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LSU Just WON vs SEC In Court... But There's A HUGE Problem Nobody's Talking About! · College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to College Football Addiction presented by PrizePix.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: We'll talk about them in just a few moments.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: But last night, a Louisiana judge gave Lane Kiffin exactly
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: what he wanted. And within the hour, the SEC put
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  Speaker 1: out a statement telling the entire country that it.
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  Speaker 2: Did not matter. Not, we're reviewing the decision. Not, we
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  Speaker 2: respect the court's process.
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  Speaker 1: The conference went public on the record saying its presidents
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  Speaker 1: and chancellors unanimously adopted a standard And the ruling does
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  Speaker 1: not change it. Former pros shouldn't be on college rosters,
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  Speaker 1: according to the SEC.
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  Speaker 2: Full stop. Judge or no judge.
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  Speaker 1: That's not the language of an organization that just lost.
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  Speaker 1: That's the language of an organization that knows that this
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  Speaker 1: isn't actually over. So if you watched yesterday's breakdown and
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  Speaker 1: you think that LSU may have just cleared the runway,
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  Speaker 1: I think you need to pause for just a moment.
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  Speaker 1: Because what happened last night does not end this fight.
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  Speaker 1: It just moves it somewhere LSU can't see it coming from.
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  Speaker 1: Let's get into things. What actually happened? Judge William Jordan
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  Speaker 1: didn't split the difference. He granted the preliminary injunction outright,
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  Speaker 1: barring the NCAA and the SEC from punishing any school
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  Speaker 1: that rosters the athletes in this case. Over 40 of them,
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  Speaker 1: multiple sports, 19 played college football, seven specifically in this
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  Speaker 1: suit that we looked at yesterday. For LSU, two names matter,
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  Speaker 1: Daquaron Wright and Xavier Harris, both cleared to return, both
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  Speaker 1: expected on the roster. LSU has to turn in today.
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  Speaker 1: At one point during closing arguments, Jordan dropped a line
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  Speaker 1: that's since gotten a lot of attention. He said that
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  Speaker 1: sounds an awful lot like wide-open collusion. He didn't spell
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  Speaker 1: out exactly what set that off, but it tells you
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  Speaker 1: how skeptical this judge is of the way the SEC
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  Speaker 1: and the rest of the Power Four coordinated their punishment rules.
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: All four conferences moving together perfectly lines up with identical penalties.
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  Speaker 2: Wasn't something that sat well with him.
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  Speaker 1: A sitting judge, think about that for a moment, using
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  Speaker 1: the word collusion about that coordination.
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  Speaker 2: That's not a throwaway line.
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  Speaker 1: That is a preview of where this case might actually
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  Speaker 1: be headed if it keeps going. Because collusion isn't just
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  Speaker 1: a bad look.
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  Speaker 2: It's a legal theory.
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  Speaker 1: It's the exact kind of language that turns a state
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  Speaker 1: court eligibility fight into an antitrust problem. Sankey's argument in
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  Speaker 1: his weak spot is where I want to spend a
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  Speaker 1: few moments now. Here's the part that I don't think
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  Speaker 1: got enough attention yesterday. Sankey testified that rules keeping professional
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  Speaker 1: athletes out of college competition go back to 1911.
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  Speaker 2: 1911, over 100 years ago. That's not a typo.
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  Speaker 1: That's Sankey trying to establish that this isn't some rule
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  Speaker 1: the SEC invented last month to target LSU. It's more
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  Speaker 1: than a century of precedent about what amateur athletics is
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  Speaker 1: supposed to mean.
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  Speaker 2: It's a good argument on paper. Here's the problem with it.
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  Speaker 1: And it's the same problem every institution runs into and
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  Speaker 1: it leans into. We've always done it this way. The
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  Speaker 1: world these athletes are living in is not the world
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  Speaker 1: from 1911. It's not even the world from 5 or
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  Speaker 1: 10 years ago. These players are getting paid, revenue sharing money,
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  Speaker 1: getting paid NIL or pay for play, let's call it
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  Speaker 1: what it is, money, signing actual pro-style contracts. The entire
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  Speaker 1: architecture around amateur college athletics collapsed a few years ago.
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  Speaker 1: The SEC just never updated the eligibility rule to match it.
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  Speaker 1: So when Sankey stands up and says this is a
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  Speaker 1: rule that is over 100 years old, a sharp attorney's
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  Speaker 1: next question is obvious.
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  Speaker 2: The question should be sure.
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  Speaker 1: But so was the rule that said schools couldn't pay
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  Speaker 1: players anything at all.
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  Speaker 2: And that one didn't survive either. Old doesn't necessarily mean right.
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  Speaker 2: It just means old.
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  Speaker 1: Now, here's why I don't think LSU should be celebrating
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  Speaker 1: with a parade this morning. Go back to that SEC
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  Speaker 1: statement and read it again. It says member universities should
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  Speaker 1: not place former professional athletes on their rosters. That's not
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  Speaker 1: a statement acknowledging defeat. I think that's a statement that
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  Speaker 1: it sets up the next round. Because remember, the ruling
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  Speaker 1: last night came out of a Louisiana state court. It
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  Speaker 1: blocks the SEC from enforcing its rule through that specific
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  Speaker 1: case against those specific plaintiffs in that specific jurisdiction. It
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  Speaker 1: does not touch the other lawsuit that was filed yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: 400 miles away in a federal court in Alabama. And
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  Speaker 1: that case is still very much alive. It never went
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  Speaker 1: in front of Jordan. It was never part of last
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  Speaker 1: night's ruling. And legal analysts have been pretty direct about
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  Speaker 1: what it actually is. It's a backup plan the SEC
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  Speaker 1: built in case it lost like it did yesterday in Louisiana.
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  Speaker 2: And that is ultimately what happened.
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  Speaker 1: So while folks on one side celebrate a state court win,
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  Speaker 1: the SEC's real weapon is sitting in a federal courthouse
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  Speaker 1: in Alabama, untouched, arguing something completely different. That LSU is
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  Speaker 1: violating the conference's First Amendment right to control who it
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  Speaker 1: associates with.
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  Speaker 2: Their argument is pretty simple.
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  Speaker 1: They're saying that forcing the SEC to let LSU field
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  Speaker 1: these players is compelling the conference to, quote, associate with
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  Speaker 1: conduct contrary to its purpose and mission. I think that's
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  Speaker 1: a real argument. I don't think that's just conference theater.
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  Speaker 1: First Amendment expressive association claims have actually won before. Ask
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  Speaker 1: the Boy Scouts. Ask political parties fighting membership disputes. It's
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  Speaker 1: a legitimate legal theory. And it's sitting there loaded, completely
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  Speaker 1: unaffected by anything that happened in Baton Rouge last night.
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  Speaker 1: Before we go on, I am very thankful that we
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: have actual football back. Covered the Utah game last night
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: on Big 12 football addiction. Covered the Georgia Tech loss
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: on ACC football addiction. Even talked about Rutgers a little
• 6:02
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• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Miami plays in a big one tonight. Give me Mark
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: Fletcher to score a touchdown. I've told you about Cam Cook.
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: I think Jeremiah Smith scores one. There's other ones that
• 6:11
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• 6:14
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• 6:22
  Speaker 1: for tonight. So go get on that. We appreciate that
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: support that PrizePix shows us and hope that you're checking
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: them out as well. Here's the decision that LSU is
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: staring down today. And it's a lot messier than can
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  Speaker 1: we play them or not. They can play them legally.
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  Speaker 1: As of last night, nothing is stopping Wright and Harris
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  Speaker 1: from being on that roster. but can and should stopped
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  Speaker 1: being the same question the moment that the SEC statement
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  Speaker 1: went out. Because if LSU rosters both players and every
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  Speaker 1: single signal that we have says that they will, the
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  Speaker 1: conference doesn't have to accept it and move on. The
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  Speaker 1: federal case in Alabama keeps running. If the SEC wins
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  Speaker 1: there on a completely different legal theory, all the protection
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  Speaker 1: that LSU got last night in Louisiana becomes irrelevant. The
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  Speaker 1: fine will still be on the table. Kiffin's suspension will
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  Speaker 1: still be on the table. And this time it won't
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  Speaker 1: be just preseason drama. It'll be a program that already
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: played the games, a program that already got a win
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: or two, and then got hit retroactively. Think about how
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  Speaker 1: brutal that is from a competitive scenario. Imagine LSU beats
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  Speaker 1: Clemson on Saturday with Wright and Harris on the field
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  Speaker 1: making plays. Imagine they roll into October with real production
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  Speaker 1: from those two guys if they don't play in this
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  Speaker 1: Clemson game. Guys that nobody else has access to. And
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  Speaker 1: then a federal judge in Alabama rules the other way.
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  Speaker 1: What happens to those wins? What happens to a season
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  Speaker 1: built partly on players a different court eventually says should
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  Speaker 1: not have been playing? Nobody knows the answer to that
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  Speaker 1: question because nobody's ever had to answer that question before.
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  Speaker 1: This is very uncharted legal territory in college sports, and
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  Speaker 1: LSU just volunteered to be the test case and the
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  Speaker 1: guinea pig in it. Now, does that mean Kiffin's making
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  Speaker 1: a mistake? Not necessarily. Because look at his incentive structure.
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  Speaker 1: He's the new head coach. He just left a playoff
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  Speaker 1: team to take this job. He needs to win now,
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  Speaker 1: not in three years once litigation resolves itself. A tight
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  Speaker 1: end with over 1,600 career receiving yards and a disruptive
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  Speaker 1: defensive lineman on the interior are exactly the kind of
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  Speaker 1: difference makers that a first-year staff building a roster for
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  Speaker 1: depth on the fly needs desperately. Kiffin isn't playing a
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  Speaker 1: five-year chess game. He's playing a week-by-week chess game. And
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  Speaker 1: there's a version of this where the calculation is very simple.
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  Speaker 1: Worry about the legal fallout later because later is a
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  Speaker 1: problem for lawyers and Saturday is a problem for him.
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  Speaker 1: That is either fearless or reckless, depending on how this
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  Speaker 1: all shakes out. Probably a little bit both, same as
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  Speaker 1: it was yesterday. But here's what's different this morning. Yesterday,
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  Speaker 1: this felt like a fight over whether these players get
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  Speaker 1: to play at all. Today, it's a fight over whether
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  Speaker 1: LSU gets to keep whatever they win with them.
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  Speaker 2: And those are not the same fight, ultimately. So zoom
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  Speaker 2: all the way out.
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  Speaker 1: The players won the round that determines whether they can
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  Speaker 1: suit up. That part is very real. It's settled, at
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  Speaker 1: least for now, in this jurisdiction. But the SEC did
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  Speaker 1: not walk away. It did not accept the loss and
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  Speaker 1: move on to Saturday. It put out a statement that
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  Speaker 1: reads like a promise to keep fighting in a courtroom
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  Speaker 1: that hasn't ruled yet on a legal theory that's completely
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  Speaker 1: different from the one that just failed, which means the
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  Speaker 1: actual answer to can Lane Kiffin get away with this
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  Speaker 1: is not coming from Louisiana. It seems like it's coming
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  Speaker 1: from Alabama, and nobody knows when. Here's the payoff, and
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  Speaker 1: it's something that nobody else is talking about while everyone celebrates.
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  Speaker 1: LSU didn't win this fight last night. LSU won the
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  Speaker 1: right to keep playing while the fight continues. And there
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  Speaker 1: is a difference there. And by the time that the
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  Speaker 1: college football world finds out which one actually mattered, Kiffin
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  Speaker 1: might have already gotten three or four games in the
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  Speaker 1: books with players a different court could still say should
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  Speaker 1: never have taken the field. Saturday is going to happen
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  Speaker 1: either way. Whether it counts for what everyone thinks it
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  Speaker 1: counts for right now, that's still being decided in a
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  Speaker 1: courtroom that nobody is watching just yet. We'll continue to
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  Speaker 1: talk about this. I'm glad that we have actual football
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  Speaker 1: to talk about too, but I'd be remiss to not
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  Speaker 1: talk about the biggest story in college athletics right now.
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  Speaker 1: And unfortunately, it's not Clemson versus LSU on the field
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday night in Death Valley. It's what's happening in courtrooms.
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  Speaker 1: We appreciate you guys for tuning in. We'll continue to
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: talk about it. Like I said, make sure that you
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: are subscribed so that you don't miss any updates. We
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: appreciate those that have commented and provided suggestions and even
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: yelled at me for being a homer. Try to bring
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: you this stuff and give you both sides of what's
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: going on, but I appreciate the comments regardless. We'll see
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: you guys next time here on College Football Addiction.