Clemson officials notify LSU it may be breaching contract if it plays former pro players Saturday
· Yahoo Sports
Clemson officials notified LSU that the participation of former professional football players on Saturday may breach the game contract between the schools.
In a brief email sent Friday afternoon to LSU's general counsel, Clemson general counsel Chip Hood made it clear that the school intends to travel to Baton Rouge for Saturday's season opener, but he addresses "certain eligibility" issues that may break "contractual obligations between the two parties." The obligations are "not relieved by the ongoing disputes," according to the email, obtained by Yahoo Sports.
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The university is not seeking financial damages or in no way suggests filing legally against LSU. However, Clemson emphasizes that it "supports the position of the NCAA and our conferences regarding the eligibility of professional athletes returning to play college sports."
Clemson administrators and legal counsel have spent the last several days conducting an examination of the game contract, which includes an article prohibiting the participation of ineligible players.
LSU has not taken action to formally add pro players to its roster, but a Louisiana judge on Thursday paved the way for such a possibility, granting a group of athletes a preliminary injunction for a fifth season of eligibility, including players who signed pro contracts and have committed to join coach Lane Kiffin's team.
In an interview with Yahoo Sports on Thursday, South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson expressed strong feelings toward any professional athletes taking the field against his state school.
"This is about fairness," he said. "If LSU wants to change the rules for those players, they can petition the SEC to request a waiver, but going to the courts. … Think of the parade of horribles. If LSU wins, every other SEC school can go to their courts and get a different judge to say something. You'd have total chaos and anarchy."
Wilson declined comment on Clemson's examination of the game contract as he had not reviewed it himself. That said, he believes the SEC, as a private organization, should be allowed to govern itself and enforce its rules, especially a bylaw approved by all 16 university presidents. LSU president Wade Rousse voted to reaffirm the conference's ban on pro players just last week during an in-person meeting in Birmingham at the league office.
"Once you become a professional athlete, you are banned. All other schools are abiding by this rule," Wilson told Yahoo Sports.
Wilson is scheduled to travel to Baton Rouge for the game, which is certain to be a tense environment for the visitors. "I may have to up my security when I go down there!" he said with a laugh.
Clemson's email serves as the latest chapter in what's been a drama-filled storyline over the last several weeks.
On Thursday, in an unprecedented move for the conference, the SEC filed a federal lawsuit against LSU, its president, board and athletic director, asking a judge to grant it injunctive relief to permit the league to enforce its rules against LSU, if the school was to violate conference bylaws by rostering professional athletes. Within the lawsuit, the SEC claims that LSU and coach Lane Kiffin "orchestrated [a] campaign to recruit professional athletes to join the LSU football roster."
The program has public commitments from at least three players who signed professional contracts and received injunctions to return to college as part of the lawsuit, including ex-Ole Miss players Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris. Their impending additions to the roster — the players said Thursday they expected to be added — would not only violate the SEC's rule against pro players but also stands to break the league's policy against players transferring from one conference member to another outside of the transfer portal window.
While Wright, a tight end, has already been practicing with the team, LSU has not clearly stated that it will add the players to its roster. Schools are required to submit their 105-man rosters to the College Sports Commission a day before the season opener — in this case, presumably at midnight ET Friday. However, teams can add players to the roster during the season as long as they left spots open, according to an SEC bylaw adopted in April.
The program may not have a choice.
A Louisiana judge on Thursday not only granted the players an injunction but enjoined LSU as a defendant in the case, along with both the NCAA and SEC, meaning the Tigers are prohibited from actions that negatively impacted the athletes — as in deciding against adding the players to the roster after promising them spots. An attorney for the players, Ryan Downton, told Yahoo Sports on Thursday night that he would ask the court to hold LSU in contempt if the program declined to roster his plaintiffs.
The ruling continues the public legal feud between the school and its own conference — an unprecedented fight, but only the latest amid college sports' rudderless landscape.
As reported on Monday on Yahoo Sports, SEC presidents have been exploring a variety of serious measures against the school if it adds former pro football/basketball players, including a boycott, probation, suspension and expulsion.
At the center of the league's aggressive approach to LSU is what leaders describe as a necessary defense of conference-wide rules. This is perhaps the first test of a long-discussed new model that SEC leaders are exploring — a league-only governance model where the conference, not the NCAA, creates and enforces policy as a way to limit legal challenges.
The SEC's approach to the LSU situation is a clear sign that the conference believes it must vigorously defend its rule or else risk the collapse of any league-wide governance concept before it's even established.
Sankey himself took it seriously enough to appear in court.
In an act indicative of the current state of the industry, the SEC commissioner spent more than three hours of the first week of the football season on the stand testifying during the preliminary injunction hearing in Louisiana.
Sankey is not expected to attend the Clemson-LSU football game Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. on ABC.