The LSU SEC expulsion conversation has somehow gone from a fight over former pro players to other SEC schools reportedly discussing whether they should just REFUSE TO PLAY LSU. And I’m sorry.. I know there are probably 400 lawyers having the worst week of their lives trying to figure all of this out, but I need everybody involved to understand how incredible that sentence is.
According to Yahoo Sports, high-ranking executives from the other 15 SEC schools have discussed possible responses to LSU’s plans to add former professional athletes. The ideas reportedly being explored include probation, potentially expelling LSU from the conference, a federal legal challenge and individual schools refusing to compete against a program using players they consider ineligible under SEC rules. These are still discussions, so nobody has announced an LSU boycott and LSU hasn’t been kicked out of anything. But they have officially opened the door to something MUCH funnier.
Because what happens if teams actually start refusing to play each other? We might accidentally invent outlaw college football.
This whole mess exists because recent court rulings have created another path for athletes who previously exhausted their college eligibility, including some who already signed professional contracts, to return to college. The SEC and other major conferences responded by adopting their own eligibility restrictions, while LSU has been aggressive about pursuing players who could benefit from those rulings. So now we’ve reached this completely normal and healthy stage of college football where judges, governors, university presidents and football coaches are fighting over whether a guy can leave professional football and then go BACK to college.
You know.. college sports.
And I understand why the rest of the SEC is pissed. If the conference has an eligibility rule and LSU can use the courts to get around that rule, what exactly does the rule mean anymore? Especially when every school is supposed to be competing under the same conference standards. That is a legitimate problem for the SEC.
I also desperately want to see how stupid this can get.
LSU SEC Expulsion Talk Is Where This Gets Fun
Imagine LSU eventually gets punished or pushed out. Then somewhere else another school finds its own eligibility loophole, another court says its players can compete, its conference threatens them, the school tells the conference to screw off and suddenly nobody wants to schedule them either. Congratulations.. you’re our newest member.
WELCOME TO THE OUTLAW CONFERENCE.
You don’t need media-rights negotiations. You don’t need somebody leaking that a school is “exploring its options” for 18 straight months. You don’t need university presidents pretending this is about institutional alignment while everybody counts television checks under the table. You need spite. LSU is your founding member, and every couple years another school gets banished from polite college football society and added to the schedule.
Eventually you’ve got six or eight programs nobody else wants to play, which conveniently means they now have to play EACH OTHER. Tell me you wouldn’t watch that conference. These would be the schools that looked at an NCAA rule, a conference rule, three lawsuits and 200 years of legal precedent and went, “yeah.. our guy is starting Saturday.”
THAT is a television product.
And the funniest part is college football has spent the last decade desperately trying to manufacture super conferences. Everybody wants the biggest brands, the biggest television contracts and the most playoff influence, and every round of realignment gets treated like some massive strategic chess match. Turns out we were doing this all wrong. Build a conference out of schools that have been kicked out of every other conference.
Obviously, LSU getting thrown out of the SEC tomorrow is not what’s happening here. The reported discussions are preliminary, and actually removing a school from a conference would be a massive step with plenty of legal and procedural questions attached to it. But the amazing part is that the conversation has even reached a point where other SEC schools are reportedly considering refusing to take the field against LSU.
Think about how far beyond normal conference drama that is. We used to argue about whether a transfer should have to sit out a year. Now we’re approaching, “Does Alabama recognize the legal authority of LSU’s defensive tackle?” This sport has completely lost its mind.. and I kinda love it.
Because if college football is going to keep pushing every eligibility rule until somebody finally says, “screw it, we’re not playing you,” then I want the logical conclusion. Give me the schools nobody else wants. Give me eight conference games. Give me a championship game in some neutral stadium where nobody is entirely sure which governing body recognizes the result.
College football already gave us the super conference. Now give us the outlaw conference.
