The SEC Met, Talked About LSU, and Went Home Without a Vote

The Southeastern Conference's presidents and chancellors met by video conference Thursday evening with LSU's membership on the agenda, and came out of it with nothing to announce. Its statement said the group discussed recent matters involving conference expectations and responsibilities, and that those discussions will continue as the conference and its member universities work toward an appropriate resolution. No vote was taken. Nobody was expelled, fined or suspended.

That is not the same as nothing happening. Two things happened before the meeting started, and together they took the air out of the room.

The first was a letter. LSU president Wade Rousse sent Commissioner Greg Sankey a one-page note arguing that the conference's lawsuit is now moot, because Lane Kiffin has complied with the SEC's ban on rostering players who have signed professional contracts. LSU kept tight end Dae'Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris off the roster for the Clemson game and won 51-10 without them. The letter puts that compliance in writing, over the president's signature rather than the coach's, on a rule whose penalties the other 15 members approved unanimously in August. It also said LSU would not challenge, disrupt or seek to cancel or postpone Thursday's meeting.

The second was a delay in Birmingham. The federal court hearing on the SEC's request for a restraining order against LSU, scheduled for Wednesday in Birmingham, was postponed by the judge the day before the presidents met, with no new date. Without a ruling, the conference walked into Thursday with less leverage than it wanted and a letter that let it call the day progress. It did.

What the SEC still has is the rulebook it wrote this summer. The conference's updated enforcement provisions let the commissioner suspend a coach, fine a university up to half of a sport's budget and strip a school's voting rights. None of that requires the two-thirds vote that expulsion does, and none of it was used Thursday. Sankey has said the presidents' concern goes beyond two players: they question whether Rousse and athletic director Verge Ausberry have meaningful control over Kiffin and the program. A letter from the president answers the roster question. It does not answer that one.

The football fight has overshadowed a second front. Men's basketball coach Will Wade wants to sign RJ Luis Jr., the former St. John's guard who spent part of the NBA offseason with Utah and Boston. On August 24 a Louisiana judge issued a preliminary injunction blocking NCAA punishment if LSU plays him. Playing him would also violate the SEC's rule. The conference's problem with LSU, in other words, is not one coach and two players. It is a university that keeps winning in court.

For the rest of the league, Thursday's outcome was the sensible one. Expelling a founding member over a rule that LSU is now following would have cost more than it proved. But the conference has told its members and its lawyers that the discussions continue, which means the enforcement provisions are still on the table and the federal case is still open. LSU, ranked eighth after the Clemson rout, plays on. So does the argument.