The presidents and chancellors met virtually on Thursday to discuss potential punishments they could levy against LSU following its pursuit of former NFL training camp players.
But the group left the meeting without coming to any firm decisions.
In a statement released Thursday evening, the league said that its leaders met to discuss “recent matters involving conference expectations and responsibilities” and that “discussions will continue as the conference and its member universities work toward an appropriate resolution.”
LSU president attended Thursday’s meeting but “only briefly,” according to an . He told the group that LSU’s university counsel advised him not to participate because he’s a defendant in the federal lawsuit the league filed against top LSU officials on Sept. 3.
The ’s 16 presidents and chancellors were initially scheduled to vote on whether they wanted to expel LSU from the league in their Thursday meeting. The conference removed the vote from the agenda on Wednesday, though, after the Tigers decided not to sign the two former Ole Miss starters and undrafted NFL rookies at the heart of the legal saga: tight end and defensive tackle .
LSU instead gave the two roster spots it saved for Wright and Harris to a pair of players who are rehabbing season-ending injuries: cornerback Aidan Anding (Achilles) and defensive end Gabe Reliford (ACL).
Rousse confirmed that LSU had made that decision in a letter he sent to SEC commissioner on Wednesday. In the letter, he said that LSU would not "challenge, disrupt or seek to cancel or postpone" Thursday's meeting.
"The roster is now locked for the season," Rousse said. "LSU complied with SEC rules. This issue is moot."
The saga began on Aug. 19, when Wright, Harris and a group of roughly 40 athletes from the high school graduating class of 2022 won a temporary restraining order in the lawsuit they filed against the NCAA in h state court.
In response to that decision, the SEC passed a rule barring players who had signed NFL, NBA and WNBA contracts from competing in the league. The plaintiffs and their attorneys then added the SEC and Sankey to their suit as defendants, leading the conference to file a countersuit against top LSU officials in an Alabama federal court.
In that filing — which eventually named Rousse, coach , athletic director and h attorney general as defendants — the SEC accused LSU of orchestrating the initial lawsuit that made those athletes eligible to return to college sports and denying the league its First Amendment rights to create and enforce its own rules. Kiffin has said that he did not initiate the players’ lawsuit.
The league said Tuesday when it filed an amended version of its lawsuit that it had scheduled a vote to kick LSU out of the league on Thursday. The threat of that major step, which would’ve had no precedent in the modern history of college sports, led Kiffin and LSU to wave the white flag on their push to sign Wright and Harris.
The Tigers can, however, leave one of the Louisian plaintiffs on their football roster. Former Notre Dame defensive end did not sign an NFL deal this summer, which means he’s free to play this season for LSU. In a Week 1 win over Clemson, he logged 11 snaps on special teams.
LSU must now decide if it wants to take on a similar fight for men’s basketball commitment .
On Aug. 24, a Baton Rouge judge awarded him a preliminary injunction that will allow him to return to college basketball this season. But if coach formally adds Luis to the roster, then he’d run afoul of the same SEC pro player ban that Kiffin nearly violated when he recruited Wright and Harris.
Luis, a former Big East player of the year who’s appeared in NBA preseason games, will likely need to amend his lawsuit to add the SEC as a defendant if he wants to continue his fight for more NCAA eligibility.