The Southeastern Conference filed a lawsuit against Louisiana State University after the school added former NFL players to its roster, claiming the NCAA owes them a fifth year of collegiate eligibility. CBS Sports national college sports reporter John Talty, has more.
Page S2From§Eachthe late evening edition — 8 September 2026
SEC sues over eligibility, MAC appeals a loss to committee — neither let the scoreboard decide.
Hot Mic Moment
Somebody get me the political desk. The same conferences finding outside counsel by sundown to argue a fifth year of eligibility for men who already cashed NFL paychecks are the same institutions that have spent the better part of a decade watching the National Labor Relations Board decide, case by case, whether the sophomore lining up next to them counts as an employee at all. A committee can overturn a scoreboard on appeal in a week. That sophomore still can't organize a union card.
Gushis side
This reporter has covered exactly one football outcome decided by a replay committee instead of a scoreboard, and it happened this week. The Mid-American Conference filed a formal appeal Monday asking the NCAA committee to strip Michigan of its win over Western Michigan and hand the Broncos the victory on paper, the league citing a replay-protocol error as the sole grounds — the gals in the league office, bless them, working the phones like it was still 1974.
Down in Baton Rouge, the Southeastern Conference took the more direct route: suing LSU outright, demanding the NCAA award the school's former professional players a fifth year of college eligibility, CBS Sports reported Tuesday. This reporter has never once witnessed a conference drag a member school into federal court over a roster rule — a first in the sport's hundred-and-fifty-year history, surely.
LSU last needed a lawyer to explain a winning streak back when the Tigers rose to number one in the AP poll for the first time since 1969.
Trudyher side
They're litigators and compliance staff, Gus, not switchboard operators, and nobody's run a switchboard since Eisenhower left office. The Mid-American Conference — the Broncos' own league, per Fox News — filed that appeal Monday. Not the Big Ten. Not anybody's secretarial pool.
Second time this week, sugar. The SEC already sued LSU and head coach Lane Kiffin by name on September 3rd, five days before this filing — same conference, same defendant, same eligibility fight, per Fox News. Take the nap, Gus.
1959, Gus. September 30th, 2007, per the wire report. LSU hadn't been No. 1 since Eisenhower either time you tried to name it.
That's not a hot mic, Gus, that's a manifesto with worse hair — and he's right anyway. The SEC's own filing, CBS Sports, dated Tuesday, is the receipt: real lawyers, real money, a real fifth year, for players the league already treats as professionals everywhere except on the eligibility form.
“These conferences found the money for outside lawyers the same week they're squeezing a fifth year of eligibility out of guys who already cashed NFL paychecks, while the sophomore lining up next to them still can't get an agent or a union card. It's not about who wins the game anymore, it's about who wins the paperwork.”
“Look, the SEC isn't suing over money, they're protecting opportunity for these young men to get one more shot at a college degree — these guys already played in the NFL, so, forget I said "young men." And that replay committee? That's just due process working exactly the way it's supposed to, folks. Due process.”
The receipts
The MAC filed a formal NCAA appeal claiming the Western Michigan Broncos should be recognized as winners after a replay protocol error at Michigan.
· SEC files bombshell lawsuit against LSU, Lane Kiffin while pro players fight for college eligibility in court from the morgue, 3 Sep 2026
· U.S. college football: The new AP Poll results are released, with nine of the ten ranked teams that lost this past weekend either dropping further down the list or out of the poll completely. LSU rose from the morgue, 30 Sep 2007
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.