first College Football Playoff berth, though he was not with the Rebels as they made a run to the national semifinals.