By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor
LSU will still be a member of the Southeastern Conference through Thursday, a source confirmed to Tiger Rag on Wednesday, as SEC commissioner Greg Sankey suffered another setback.
A story first by 247sports.com on Wednesday said the vote to remove LSU from the league or keep it will not happen at a still-scheduled meeting of presidents and chancellors of the 16 SEC schools in Birmingham, Alabama, at SEC headquarters on Thursday. Such a vote on LSU conceivably could take place at another time, but it is not likely, the source told Tiger Rag.
Sankey had been threatening expulsion of LSU with regards to the SEC’s federal lawsuit against LSU, LSU president Wade Rousse, athletic director Verge Ausberry and head football coach Lane Kiffin announced last Thursday. That lawsuit alleges that LSU “waged a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit pro players,” including conspiring with various players from the class of 2022 to enter an eligibility lawsuit against the NCAA and the SEC.
The class of 2022 players were left out of the NCAA’s new five-seasons-in-five-years eligibility rule passed last June. That rule reverts back to the class of 2023 – not the class of 2022. Hundreds of those ’22 players have sued the NCAA for another season in 2026 and have been winning court rulings to do so all around the country, including players who were on NFL camp rosters this summer.
A hearing on the SEC vs. LSU lawsuit was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Birmingham, but Judge Annemarie Carney Axon postponed that and did not grant the temporary restraining order that Sankey and the SEC needed to proceed with the vote on LSU on Thursday.
The potential vote on LSU was lampooned by United States senator John Kennedy of Louisiana.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill, who was added as a defendant in the SEC lawsuit on Monday, also ridiculed the lawsuit on Tiger Rag Radio on Tuesday night.
Greg Sankey’s “strange, conjectured, seemingly completely made up, garbage” lawsuit vs. LSU has been postponed. And Sankey doesn’t get temporary restraining order he wanted, possibly jeopardizing strange vote on booting LSU from SEC.https://t.co/Otj4TA9btB
— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) September 9, 2026
Axon’s postponement of the hearing came after Kiffin completed his 105-man roster for the season on Tuesday by not adding two former NFL roster members from the class of 2022 lawsuits – tight end Dae’Quan Wright of the Cleveland Browns and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris of the New Orleans Saints. Those two were at the crux of Sankey’s and the SEC’s issue with LSU and Kiffin that escalated into the SEC’s lawsuit against LSU that Murrill called “strange” and “garbage” and “seemingly completely made up.”
A judge in Baton Rouge last week ruled Kiffin could add the two players, angering Sankey. But Kiffin did not add the players, so as to adhere to Sankey’s wishes. But Kiffin left two spots on his roster for them last week, leaving the window open for them later in the season. He changed that strategy on Tuesday by locking his roster down at 105 without Wright and Harris.
Wright and Harris played for Kiffin when he was Ole Miss’ head coach last season and were the only two players to commit to and enroll back in college at LSU who were on NFL camp rosters. The other players from the class of 2022 eligibility lawsuits signing with colleges all over the country were only at NFL tryouts or mini-camps. They were not on NFL camp rosters. Kiffin had the only two of that group – Wright and Harris.
Then later Wednesday, LSU president Wade Rousse released an emailed letter to the SEC and its members, saying the controversy with Wright and Harris and the LSU-SEC feud is now over as they will never be on LSU’s roster. And after that, the SEC took the LSU vote off the agenda for the Thursday meeting.
“On the afternoon of September 4, 2026 (last Friday), I called and provided you with advance notice that LSU would not place Dae’Quan Wright or Zxavian Harris on the football roster,” Rousse said in the letter. “This was confirmed when LSU submitted its roster later that evening (last Friday). On September 8, 2026 (Tuesday), LSU filled its two remaining roster spots with (injured returning players Aidan Anding and Gabriel Reliford). The roster is now locked for the season. LSU complied with SEC rules. This issue is moot.”
Rousse then added the following: “Also on September 8, 2026 (Tuesday), I received notice of the special President’s and Chancellor’s meeting scheduled for Thursday. At no point has LSU ever threatened to upset the meeting. But to be clear, LSU will not challenge, disrupt or seek to cancel or postpone this meeting. This issue is also moot.”
The issue with Wright and Harris, though, is not over as they could sue LSU or the SEC or the NCAA or all three. A judge last week ruled they could be on LSU’s roster, and they are not.
If they sue for lost wages, perhaps the SEC and LSU could split the damages.
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