LSU Faces Legal Battles Over Player Eligibility Issues
LSU's use of pro players prompts lawsuits from the SEC and the Big 10, fueling legal and ethical debates on eligibility. Dan Sileo discusses the fallout.
Video Transcript
Well, we knew this was gonna end this way.
So we waited all day yesterday to hear a judge say what we knew what was going to happen, that LSU was going to be able to play professional football players.
Now this judge has ruled and the SEC along with the Big Ten have teamed up and filed lawsuits against LSU and Lane Kiffin in particular in trying to stop those guys from playing this weekend in that Clemson game.
The big question now for LSU is: how much do you really wanna stand on this hill?
Are you going to put in jeopardy your 2026 season if you go ahead and play these players?
Are these players that you really want to go forward with going out there and putting them on your roster?
Let's not forget something.
Today, all teams in the Southeastern Conference have to present their rosters for the upcoming year, and that means those players that are on that roster, those players will be the ones that will be able to participate in this year's SEC championship race.
So without a doubt here, what does LSU do?
Do they really wanna go down this lane?
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill called the merits of the SEC lawsuit garbage.
She called the timing legal gamesmanship and criticized the SEC commissioner Greg Sankey for wanting to go home on his private jet.
I completely agree with her.
She's definitely right.
These guys have eligibility left.
Listen, when college football decided to open up the can of worms here and also let the genie out of the bottle with NIL and transfer portal, these are the things that we've been talking about for the last six months.
What did you think?
There wasn't gonna be a tidal wave of issues that you were gonna be presented with when it came to eligibility?
I gotta hand it to these kids today by the way.
Kudos to you guys because players like me back in the day were in fear of the National Communist Association of America.
We feared that thing and we were not really always with steady footing against the NCAA.
Their bylaws have been outdated since the '50s.
Remember something here.
It was never in the interest of the NCAA to ever look out for the kids.
It was more in the NCAA's opinion that they were looking out for the institutions and, for the record, particular institutions, Ohio State, Notre Dame, places like that, that really generate a boatload of money for the NCAA.
You got to remember, these kids today are now asking the most important question: why aren't I eligible?
Why can't I be paid?
Why can't I bet on games?
And guess what?
The NCAA and commissioners like Greg Sankey of the SEC, they don't have answers.
You know, there was a big statement that was made in this court case yesterday.
They're standing for principle.
I'm trying to figure out what's that principle.
What are we standing for here?
We gotta stand for integrity.
What's the integrity?
A kid wanting to come back to college and have an opportunity to play?
Like I said, the old hats don't like this.
You still believe that there is amateur athletics and that kids are going to school for education.
Who in their right mind ever believed that?
Kids going to school for education?
Kids going to school for the college environment?
You're going to a place like LSU to give you an opportunity to springboard into the National Football League and give you that shot at--and that bite at the apple.
That's what kids go to programs like that for.
You're not going to sit in a classroom and reading some syllabus and getting ready for the next class.
You go to programs like that because you want a shot to play in the National Football League.
You want a chance to be able to make millions of dollars like any other college kid who goes there wants to start up a business, like a Bill Gates or a Mark Zuckerberg.
This is exactly what these kids are doing.
They're building brands.
Kudos to them!
And kudos to them for challenging the system.
Every single case from the Brandon Shoresby case...Brandon Shoresby, the kid from Texas Tech actually had won his case but because of the political pressure from the Big 12 and from the other conferences teaming up on Texas Tech, Texas Tech relented.
The kid ended up keeping his NIL money that he got from the Red Raiders and then decided that he'll wait it out for next year's NFL draft.
These kids are winning these cases for a reason because for decades the NCAA held these giant hammer over these players on transfer rules.
You know, no one ever really challenged the number one rule of all time and that was "Why do I have to sit out if I want to transfer to another school?"
In which I did.
I transferred from Maryland to the University of Miami and I had to sit out.
I had to lose a year of eligibility and I kept asking the question, why?
Coaches get to leave.
They get to leave anyplace, like Brian Kelly could go to Notre Dame and coach and leave that place and to go to LSU.
Or you see Lane Kiffin- Look at what Lane Kiffin did just last year.
Lane Kiffin had a team that was in the 12 Team College Football Playoff and in the middle of the playoff he's like, "Well, you know, I got a better job at LSU so I'm gonna leave those kids in a lurch and I'm gonna go take the LSU job and I'm gonna keep that whole situation there for those guys to deal with," and Ole Miss can go ahead and deal with that scenario themselves.
They were, they were leaderless going into that game actually against the University of Miami and Lane Kiffin didn't care about it.
You gotta love the fact, no question about it, kids today are challenging.
It's gonna be very interesting to see
