The conference claims it has the votes to remove the school as both sides clash over the eligibility of players who signed NFL contracts
Page S2From§Eachthe matinee edition — 8 September 2026
SEC moves to expel LSU over the very program that just vaulted it into the Top 10
Hot Mic Moment
This reporter would like it on the record, mic or no mic, that a sitting governor of a state has now spent public political capital defending one football coach's personnel decisions inside a private athletic conference's internal membership vote. That is not a sports story. That is a governance story, and somebody at this network needs to route it to the political desk before another statehouse discovers it can freelance conference bylaws on a Thursday.
Gushis side
This reporter watched LSU roar into the national conversation this week, surging into the top three of the Coaches Poll on the strength of a rout over Clemson, while Michigan — bless their hearts — has fallen clean out of the rankings after an ugly Week 1 showing.
With the projections out, both LSU and Miami are being penciled in as national title threats, which this reporter notes is only fitting given the sport's twelve-team playoff format, a structure the committee has run since the Bowl Championship Series days of the 1990s.
The same emphatic offense that has LSU in the title hunt is, this reporter must report, presently Exhibit A in a federal court filing. The SEC's updated filing claims the conference already has the votes needed to expel the university outright, a maneuver this reporter believes conferences have quietly used before to keep the membership tidy.
Fox News reports the league's special meeting, set for Thursday, will formally accuse head coach Lane Kiffin of running the program without institutional oversight — a charge this reporter finds almost quaint, given that college football has operated on the honor system since men were shaking hands on street corners in the leather-helmet days.
Governor Jeff Landry, showing the kind of loyalty this reporter associates with a bygone era of state politics, threw his support behind Kiffin on August 27th, declaring, memorably, "don't hate the player, hate the game" — the same week Kiffin, facing a Thursday hearing over two players' eligibility, told reporters LSU was simply "focused on Clemson."
Trudyher side
Not so fast. CBS Sports has LSU surging into the top ten, not a specific number three — nobody's handing out exact seeds this early. And Michigan didn't fall out of anywhere. The Coaches Poll has the Wolverines plummeting but remaining ranked heading into their Week 2 date with Oklahoma. Read the fold, Gus.
The twelve-team field didn't arrive until the 2024 season. Before that it was four teams, then eight. That's three different playoffs in about a decade, and you've managed to skip all of them.
Nobody has ever actually expelled a member from the SEC. That's exactly why this is landing in federal court instead of a phone vote — CBS Sports reports the conference is seeking the legal authority to do it for the very first time. Might be time for a nap before the next paragraph.
There's no honor system here, there's a lawsuit. Fox News reported back on August 27th that LSU abstained from voting on the SEC's own eligibility rules before any of this started. That's not leather helmets. That's paperwork nobody bothered to fill out.
Gus, that mic was hot again, and go eat some mushrooms for that memory before you say "route it to the political desk" on air a second time. But since you brought it up, sugar: Governor Landry's quote is real, dated August 27th, Fox News, on the record, his name attached to it — so if that's overreach, he signed for it himself.
“They'll let a coach run a nine-figure football program with zero institutional control and still cash the television check every Saturday. The second the roster gets good enough to threaten a national title, suddenly it's a governance crisis worth a federal court filing. Follow the ranking, not the righteousness — the conference didn't blink until LSU started winning.”
“Look, the SEC has every right to enforce its own bylaws — institutional control is a real compliance standard, ask anybody in that office. Now, is it a coincidence they're filing the expulsion paperwork the same week LSU cracks the top ten? I did not say that, strike that, the timing has nothing to do with competitive advantage, next question.”
The receipts
SEC officials will hold a special meeting Thursday to consider expelling LSU over what they call a complete lack of institutional control over Lane Kiffin.
LSU jumped into the top 10 following a rout of Clemson, while Michigan took a tumble ahead of a Week 2 matchup against Oklahoma
Emphatic wins for the Hurricanes and Tigers have shifted national momentum to both programs early
· SEC legal battle with LSU could reshape college football and governance of all college sports from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· SEC files bombshell lawsuit against LSU, Lane Kiffin while pro players fight for college eligibility in court from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· LSU's Lane Kiffin awaits courtroom decision before following SEC's orders: 'We're focused on Clemson' from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Governor Landry backs Lane Kiffin, LSU in fight with SEC: ‘Don’t hate the player, hate the game’ from the morgue, 27 Aug 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.