BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) - A dispute between LSU and the Southeastern Conference over the eligibility of two former professional players may be nearing an end, with a meeting of SEC presidents and chancellors still scheduled for Thursday.
LSU President Wade Rousse sent a letter to SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey Wednesday afternoon stating LSU will not roster the two former NFL players who were granted a fifth year of eligibility.
Rousse wrote, “The roster is now locked for the season. LSU complied with SEC rules. This issue is moot.”
Rousse also wrote that LSU would not challenge, disrupt, cancel or seek to postpone the meeting of SEC officials scheduled for Thursday.
Sankey responds
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Sankey sent an email to SEC presidents and chancellors that included Rousse’s letter. The email stated, “The meeting tomorrow of the SEC presidents and chancellors will continue with a revised agenda to be distributed shortly.”
It is being widely reported that the revised agenda will no longer include a vote on LSU’s removal from the conference. The SEC had previously said the special meeting would include consideration of terminating LSU’s conference membership. Sankey’s email did not specify what will be removed, added or changed on the revised agenda.
Matt Moscona, of Locked On LSU, spoke to WAFB and said, “there was never, ever, a realistic chance that LSU was going to be voted out of the SEC.”
Federal hearing postponed
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Rousse’s letter was sent in response to a scheduled federal hearing in Birmingham, Alabama, Wednesday. That hearing sought to restrict top LSU officials, Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill and others from interfering in the conference’s First Amendment right to choose its members.
The hearing did not take place. It will, according to the order, “reset the hearing by a separate order.”
What’s next
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The meeting with SEC presidents and chancellors is still scheduled to happen. Moscona said he believes the former professional players, who returned to being collegiate athletes for about a week, have an argument to file for civil damages against the NCAA and SEC.
Moscona said, “the legal entanglement is far from over. But thankfully we can stop having this stupid conversation about LSU being expelled from the SEC.”
Additional developments are expected next week, leading up to Lane Kiffin’s return to Oxford in Week 3.
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