Southeastern Conference leaders to discuss kicking LSU out of league over player eligibility dispute

Southeastern Conference leaders to.

Key points

• Culture Eddie Pells, Associated Press, Eric Olson, Associated Press August 26, 2026.
• FILE – Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, speaks during NCAA college basketball women's SEC Media Day, Oct.
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Southeastern Conference leaders to discuss kicking LSU out of league over player eligibility dispute. By: Eddie Pells, Associated Press – September 8, 2026.

FILE – Greg Sankey, commissioner of the Southeastern Conference, speaks during NCAA college basketball women's SEC Media Day, Oct. 16, 2024, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File).

On Tuesday, the SEC amended a federal lawsuit, seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent LSU from blocking the session. A two-thirds vote from the conference's CEOs is needed to remove LSU, a founding member since 1933.

Leaders of the Southeastern Conference will meet Thursday to discuss whether to take the extraordinary step of kicking LSU out of the league after an ugly feud over whether players who spent time in the NFL should be allowed back on the team's roster this season.

On Tuesday, the SEC amended the federal lawsuit it filed against LSU last week, asking the judge in the case to matter a temporary restraining order to prevent the school from taking action to block or interfere with the Thursday gathering of university presidents and chancellors.

In practice, a vote of at least two-thirds of the conference's CEOs would be needed to dump LSU. It is a founding member of the conference that was began in 1933. A declaration that Commissioner Greg Sankey included with the league's legal filing created the planned gathering sound like more than posturing. In it, Sankey remarked school presidents met last Friday.

The consensus. Was and continues to be that LSU's continued membership in the conference would be inconsistent with the publicly stated values and principles of the conference and its remaining member institutions even if LSU doesn't put the former NFL players on its roster, he remarked. An LSU spokesman declined immediate comment.

Meanwhile, the SEC established a rule forbidding teams to bring players with NFL experience back on their roster but last Friday, a Louisiana court barred the league from enforcing it, a decision that was heartily celebrated by the state's governor and attorney general.

Two of the players, Zxavian Harris and Dae'Quan Wright, have been practicing with the team but were not placed on the roster in advance of last Saturday's 51-10 win over Clemson. They still could be continued, and Sankey produced note of two roster spots that have been left open for that possibility.

In an official note, the SEC remarked it has the right to establish rules and "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 statement remarked.

Sankey took it a step further, saying in his declaration that SEC presidents were concerned LSU's president, Wade Rousse, and athletic director Verge Ausberry had no "meaningful control" over new coach Lane Kiffin or the football program.

"In light of the recalcitrance, lack of institutional control, and serious harm caused by the statements and conduct of LSU, " the school presidents, other than Rousse, pressed the gathering, Sankey noted.

He remarked the gathering was to consider kicking out LSU "whether LSU renounces its intention to roster and play professional players on its football team, or not." Regarding the Author(s). Eddie Pells, Associated Press. News Matthew Daly, Associated Press September 4, 2026.

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In short, southeastern Conference leaders to discuss kicking LSU out of league over player is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.