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SEC Just Dropped BOMBSHELL On LSU & Lane Kiffin NOBODY EXPECTED! · College Football Addiction: A Show About All Things College Football

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Welcome back to college football addiction presented by prize picks.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: We're all new users who play a $ 5 lineup and
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  Speaker 1: Greg Sankey walked into a Baton.
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  Speaker 2: Rouge courtroom, not a boardroom. It was not a press
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  Speaker 2: conference room.
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  Speaker 1: It was a courtroom just a few minutes from tiger
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  Speaker 1: stadium where LSU is supposed to open his season against
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  Speaker 1: Clemson on Saturday. And while Sankey sat on the witness stand,
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  Speaker 1: getting grilled by a plaintiff's attorney.
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  Speaker 2: Uh, Somebody in the SEC offices, probably.
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  Speaker 1: Their general counsel, filed a lawsuit against LSU, against Lane Kiffin,
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  Speaker 1: against the program that is its own member. While its
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  Speaker 1: commissioner was under oath defending the conference's right to punish
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  Speaker 1: the exact same school that it would file a lawsuit
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  Speaker 1: against for the exact same thing that it wanted to protect. You...
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  Speaker 1: don't script this. I don't know that anybody could script this.
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  Speaker 1: So let's talk about how the sec and LSU got here.
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  Speaker 1: And honestly, why the next 24 to 48 hours could
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  Speaker 1: be the most chaotic stretch college football has seen in years.
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  Speaker 2: We actually have an sec football game tonight, and.
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  Speaker 1: I am excited about what goes on on the field,
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  Speaker 1: despite the chaos that is our sport currently. But I
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  Speaker 1: will tell you the drama unfolding in courtrooms is, This
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  Speaker 1: close to the season is unlike anything I could have
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  Speaker 1: ever imagined.
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  Speaker 2: You have to start with the players, literally.
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  Speaker 1: Daquan Wright, tight end, went to Virginia Tech, then to
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  Speaker 1: Ole Miss, where he played for Lane. He went undrafted
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  Speaker 1: in the spring. He signed with the Eagles, claimed off
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  Speaker 1: of waivers by the Browns, made it through training camp,
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  Speaker 1: dressed for a preseason game, then was waived. Instead of
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  Speaker 1: hunting for a practice squad spot somewhere, Wright entered the
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  Speaker 1: transfer portal because a Louisiana judge had handed down a
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  Speaker 1: temporary restraining order that opened the door that nobody ever
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  Speaker 1: thought would exist. The door was for an NFL guy
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  Speaker 1: to go back to college and play football.
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  Speaker 2: Wright wasn't alone.
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  Speaker 1: Xavier Harris, defensive lineman, also played for Kiffin at Ole Miss,
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  Speaker 1: also signed with an NFL team, the Saints, also in
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  Speaker 1: the group that was covered by a court's order.
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  Speaker 2: Both of them connected by the.
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  Speaker 1: Same legal order in the same legal fight, both of
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  Speaker 1: them seemingly going to end up at LSU. Other players
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  Speaker 1: are included in this as well. This has obviously been
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  Speaker 1: our biggest focal point.
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  Speaker 2: Here is the mechanism.
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  Speaker 1: The players can get back their college eligibility if they
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  Speaker 1: walk away from their pro contracts and pay back whatever
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  Speaker 1: they earned. It's real money that would need to be
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  Speaker 1: handed back to the right people in order for the
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  Speaker 1: right to put pads back on in Baton Rouge or
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  Speaker 1: any college town instead of on an NFL practice squad.
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  Speaker 1: The reason that this is even possible traces back to
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  Speaker 1: a separate fight.
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  Speaker 2: The NCAA rolled out.
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  Speaker 1: A new rule granting most Division I athletes five years
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  Speaker 1: of eligibility over five years. The good rule on its
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  Speaker 1: face was a kick-in or a start next season. And
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  Speaker 1: this group of players said, wait, why not us? Why
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  Speaker 1: does the clock start now when it could have already
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  Speaker 1: started and should have already started? And I do agree
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  Speaker 1: with that thinking. A judge agreed with that thinking, or
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  Speaker 1: at least agreed enough to grant a temporary injunction while
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  Speaker 1: the bigger legal question got sorted out. And once that
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  Speaker 1: injunction landed, it didn't just open a door for a
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  Speaker 1: handful of guys that are stuck in eligibility purgatory. It
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  Speaker 1: opened the door for programs. And here is where this
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  Speaker 1: stops being a legal story and starts becoming a Lane
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  Speaker 1: Kiffin story, because Kiffin didn't wait around to see how
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  Speaker 1: this all shakes out. LSU reached out directly to players,
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  Speaker 1: according to CBS Sports, on NFL rosters or their agents
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  Speaker 1: and encouraged them to get involved in that lawsuit, encouraging them,
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  Speaker 1: according to CBS Sports again, to come back to college football.
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  Speaker 1: It wasn't filed in some random courthouse. Sources have pointed
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  Speaker 1: out the case landing in Baton Rouge was certainly not
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  Speaker 1: an accident. The school that seemingly stood to benefit the
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  Speaker 1: most from this ruling helped build the case that created
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  Speaker 1: the ruling in the city where the ruling would matter
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  Speaker 1: the most.
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  Speaker 2: That's not necessarily a conspiracy theory.
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  Speaker 1: That is what CBS Sports has reported. And Kiffin hasn't
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  Speaker 1: exactly hidden his reasoning. Asked directly about it, he told
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  Speaker 1: reporters that once these players won their injunctions and landed
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  Speaker 1: in the portal, they were fair game. Because of the rulings,
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  Speaker 1: they are going to play for you or someone else,
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  Speaker 1: he said. We made the decision to recruit them. It's
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  Speaker 1: wrong to be critical of these kids. I think there's
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  Speaker 1: a version of that that sounds completely reasonable. The players
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  Speaker 1: did not create this chaos. They're just trying to maximize
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  Speaker 1: a career window that's shorter than almost any other profession
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  Speaker 1: on earth. Pyburn said that, Wright said that. It does
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  Speaker 1: make sense. But there's also a version of this where
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  Speaker 1: LSU saw a loophole and nobody else was brave enough,
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  Speaker 1: reckless enough, whatever you want to call it, to run
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  Speaker 1: through it at full speed.
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  Speaker 2: Kiffin was.
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  Speaker 1: Because that's who he is. He's the coach who dares
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  Speaker 1: people to stop him. He'd rather be the coach who'd
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  Speaker 1: ask for forgiveness than permission and then argue the case
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  Speaker 1: for forgiveness on national television. So which version is true?
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  Speaker 1: Probably both. This is not black and white. The answer
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  Speaker 1: lies in the margins. But the SEC did not sit
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  Speaker 1: by quietly. Before this got to Thursday, the conference, along
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  Speaker 1: with the Big Ten, ACC, and Big 12, passed a
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  Speaker 1: formal ruling banning professional players from returning to college rosters.
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  Speaker 1: The SEC's presidents and chancellors gave Sankey full authority to
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  Speaker 1: enforce it. We're talking about suspending a head coach for
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  Speaker 1: up to half a season, fining a program as much
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  Speaker 1: as 50% of its operating budget. The vote for the
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  Speaker 1: policy was unanimous. The vote for the rules was 15
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  Speaker 1: to nothing. You'll notice that the SEC has 16 teams.
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  Speaker 1: LSU abstained. Sit with that for just a moment. Every
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  Speaker 1: other SEC president said, yes, we don't want former pros
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  Speaker 1: walking onto any roster, including our own. LSU, the one
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  Speaker 1: program that, according to CBS Sports, was actively recruiting them,
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  Speaker 1: was the only one that didn't vote yes. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think that's a coincidence. That's a school that already knew
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  Speaker 1: what it planned to do. So the players and the
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  Speaker 1: attorneys did the obvious thing. They added the SEC and
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  Speaker 1: Sankey directly to the lawsuit. trying to block the conference
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  Speaker 1: from being able to enforce the rules against anybody who
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  Speaker 1: benefited from the injunction. The SEC's response in a statement
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  Speaker 1: to CBS Sports said, this is a temporary restraining order,
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  Speaker 1: not a final ruling, and the conference plans to fight
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  Speaker 1: it hard to defend its right as a voluntary association
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  Speaker 1: to run its own business, which is exactly what happened
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday morning. Before I go on, I will tell you,
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  Speaker 1: I think there are more twists and turns to this
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  Speaker 1: Sankey arrived early, seven bailiffs in the room, seven, which
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  Speaker 1: tells you everything you need to know about how tense
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  Speaker 1: this thing had gotten before a single question was asked.
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  Speaker 2: He was the first witness called.
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  Speaker 1: Plaintiff attorney Tony Clayton came immediately after him, and it
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  Speaker 1: got heated fast enough that SEC lawyers were objecting repeatedly
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  Speaker 1: just to slow down the pace. Sankey's argument, in essence,
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  Speaker 1: is that the penalties the SEC wants to hand out
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  Speaker 1: aren't some brand new punishment invented to target LSU. They're
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  Speaker 1: rooted in disciplinary authority the conference already had. He said
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  Speaker 1: he's not asking for new power. He's asking to use
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  Speaker 1: power that's always existed. In the middle of that, the judge,
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  Speaker 1: William Jordan, said, actually handed the SEC a win on
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  Speaker 1: a smaller procedural fight. He agreed the lawsuit had improperly
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  Speaker 1: lumped together athletes who had almost nothing to do with
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  Speaker 1: each other. Only seven of the 44 plaintiffs the FCC
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  Speaker 1: argued have any real tie to an SEC school. The
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  Speaker 1: rest should be fighting the NCAA directly, not dragging the
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  Speaker 1: conference into it. The judge agreed. Seven stayed in. 37
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  Speaker 1: got pointed toward a different fight entirely. But two of
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  Speaker 1: those seven matter pretty enormously because they are Wright and Harris,
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  Speaker 1: the two guys with a real shot at suiting up
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  Speaker 1: for LSU, which means the bigger fight, the one that
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  Speaker 1: actually decides whether LSU can put them on the field Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: is still very much alive. And then, while Sankey is
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  Speaker 1: in the middle of answering questions in the courtroom, the
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  Speaker 1: SEC's lawsuit against LSU hits another court docket. Named defendants, LSU,
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  Speaker 1: President Wade Rouse, Athletic Director Virg Osbury, and Lane Kiffin himself.
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  Speaker 1: The language in the filing is not soft. The SEC
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  Speaker 1: accuses LSU of a deliberate and coordinated campaign to recruit
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  Speaker 1: professional athletes. It says LSU has made its intent unequivocal
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  Speaker 1: to roster those players and play them this season. It
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  Speaker 1: says LSU is acting in direct defiance of the league's
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  Speaker 1: own rules. It rules that LSU's president had every chance
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  Speaker 1: to vote against and chose to abstain from instead. The
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  Speaker 1: conference calls it detrimental to the SEC. and says it
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  Speaker 1: threatens to cause further substantial harm if it isn't stopped now.
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  Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys remember when Florida State
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  Speaker 1: and Clemson were entrenched in legal battle. with the ACC
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  Speaker 1: over where the programs would play sports, conference that they
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  Speaker 1: would reside in. This is more targeted in blunt language
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  Speaker 1: than any of that was. It's about as blunt as
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  Speaker 1: conference language can get. Here's what makes this different from
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  Speaker 1: your typical off-season legal squabble that drags on for months
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  Speaker 1: before anybody notices. LSU has to submit its official roster
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  Speaker 1: by Friday.
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  Speaker 2: It's tomorrow. Clemson comes to Tiger Stadium on Saturday.
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  Speaker 1: Lane Kiffin's actual debut as LSU head coach, the guy
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  Speaker 1: who got a $ 90 million deal to leave Ole Miss
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  Speaker 1: mid-playoff run, is kicking off his tenure with the biggest
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  Speaker 1: legal storm college football has seen in quite a long time.
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  Speaker 1: Louisiana's attorney general, Liz Murill, was in that courtroom too,
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  Speaker 1: and she didn't hold back. She called what happened to
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  Speaker 1: those players a classic bait-and-switch by the NCAA, said that
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  Speaker 1: the constantly shifting rules don't just affect the individual athletes,
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  Speaker 1: they affect every program trying to build a roster around
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  Speaker 1: eligibility that keeps changing shape underneath them. And she's not
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  Speaker 1: wrong about that part. I've been very critical of the NCAA.
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  Speaker 1: They created this mess. I don't think anybody in America
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  Speaker 1: would argue otherwise. But Georgia's attorney general has sent his
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  Speaker 1: own letter to Sankey, not to LSU, practically begging the
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  Speaker 1: commissioner to use every tool available to punish LSU if
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  Speaker 1: it follows through. He pointed out pointedly, no pun intended,
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  Speaker 1: that the school trying to exploit this injunction happens to
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  Speaker 1: be sitting in the same city as.
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  Speaker 2: The judge who issued it.
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  Speaker 1: That's a couple of state attorney generals on opposite sides
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  Speaker 1: of the exact same college football dispute in the same
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  Speaker 1: week over players who six weeks ago were fighting for
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  Speaker 1: NFL roster spots. Nobody predicted this. Nobody in the preseason
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  Speaker 1: thought that this would be the biggest storyline. So where
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  Speaker 1: does this leave LSU? Just about 48 hours from kickoff.
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  Speaker 1: Best case scenario for the Tigers, the judge extends the protection,
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  Speaker 1: currently blocking the SEC from punishing them. LSU rosters Wright
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  Speaker 1: and possibly Harris, and Kiffin opens his tenure with two
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  Speaker 1: extra bodies most programs in America simply don't have access to.
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  Speaker 1: Worst case, the judge sides fully with the SEC. The
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  Speaker 1: restraining order gets dissolved, and LSU is staring at a
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  Speaker 1: coach facing a potential suspension and a program facing a
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  Speaker 1: fine that could get half of its operating budget, all
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  Speaker 1: before playing a single snap against Clemson. Then there's also
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  Speaker 1: a version in between where this drags into Saturday itself,
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  Speaker 1: where LSU submits a roster Friday, not actually knowing whether
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  Speaker 1: the players on it are legally allowed to be there.
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  Speaker 1: Where the answer to can Daquan Wright play college football
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  Speaker 1: again depends on a ruling that might not land before
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  Speaker 1: kickoff even happens. Dabo Sweeney, who's bringing his Clemson Tigers
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  Speaker 1: into this exact storm on Saturday, already called the whole
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  Speaker 1: situation embarrassing for the sport. And I'll tell you, people
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: have their thoughts on Dabo. I think it's pretty hard
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  Speaker 1: to argue with him. Not because anyone's necessarily doing something wrong,
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  Speaker 1: because nobody, not the NCAA, not the SEC, not the schools,
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  Speaker 1: actually agreed on the rules before players started walking through
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  Speaker 1: the door on courtrooms.
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  Speaker 2: We'll just leave the SEC.
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  Speaker 1: Step back from LSU for a second and look at
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  Speaker 1: what Sankey is actually protecting. If this injunction holds, if
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  Speaker 1: LSU gets away with rostering former pros this season, every
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  Speaker 1: program in the country, just learn the playbook. Find players
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  Speaker 1: who signed small NFL deals and got cut, get them
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  Speaker 1: into a lawsuit, let a favorable court order do the
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  Speaker 1: recruiting for you. It's not a hypothetical slippery slope. That's
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  Speaker 1: the exact strategy LSU appears to have already run. Which
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  Speaker 1: is why Sankey sitting on that witness stand matters more
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  Speaker 1: than it might look on the surface. It's not really
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  Speaker 1: about Daquan Wright. It's about whether a conference can actually
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  Speaker 1: enforce a rule its.
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  Speaker 2: Own members voted for. 15 to nothing.
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  Speaker 1: Or whether one program with enough legal appetite can blow
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  Speaker 1: through it and dare everyone else to catch up.
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  Speaker 2: LSU did not just find a loophole here.
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  Speaker 1: LSU is betting that by the time anyone closes it,
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  Speaker 1: the games will already be played. We'll find out later today,
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  Speaker 1: on Friday, on Saturday, after Saturday, whether that bet pays off. Saturday,
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  Speaker 1: we'll also find out whether Lane Kiffin's first game as
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  Speaker 1: LSU's head coach gets remembered for what happens on the
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  Speaker 1: field or what happened in a Baton Rouge courtroom the
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  Speaker 1: two days before kickoff happened. I'm excited for the games,
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  Speaker 1: but I'm telling you, this drama is not slowing down
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  Speaker 1: anytime soon. We appreciate you guys for tuning in. We
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  Speaker 1: $ 5 lineup and win. Using code HMA, we'll get $ 150
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  Speaker 1: College Football Addiction.