The SEC filed an amended complaint against LSU on Tuesday regarding the school’s potential plans to add former NFL players to its roster and has scheduled a vote of the conference presidents on whether to expel the Tigers from the league.
The SEC is not expected to take such action, but the filing indicates the seriousness of the league as it attempts to affirm the legal right to enforce its own rules.
LSU has declined comment.
In the filing, the SEC said its presidents and chancellors will meet Thursday to decide whether to terminate LSU as an SEC member institution pursuant to Section 3.1.5 of the SEC Constitution and Bylaws, which gives the presidents the “plenary power and authority with respect to all affairs of the Conference of any type or nature whatsoever,” including the power to “[t]ake all actions specified and contemplated in Article 3 [of the Constitution] in their sole discretion.”
Under SEC rules, a vote of at least
Under SEC rules, a vote of at least two-thirds of all the presidents is required to terminate a school’s membership.
“The SEC and its member universities have the right to establish, through agreed-upon governance procedures, the rules under which they voluntarily compete and to expect those rules to be followed,” the SEC said in a statement. “A commitment to those rules, and to the core principles of the Southeastern Conference, is an essential element of SEC membership.
“Today’s filing is necessary to defend that right and preserve the Conference’s ability to govern competition among its members.”
The SEC’s amended complaint noted that during halftime
The SEC’s amended complaint noted that during halftime of No. 10 LSU’s 51-10 victory against Clemson on Saturday, coach Lane Kiffin told an ABC TV sideline reporter that the score might have been more lopsided if Dae’Quan Wright and Zxareturn to school, had been allowed to play
“Imagine if we had pro players,” Kiffin said.
The amended complaint said Kiffin reiterated his objections to the SEC’s professionalism rules in his postgame comments.
The SEC alleges that Kiffin’s statements “stand in sharp contrast to the silence by the President and Athletic Director of LSU” and that “they confirm the lack of institutional control over the athletics program at LSU that is required by Article 6 of the SEC Constitution and by the remaining provisions of the Constitution and Bylaws.”
The SEC also added Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth
The SEC also added Louisiana Attorney General Elizabeth Murrill as a defendant in its complaint.
The SEC is seeking a temporary restraining order that would prevent LSU officials and their attorneys from taking “any action to block or interfere with the meeting scheduled for September 10th or with the exercise by the Conference and its member institutions of their First Amendment rights.”
The league first filed suit against LSU, Kiffin and other university leaders late last week amid an extended dispute about whether athletes who have signed pro contracts can return to play college sports. The league filed the federal suit to make sure it had legal clearance in an early and important test for whether the conference can effectively enforce its rules.
The legal battle began weeks ago when
The legal battle began weeks ago when a group of dozens of athletes filed a lawsuit in Louisiana state court seeking a fifth and final year of eligibility. A Baton Rouge judge signed a temporary restraining order and a subsequent preliminary injunction that cleared a path for all athletes in the lawsuit to play this coming year.
Three of those athletes — Wright, Harris and Jack Pyburn — signed NFL contracts this summer before attempting to return to school. Pyburn has since dropped out of the case, but Wright and Harris are both on campus at LSU and have been practicing with the Tigers. Neither player was added to the roster for Saturday’s opener against Clemson.
The players argued in court that because eligibility rules changed after they decided to turn pro, their brief stint in NFL training camps should not be held against them.
Days after the judge’s initial restraining order, SEC
Days after the judge’s initial restraining order, SEC presidents met to clarify a long-standing rule that prevents pro athletes from playing in college. The league issued a statement in the final week of August that said any athlete who has signed a contract in the NFL, NBA or WNBA is not eligible to play again in college.
Every SEC school except for LSU also agreed commissioner Greg Sankey could issue severe penalties to any school that put a former pro on its roster. The potential punishments include suspending the head coach for half of the regular season and a fine equal to half of the team’s annual operating budget — tens of millions of dollars. At the conclusion of an all-day hearing in Baton Rouge last week, the Louisiana state judge told the SEC it was not allowed to enforce the new rules or penalize LSU if it decided to put any of the athletes in the lawsuit on its roster.
On the same morning that Sankey testified for more than three hours in a Baton Rouge courthouse for the state-based lawsuit, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit against LSU, Kiffin and other university leaders. The SEC was seeking an injunction from a federal judge in Alabama that would allow the league to punish LSU if it violates the pro player ban. The judge in that case has not yet issued any orders.
Wright was waived by the Cleveland Browns in August after suiting up but not playing in their second preseason game. Harris was waived by the New Orleans Saints last month before announcing he was making a “business decision” to head to Baton Rouge.
Source: www.espn.com
