Attorney General Liz Murrill and Matt Moscona, the host of “After Further Review” on ESPN Baton Rouge 104.5, help decipher the federal lawsuit the SEC filed against LSU in Alabama. The lawsuit was amended to also name Murrill as a defendant, and she weighs in on the peculiarity of the case and points out why the injunction the SEC is seeking may not hold up. SEC CEOs are set to vote on whether to terminate LSU’s SEC membership on Thursday after a hearing in the case scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Here is the complete transcript of the show from YouTube. Tiger Rag apologizes for any AI generated mistakes:
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Back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Lurmo along with the executive editor for Tiger Rag magazine, Todd Horn. The editor, Gwen Gilbo, Case Kishnik, our
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producer. Glad he could join us. Coming up a little bit later on, Attorney General Liz Merl will join us. And our next guest has become really good friends with Attorney General Liz Merl.
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That is uh the host of After Further Review on ESPN 1045 and 1049 in Baton Rouge. and his show is also heard across
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the state and on several of our affiliates that are part of the Tiger Rag Radio family. That is uh Oh, I think we’re still efforting Matt Mone, right?
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Okay. So, I thought we had I’m sorry about that. I had that. That was a great leadup, too. It’s one of my best.
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Oh, well, [laughter] you know what they say, rain delay, lightning delay, power clock outage. How
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on that topic? On that topic. Oh, we do have Matt. Okay. Well, we’ll hold off on that. Top Matt, you missed my great intro on you. How you doing? I’m glad
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you’re feeling better. I know you were uh down in the dumps there uh couple weeks ago.
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Well, no, he was uh sick this past weekend as well, but he he toughed it out and u you were able um What do you What do you have access to?
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His thermometer or something?
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Hey, I’m an everydayer, Matt. I’m paying attention to I listen to him every day, too. Why don’t you How about we let him talk? [laughter]
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Yeah. Well, actually Matt, I I am going to ask you a straightforward question and I want you to talk over who loves me [laughter] more. Yeah. Yeah. You know, you’re locked up.
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Sorry, Matt. We’re out of time.
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[laughter]
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In in addition to in addition to after further review, you also do locked on LSU and the SEC appears to be locked on LSU right now.
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So, why how much you spent thinking of that?
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Yeah, about 15 minutes. [laughter] Yeah, [clears throat] I come up with a decent one every once in a while. But Matt, cut cut through all the legal language. I tend to get bogged down in it. Uh but do
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you believe the SEC is genuinely are they really considering expelling LSU or is the threat being used just to leverage or reestablish their authority
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which is fake to begin with? But anyway, go ahead.
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I think there’s a better chance of me waking up tomorrow with a full head of hair [laughter] than the SEC expelling LSU.
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This is one of the most absurd conversations I’ve ever had to entertain in my career.
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Thank you.
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It’s not to say that the SEC couldn’t go on living without LSU. It could, right?
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And LSU is in a far more comfortable reality in the SEC than if it had to go independent or into another conference.
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But the amount of untangling and unwinding that would have to be done to remove a charter member of the
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conference and one of the five biggest brands not only in college sports but maybe in North American sports.
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It it boggles the mind and only a complete buffoon would vote to expel LSU from the
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conference. Because we live in a world where Jerry Sanduski was raping children. Mhm.
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The university and athletic administration knew about it. Hovered it up.
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They got hammered with four-year bull ban, $60 million fines, vacated a hundred some odd wins, and they didn’t get kicked out of the conference.
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You going to tell me because LSU didn’t roster two guys that didn’t so much as
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play in a freaking preseason game that they’re going to they’re going to expel LSU from the SEC.
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It’s It’s like saying a spider crawled across the floor in your house. Let’s burn the house down to kill the spider.
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It’s it is stupid beyond it is stupid beyond measure to even have the conversation.
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I agree with you. But the SEC accuses LSU and Lane Keifin of engineering all of this litigation.
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60 cases across the United States. More than 350 different athletes involved.
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LSU’s got two that like you said they didn’t even put on the roster and they were simply following a Louisiana court’s uh order. Uh regardless of how
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credible you think that is, it’s still a court and it’s still an order. Um but their public evidence appears to be an
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anonymously sourced CBS report and comments Kein made after the lawsuit was
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filed. Do you believe the SEC has evidence we hadn’t seen yet?
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Maybe. I think it’s plausible that players or their agents were in touch with Lane about how to make that happen.
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Um, at what point? I don’t know. I mean, I’m guessing. Is it plausible? Sure, it’s plausible. Um, h how else do 44
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athletes from different sports all across the landscape come together? I guess initially it was 33 um to file a
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suit in Louisiana. you know, there’s obviously junior to a halamaker from Notre Dame and u I mean, sure, I guess it’s plausible, but but that might not even be illegal.
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I mean, is there anything wrong with that? What you just said, you know, so what if Lane or another coach talked to an agent and they said, “Hey, this guy
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ought to get in the lawsuit.” I mean, I don’t see Now you’re asking the question, is it illegal or is it against SEC policy?
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Now, I don’t know that it’s against SEC policy unless if they’re claiming lack of institutional control. And does that fall under that? But this is so but the
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guys the conversation we’re having right now is the problem right is there is a loose right
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an inconsistent application of the rules and and ultimately what I think is going
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on here is the SEC wants to move to a self-governance model. Greg Seni talked about this in his state of the
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conference address in Tampa a few weeks ago at SEC media days.
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The question was sort of spurned by, you know, Kirby and the Georgia brass kind of talking about it publicly
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uh this off season, but there’s a strong desire by many of the the power brokers in these conferences. If the NCAA can’t
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govern the sport, then let the conferences do it. Well, this is the first big test of that and it just happens to be a big brand in LSU and a
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lightning rod in Lane Keifin. And the president’s hastily passed a new rule two weeks ago.
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Although they were warned, but it’s not a rule.
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Well, I mean the rule they passed two weeks ago.
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Well, yeah, but but it’s it’s it’s not a it’s not a bylaw. that that I’m just gonna Okay. Yeah. Sorry. Not let’s let’s not get caught up in
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semantics. Like [laughter] I’m not I’m not disagreeing with you, but the point is like that’s what’s an issue here is they’re saying that they passed a rule a new rule. The president’s voted to pass
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this new professionalism rule and if you hastily pass a rule without any intelligent debate that generally is
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going to spark legal action. That’s exactly I agree with you. I agree with that.
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Matt, where did they draw the I I think what is most frustrating is you and I know you’ve brought this up quite a bit.
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What’s the difference between Cole Hudson who appeared in a couple of mini camps, he had to sign some sort of
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paperwork to be with the to be with to participate with an NFL team compared to what we saw with Xavon Harris
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who didn’t practice once and but he was on the roster. But he was on the roster. That’s the difference.
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This is how fans are fickle. Um because Texas fans will staunchly defend adding Cole Hudson to the roster. Although he
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put on a uniform and went on an NFL field and tried to make not one but two different teams. But they’ll say, but he
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never signed a contract. Well, in what reality? But this so this is the problem with existing in areas of brain
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because you can take two similar circumstances and have two very different outcomes
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like Xavier Harris you’re saying because he signed his name on a piece of paper although he never actually step foot on or never so much as practiced with the
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New Orleans Saints but because he signed a paper and as we learned under oath got $190 in gas money that he is an he’s an
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NFL I love how people He’s a these NFL players like Xavier Harris is as much an NFL player as I have. Like he’s done as
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much in an NFL uniform as I have, which is literally zero. He’s got more hair than you have.
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[laughter]
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I said NFL player. I didn’t say anything about our about our our He’s also 68330 and I wouldn’t mess with him.
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But Cole Hudson because he was only a rookie camp try out although he wore the uniform and went on the field and tried to make the team. So what you’re saying
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is you can try to make the team but if you don’t make the team then you can go back. It’s just it it doesn’t this is
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the problem with areas of gray and to Jeff’s point you’re right and I did ask several NFL agents if you go for a rookie you can’t try out you have to sign medical waiver and you have to sign
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particip a a bevy of part participation documents which by the way are legally binding contracts. So if you’re talking
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about signing a contract well you have to define what the contract is. Is it different than signing like a SK regular schedule contract in the NFL? Sure. But
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is it still a contract? Yes. So now you’re into this this weird verb you verbiage entanglement. And it’s and
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that’s why you can’t exist in areas of gray. This is why the NCAA sucks at what they do. That’s right. You have to you
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have to be black or white. Either give everyone in the class of 22 a blanket waiver or say all of you are so we’re
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starting the next year. This is where they screwed up. Well, Matt, to your point, just like Greg Sanki said when questioned in Baton Rouge last Thursday,
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I I can’t really define a pro. Well, he did I’m not quoting him, but his basic message was I can’t really define a pro right now because we had had enough time to research it all.
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I look, I like Greg. I think he’s a smart guy and I think he’s done an outstanding job as commissioner during his time by and large. I mean, he’s
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brought a lot of new revenue and creative ideas into the league and overseen expansion. There’s a lot of things he’s done very well. This is something that he’s done that’s very poor.
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Wade Roose, how does he respond to all this? Or or what do you think’s going through his mind right now? Matt,
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I’ve come to believe that Wade Roose is a is an extremely smart man who generally
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exists three or four steps ahead of everyone else. So, I I don’t think that
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Wade Roose is flatfooted. I think um or caught off guard by this at all. This is probably what whatever happened today is
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probably something he was aware of 3 days ago and we’re all just figuring it out today and he’s probably already beyond whatever might happen Thursday,
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which I’m pretty certain is not going to be a vote to kick LSU out of the SEC.
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Matt, let’s just say that I agree with you, but let’s just say we’re we’re we’re all wrong and the SEC does follow
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through. They get a TTRO tomorrow or something that allows them to have the vote and not be punitively penalized by
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the court in any way. And they do end up voting LSU out. They get their 11 votes and they for some reason vote LSU out.
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What does life look like for LSU at that point? Um, I would guess they’d go independent.
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Um, I don’t think that that’s the preferred path because I think that’s a scheduling nightmare for
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every sport, including football. Um, I’m sure the ACC would love to have LSU,
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but I I just honestly don’t know with, you know, how they locked their expansion deal to make sure Clemson, they basically locked the door on
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Clemson and Florida State, like you can leave. I don’t know if that allows anyone else in. Um, maybe maybe LSU could go join the new
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Pack 12 because that I’ll tell you what would be awesome about that because then you could just beat the crap out of crappy schools, go undefeated,
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[laughter]
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get in the playoff every year. That’d be great. We all want, right? Yeah, that that would be interesting.
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I’d like to see them I’d love to see LSU go to the Big 10 if that were to happen, though.
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There’s no shot. [laughter] No, there’s no shot. Like the Big 10 prides itself so much on the academic standing of their universities. Like,
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they only want high achieving academic institutions. LSU wouldn’t even they wouldn’t consider LSU.
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Well, Matt, it’s interesting times. A lot to talk about. Uh we’ll see what happens here. Thanks a lot, man. We appreciate your time tonight.
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What about the football game? You’re not going to ask him about Clemson? All right.
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I thought you were going to ask about Louisiana Tech. [laughter]
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[gasps]
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Just overall thoughts on what you saw Saturday. And is this is this a LSU now ranked number eight in the AP top 25? Is
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are you in your mind are you more do you feel even do you are you sitting here saying you know what yeah this team’s a college football playoff uh team.
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Absolutely. They I mean they went to um to minus odds today by the oddsmakers are minus 125 to make the playoff now. Yeah.
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How could you look at that Saturday night and not think that? I mean, the statistical anomalies, guys, like we don’t see negative4 rushing yards and a
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half against a freaking FCS team. I mean, they did it against Clemson. You can say Clemson’s not any good. Like, Furman has come into Baton Rouge and
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given LSU a h a game for a half. Like, that they they that was one of the most impressive ass whapons I’ve ever seen in
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my life. Yeah. So, I mean, look, there was nobody that was coming into Tiger Stadium and beating that theme on Saturday with everything that was going on in first game for Keifin and all.
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Clemson just walked upon the gates of hell. I mean, God bless them. They just had no shot. But that’s also why I hate polls because like there’s these stupid unwritten rules like you you can’t move.
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Someone if someone loses, they have to move down. If they win, they move up.
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I’m like, we so we all watched games this weekend. It’s undeniable LSU had the best, most emphatic win. Why aren’t
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they number one in the country? Oh, because we had so we had someone else ahead of them before we ever saw a game, so we can’t move them down. That makes sense. That’s why if anyone ever asked
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me to vote in their poll, I’d probably punch him in the face and tell him to kick rocks. I want to vote your stupid poll, you idiots.
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Well, thank you for being a part of our stupid show tonight. We appreciate it, Matt.
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I love your show, Jeff. I [laughter] was a part of the very first ever Tiger Rag Friday.
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I know. You know what? With I feel like in a way this is actually my show.
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I I I [laughter] You’re right. You’re you’re and with the passing of Skipman, man. And and this is an inside joke between me and you [laughter] and you know exactly.
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We’re just days away. I beat you to it. You can explain that to the audience. [laughter] We’re just days.
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In the jungle. Remember all the uh the jungle. [laughter] Nick Nick’s Wild King. You got to get Matt. Where’s Matt Deville? Get Mattville on [laughter] here.
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I wish I had a copy of that tape. I don’t know where it’s at. We might we might need to go over to Wooddale Boulevard and look for it. [laughter] That place has been that place has been
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condemned. You’re going to have you know you’re going to have to explain this all to your audience.
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Yeah, I will. We got a break though, but we’ll come back and talk about it afterwards. Thanks a lot, man. I appreciate it. Thanks, Matt. Yep.
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All right, Matt Mcccon. We’ll be back after this here on Tiger Radio.
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17 minutes, 4 seconds
The East [music] Baton Rouge Parish Library believes that supporting the education of students is good for us all.
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That’s why we provide access to live in-person online tutoring through homework Louisiana.
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Tiger Rag Radio is back on the air. Hey, we’re back here on Tiger Rag Radio.
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Jeff Barmo along with Glen Gilbo, Case Kishnik, Todd Horn here. Liz Merrell will be joining us in the next se segment. The attorney general and good
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laugh there with Matt Mccona. Yeah, we had back in the day Tiger Rag Radio’s been around forever. Um it was and Matt
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was our one of our original producers over when we were at um I guess it was Cumulus um on the old on the old sports
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station over there. Was it IBR? I think that’s what it was. It was w and Matt was our producer. He was still in college and we knew right then that Matt
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was going to be uh really good at whatever he was going to do. But uh we played some audio from Skip Bman when he
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was the athletic director and I don’t remember what the exact issue was whether it was a contract extension maybe. Maybe maybe I I think that was when when they did the tradition fund.
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It could have been the tradition fund or did they extend Sabin’s deal? Didn’t they um didn’t they give Nick Sabin a contract extension after they won in 03?
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Oh yeah.
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Yeah, it might have been that. And so we’re talking with Skip outside the board of supervisors and the board of supervisors meeting is at Led Cook
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and um and so Skip is talking in his his normal pace and he’s like we’re just days away and all you hear are like a
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thousand birds in the background. So, we’re playing the audio and I’m into the audio and I’m about ready to dissect what Skip’s gonna say. Matt Deville, who
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is the editor at the time, and Msone, who’s our producer, just start bursting out laughing and I didn’t know why they were laughing and they’re like, “Listen to the audio. It sounds like he’s in a
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tropical rainforest.” And it did. I mean, or Alex Fox before he [laughter] got there.
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Right. Right. When you heard all the birds uh whenever you were doing player interviews, that’s all you heard in the background were all the bird. This was I mean it was loud like you were hearing
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like birds that I mean just crazy calls that they were making and so forth and
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uh yeah so it was it was pretty funny and I and with Skip passing away I was like I was thinking about it the other
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day I’m like man I wish I had that tape because it was so funny after when you listen to all the background noise. So that was that was uh the uh Skip Bertman
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story there with Matt MCone. U funnier if you were actually there, but so I tried to point paint it as best as possible. But uh Verge Osbury uh and if
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you missed this, this was a great interview by Charles Hannigri again with our friends uh over there at Guaranty on their pregame show. Every year, uh,
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Charlie has a sitdown with whoever the athletic director is, and they go over all kind of give a a state of the LSU
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athletic address, and Charlie did this interview before Thursday’s preliminary injunction was
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ordered. So, it was a little tricky to talk to Verge about the issues here and the SEC’s laws and rules and all that
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kind of stuff. But, this is this is what Charlie asked him. and you can hear what Verge’s answers are.
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You know, we we we always support our coaches, but we have rules to follow and SEC rules, NCA rules, uh we follow them and we will follow them. And so, we uh
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we talk to our coaches about the situation. So, we want our coaches to to challenge and challenge us and come to us with things that, you know, hey, this
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could help us get better. And if it could help us get better, then we’re going to try it. But we have rules to follow. And we always follow the rules.
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We have never really we haven’t gone out there and said we’re going to break the rules of the SEC or the NCAA. We have never done that. We know we will do that, but we will challenge things and
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ask questions about things. I think that’s the way we have to do it. Yeah. So, the thoughts on that, Glen?
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Well, you know, I think LSU continues to cooperate with the SEC. That’s what Burge was saying. That’s what LSU did
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last week. Even Lane cooperated uh by not playing the two players or even putting them on the roster and and
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dressing them out. So it it further it makes you wonder they’re just picking on LSU.
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Well uh it just Yeah, I guess so. And and uh you know LSU is the only one that has the players who are in training
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camp, but but still it seems like they’re going a little beyond what what what’s really [music] on the table. We’ll be back after this here on Tiger Radio.
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I’m Richard Fner, president of the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation. My brother and I grow rice, soybeans, and raised crawfish on our farm in Evangeline Parish. For a fourth
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22 minutes, 2 seconds
generation farmer like myself, Louisiana [music] Farm Bureau is as much a part of my life as checking traps or harvesting rice. Our organization is more than
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145,000 members strong, and [music] we’ve been around for more than 100 years. The Louisiana Farm Bureau spans generations, and we want you to join our family.
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Visit lafarmbureau.org. at the Louisiana Farm Bureau Federation, the voice of Louisiana agriculture.
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22 minutes, 25 seconds
Now, back to Tiger Rag Radio.
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Back here on Tiger Rag Radio, Jeff Polmo along with the executive editor for Tiger Rag Magazine and the editor Glenn Gilbo. Tonight, the uh fight between LSU
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and the SEC is moving with extraordinary speed. At 100 p.m. Wednesday, a federal judge will hear the SEC’s request for
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emergency protection. On Thursday, SEC presidents and chancellors could consider expelling LSU, a university
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that to help establish the conference in 1932. A Louisiana court restrain the SEC’s enforcement power. The conference
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now argues that expulsion would not be a penalty, but an independent constitutional right. Strip away the
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legal language, and the SEC is trying to block being blocked. Louisiana Attorney General Liz Merl, now a defendant in the
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federal case, joins us. General Merl, this is Jeff Polmo. Thank you for being here. How you doing tonight? I’m good. How are you doing, Jeff? I’m doing well.
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Hey, Liz. This is uh Todd Horn. Um the SEC is asking a a federal judge tomorrow
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to protect it from you and other Louisiana officials. What exactly does the conference want the judge to
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prohibit you from doing? And what will you argue in response?
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I mean, I think, you know, specifically what I think they’ve alleged is the relief they’re seeking is to prevent me
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from being able to file pleadings in any court against them. Um, or to
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take any action that would otherwise interfere with their ability to, I guess, do whatever they want. Um, you
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know, the whole thing is is kind of strange, I think, in terms of the allegations they’re making against the attorney general, i.e. me. Um, because I
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have sovereign immunity as attorney general. Like, they can’t, a federal judge cannot issue an order, has no jurisdiction to issue an order. Um,
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whether this judge will sign an order purporting to do it, I couldn’t say. But as a matter of law, a federal judge has
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no jurisdiction to issue an order directing the attorney general of a state and prohibiting that attorney
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general from basically carrying out my legal duties as AG and blocking me from filing pleadings in state court
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proceedings or in another federal court or or anywhere. That’s kind of a strange allegation that they’re making, but I
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don’t. And then there further strange allegations were that I’ve conspired with Lane Keifin, who I’ve never met.
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Right. [laughter] That was pretty interesting. I thought that allegation was pretty curious.
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Are are we accurate when we said in the introduction they’re just really trying to block being blocked by this whole action?
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I think that’s right. Yeah, I think they are trying to block being blocked and but they’re trying to block being blocked by LSU who’s never tried to
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block them. I mean, like there are no there’s no basis for for LSU for any allegation
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that LSU’s tried to block the SEC from having this meeting. I mean, they said they want to have a meeting. They have bylaws that say they can have a meeting.
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They’ve done they have had other meetings. Um, now if they they carry out
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this threat LSU out of the SEC, then we’re kind of in a whole different,
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you know, sandbox of because there are a lot of people with a lot of reliance interests now that are embedded in this particular season of football. Mhm.
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Um and and that’s, you know, not the least of which are a lot of players who have entered into contracts in reliance
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on uh the their expectations of playing this season. There’s a lot of money involved that um that I think would you
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know it’s just a mess and I I don’t know if they will carry it out or not. But I do think that the allegations are based on a lot of conjecture. Like I’ve seen
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no evidence, none, of things that they allege in this lawsuit. It just seems to be completely made up.
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Yeah, we have an article on Tiger right now, tiger.com, that says exactly that same thing and actually has a list of the lack of evidence that they have have
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failed to provide. Um, General Marl, the SEC was formed in
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1932, began competition in 33. It has written and enforced rules for nearly a century, largely without courts interfering.
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What has changed both in college athletics and in the law that makes this moment different?
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So everything has changed because of the kind of independent agency and I use the term agency in kind of a special way.
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Not in the legal but more in the sense that they have some autonomy now to to to
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negotiate and economic for themselves. the athletes do and and
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so they now have a lot of reliance interest that are built into this system and and some autonomy in the system as
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players who are the ones who are producing rest of the money that everybody else makes in the system. Right? If you don’t
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have players don’t have a game, you don’t you don’t make all this money because you have nobody out on the
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field. those people now have legal rights to earn money from their playing
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and they didn’t used to have that. And so when you when you had these, you know, presidents of universities who would
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have their meetings, they would make up their rules and come up with their bylaws and all these sorts of things.
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They didn’t students who were playing were just happy to be out there, right? They didn’t they couldn’t make any money.
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They couldn’t even be student workers.
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I couldn’t hire one of them to be my, you know, gopher at the office, $8 an hour because that would be earning
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money. And so they were prohibited from doing that. Now they can. And I think that’s changed everything because when you change the rules on them
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after they’ve already made significant decisions and on the basis of their expectation about eligibility and then you change the rules.
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fair to them. And I I think this all could have been avoided if they had just approached this with some concern for
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how their decision- making was affecting those 320 or whatever number of players who were affected by the five for five
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rule. It really wasn’t that hard. Their lack of concern for how their rules affect those players is what probably causes me more concern than anything
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else because it shows such a callous disregard for the effect of their decisions on thousands of student
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athletes, hundreds of thousands of student athletes that it makes you question whether they can really bear the responsibility of the the power that they have.
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Li Liz, Judge Jordan on Thursday prohibited the SEC from punishing LSU in connection with with these players.
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Now they’re saying that expelling LSU would not be a penalty, but an independent membership decision. Is that
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a legitimate legal distinction or is that an attempt to go indirectly against what the Louisiana court prohibited them from doing?
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I mean, I think they have been all along trying to kind of get around circumvent that restriction by the state court
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judge and now they are trying to basically get a federal judge to confuse things further by issuing an order that
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would purport to override the state court ruling. I mean, at the end of the day, this federal court action is a
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collateral attack on Will Jordan’s authority. like they are trying to attack that order and and come up with a
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different justification for what they’re doing. Um I just right now I don’t know whether they will do it or not. You know, I mean
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I think the light of things can change in the next 24 hours. I’ve got lawyers that’ll be on an airplane going to Birmingham tomorrow. We’ve never even been I’ve never even been served with
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this lawsuit. M you know that’s sort of another peculiar thing about it is that this judge scheduled a hearing at 1:00 tomorrow afternoon in Birmingham.
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All of the defendants were amended. We were literally amended into this lawsuit this morning and and you have not received any notification via email or anything else.
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I I got a copy of the lawsuit, but that’s not service of process, right?
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you know, they I have a legal they they have a legal obligation to provide service, legal service of process, and they just threw it at us and basically
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said, you know, and then the judge scheduled a preliminary injunction and TTRO hearing for 1:00 in Birmingham. You know, there’s some legal restrictions on
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our ability to practice law in another federal district court where we haven’t been admitted. I’m admitted in courts all over the country. My lawyers are
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admitted in courts all over the country, but they’re not admitted in the northern district of Alabama where this lawsuit was filed. So, I have to find an Alabama
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lawyer who is admitted in that district so that that lawyer can file our pleadings just to get us ability to speak.
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Do you think that was intentional? Yeah, of course it was.
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All of this was very intentional. And you know, we they sued the they filed the lawsuit
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perfect as it was. They filed it 30 minutes after the hearing started last Thursday in state court and they didn’t tell anybody.
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Craig think he’s on the witness stand like nothing has happened.
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We’re talking discovered that we have been sued in federal court. So, we’re talking to Louisiana Attorney General Liz Merl. Liz, this is Glenn
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Gilbo. Thanks for joining us. Um, hey, Glenn.
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Hey, last question. Uh, when you stand before the federal judge tomorrow, what is the single most important thing you want that judge to understand about what
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the SEC is attempting to do?
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You know, I think the most important thing I want this judge to do is really take a a hard look at jurisdiction. Like
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I as a matter of law, this judge really doesn’t have jurisdiction. There’s no federal claim. There’s this First Amendment claim that they’ve come out of
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the gate with is garbage. There’s no first amendment, you know, nobody’s interfering with the SEC’s expressive association right if they even have law
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that. I mean, I don’t think they even have that as a matter of constitutional law because 15 out of 16 of their member
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schools are public universities that don’t have constitutional right. So, there’s one school that does and it’s
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Vanderbilt, but but I don’t think that means the association, which isn’t even a legallyated
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thing. It’s more like a joint venture that holds everybody’s media rights.
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I don’t think that they can just come in and assert a const there that they have some constitutional first amendment right that’s being abridged and then
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there are a bunch of other jurisdictional questions like the sovereign immunity questions that we’ve we are going to be raising. So I think
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there’s a lot this judge needs to step through. We do intend to get those issues in front of that judge before the
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hearing and then we’ll see what happens next. But, um, I just, you know, I think that I think right now that I I would
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like to just see the federal judge step back and say this isn’t really a federal court fight
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and let the rest of the week play out. Look, at the at the end at the end of the day,
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this is really about the players and it’s about the players right that are being run over basically.
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Right. That’s right. I mean, and and I’m I’m glad you brought that up because, you know, that’s what kind of
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continually gets lost in this fight where they continue to sort of demonize Lane Kein, the eagle evil evil empire
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that that Lane Keifin created. And there’s no evidence of that that you know you’ve got schools Texas, Oklahoma,
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South Carolina, they’ve all got these students that they’ve recruited and they they may not have rostered them
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yet, but they are in exactly the same position that LSU is in. And LSU hasn’t rostered these these students right now.
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They’re just enrolled students. Whether they’ll ever get rostered is we don’t know.
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didn’t say or do anything and and that yet the and the students did all of this and they’ve been doing
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it all over the country. All over the country.
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Yeah. There there’s more than 60 cases right now with more than 350 different students involved.
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Reason is because what the NCIA did was unfair. And that’s what’s resonating with courts around the country is you
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have all this power and these people are being, you know, whipped back and forth based on your arbitrary and capricious
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decisionmaking. Like just be consistent and be fair. That is all that’s being asked of them and they couldn’t do it.
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And now they’ve just doubled down on their power. Well, we got to be able to enforce our rules. You could enforce your rules. If you just be fair and
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even-handed in how you do it, then I think everybody would back down.
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And if they can’t be fair and even-handed in how they do it, then I don’t know why anybody would give them the power to do it at all.
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Attorney General Liz Merl, thank you for joining us tonight here on Tiger Egg Radio. We really appreciate it. Happy to be with you guys.
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All right. Well, uh, hit that Google machine and find that lawyer in Alabama to help you out. Okay. [laughter] We found him. We found him.
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Okay. All right. I I had a couple suggestions, but it sounds like you got it taken care of. Thanks a lot. We appreciate your time.
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Looking for LSU guys. [laughter] There’s They’re all over the place. I’m sure you didn’t have to look too far. Thank you very much.
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Thanks. See you, Alex.
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All right, there you go. Attorney General Liz Muro. Wow. All right, let’s take a break. More of Tiger Rag Radio after this.
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Tiger Rag Radio is back. All right, back here on Tiger Rag Radio. So, we got an eventful week coming up.
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Uh big federal hearing tomorrow, a big vote potentially by the SEC presidents and chancellors on Thursday and then a
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football game on Saturday. Just your hoham regular week in Baton Rouge.
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Well, you know, I really feel bad for Louisiana Tech. They thought they [laughter] scheduled an SEC team. By the time the game comes, LSU is going to be an independent.
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Yeah. And how will that affect their CSP range?
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Exactly. [laughter] I mean, what’ you think of what Liz had to say, Todd? I think that it ultimately boils
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down to uh the fact that the SEC is playing games right now. And I think she was fairly clear in stating that that’s
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not the word she used. But the fact that they picked a jurisdiction uh in Alabama where she cannot uh argue, she had to
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find a lawyer. uh the fact they haven’t properly served her, the fact that uh they have no evidence for their allegations, the whole thing just reeks of whatever.
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And her her statement that this is a power move, [snorts] a power move to continue their authority, which they really don’t have.
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It’s almost like Alabama’s trying to do what Louisiana does, you know, corrupt law. No, historically. Uh but I thought
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it was amazing. I mean, Liz Merl, think about how many court cases she’s read and prepared for as as her lawyer her
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whole career. And she said that this case, she used the word strange like three times and weird. And, you know,
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and and you know, she usually doesn’t, I would assume she usually doesn’t use those words when she’s describing uh a a
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case or a lawsuit. And she hasn’t even been served yet, you know, and the thing’s tomorrow afternoon, right? And what about the fact that she’s being accused of conspiring with
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Lane Keifin, whom she says she has never even met. Right. Right.
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I think all college football fans, and you got the sense of this even when you’re watching ESPN college game, they everybody’s just tired of this. Is there
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a way that how do you get where cooler heads prevail and there is some sort of understanding here and all this conflict?
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That that’s where a good commissioner comes in. And right now the SEC’s commissioner is not behaving like a good
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commissioner. He’s behaving like an angry child.
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So I think the answer to your question is to get a new commissioner. [laughter] Okay. We So that’s not happening anytime
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soon. What could potentially happen in the during this month of September that could as the plaintiff’s attorney I
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think used the word kind of lowered the temperature, right? where everybody takes a step back and really looks at the case or is this just everybody’s
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upset at LSU because of the governor’s involved in this and they don’t like the optics of that. They don’t like Lane
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Keifin. They don’t like Will Wade. Uh they don’t like the fact that LSU is pushing the envelope that there there
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does seem to be that part of this situation here. Yeah, I I actually think it’s because LSU dominated Clemson. Um,
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and they’re scared to death of LSU, and I think that’s what is really driving most of this. No, in in sincere, I I
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think that the it’s not going to tone down unless the court system actually
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figures out a way to exert their authority over this. The what? Lampoon.
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That’s what I think of. I think of lampoon, national lamp. The problem is is that you just have varying different rulings on all these cases. And I
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understand maybe the the evidence being submitted is different in each one. And the it’s just in one state the they rule
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for the plaintiffs and the other state they rule for the NCAA. It’s just maddening. And I’m not I’m not expecting you to come up with an answer to
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No. Well, I’m not going to give you a straight a definitive answer, but I will tell you that the NCAA disputed that uh
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said, you know, asserted in court on Thursday in Louisiana that there had been a number of cases they had won. and
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the uh SE the uh LSU not the LSU the athletes attorney um not Tony Clayton but the other one I
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can’t think of his name uh asserted that they that was all bull that there had been no case that they had actually won no all right
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so all right guys uh maybe next week we can talk more football uh better it’s old miss [laughter] week of course of course they have an active
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42 minutes, 2 seconds
lawsuit as well because those two guys owe him [laughter] Prince. Well, uh, you man, and the other Who’s the other LS? That’s easy for you to say.
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Deon Harper Deon Harper, right? We’ll have to talk about that.
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All right, that does it for the show, everyone. Thanks for listening.
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Tiger Ragg is everywhere. Online at tiger.com.
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