BATON ROUGE – Once upon a time, the Southeastern Conference had a commissioner who was the most universally respected figure in college sports.
The late Mike Slive, who died in 2018 after he finished serving 14 years as SEC commissioner, unquestionably had the best skill set of any modern-day administrator in the history of college athletics.
He had been a college athlete, an attorney, a judge, an assistant college athletic director and an athletic director, a conference assistant commissioner and a commissioner of two conferences by the time he replaced the retiring Roy Kramer as the SEC’s commissioner in 2002.
Slive had the envied ability to step into a room with presidents and athletic directors from every SEC school, understand their various viewpoints and get everyone on the same page.
Greg Sankey, Slive’s predecessor for the past 11 years, has little, if any, of Slive’s problem-solving acumen.
The fact Sankey has been bullied by the presidents of 15 of the 16 SEC members to discuss taking a vote Thursday to expel league charter member LSU from the conference might be the most embarrassing episode in league history.
According to SEC rules that the league changes at a whim, it recently decided to ban any athlete who has signed a contract in the NFL, NBA or WNBA is not eligible to play again in college. SEC schools can’t put such athletes on active rosters.
The rule came about when NFL rookies who had been cut in training camp sought restraining orders to play a fifth year after the NCAA passed a rule in June saying recruits in the Class of 2022 had one more year of college eligibility.
A Baton Rouge judge last Thursday night granted a temporary injunction that cleared Ole Miss transfers tight end Dae’Quan Wright and defensive tackle Zxavian Harris to immediately play for the Tigers.
Kiffin decided last Friday not to include Wright and Harris on LSU’s opening game roster last Saturday vs. Clemson.
Therefore, he adhered to the SEC rule despite the league filing a lawsuit Thursday morning against LSU, Kiffin, assorted school officials and the LSU Board of Supervisors.
It was reported late Tuesday night by On3’s Wilson Alexander and Pete Nakos that LSU won’t be adding Wright and Harris to the roster this year.
Instead, the Tigers activated sophomore edge rusher Gabriel Reliford of Shreveport’s Evangel Christian and previously injured sophomore cornerback Aidan Anding of Ruston High.
That will put LSU at the roster limit put in place by the House settlement last year. The Tigers don’t have room for Wright or Harris, who will now explore legal options according to attorney Ryan Downton.
But to demonstrate Sankey’s pettiness and his willingness to be the puppet of the presidents around the league (something that NEVER happened under Slive), he signed off on an amended complaint Tuesday morning against LSU featuring an outlandishly fabricated allegation.
The SEC is claiming LSU is demonstrating lack of institutional control because school athletic director Verge Ausberry and school president Wade Rousse didn’t admonish and discipline Kiffin for an on-air comment he made last Saturday with ESPN’s sideline reporter Holly Rowe as he finished a halftime interview with LSU leading 31-3.
“Imagine if we had pro players,” Kiffin said jokingly as he walked away from Rowe.
The league shamelessly took Kiffin’s six words to give it a reason to amend its lawsuit and attempt to nail LSU to the cross in a Thursday’s scheduled stake burning.
The amendment said the league alleges Kiffin’s statements “stand in sharp contrast to the silence by the President and Athletic Director of LSU” and that “they confirm the lack of institutional control over the athletics program at LSU that is required by Article 6 of the SEC Constitution and by the remaining provisions of the Constitution and Bylaws.”
Lack of institutional control for cracking a joke?
All the other pristine SEC schools apparently think their poop doesn’t stink.
Georgia hasn’t been disciplined by Sankey and his presidential posse for the 20 people connected to the Bulldogs’ football program who have been arrested or cited driving related-offenses, excessive speeding and reckless driving since January 2023. Included is a high-speed racing accident that killed a Georgia offensive lineman and a football staff member.
The league presidents didn’t say a word to Florida when 31 to 41 football players were arrested from 2005 to 2010 during head coach Urban Meyer’ six-year tenure. Charges included domestic violence by strangulation, aggravated stalking, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, and fraudulent use of credit cards. Forty-one of Florida’s 108 players on its 2008 national title team were arrested either during their college careers or later in life.
Tennessee was never tossed from the SEC when its football program committed more than 200 recruiting infractions (including 18 Level 1 violations) under head coach Jeremy Pruitt from 2018 to 2020. Twelve coaching staff members were cited.
Back in the mid 1990s, the league didn’t consider throwing Ole Miss to the curb for various football recruiting violations including taking high school prospects to Memphis-area strip clubs as part of official visits.
The SEC didn’t ban Alabama from playing baseball after it was discovered in April 2023 head baseball coach Brad Bohannon was providing betting information to gamblers.
And finally, Sankey sat on his hands in January when former Alabama men’s basketball player Charles Bediako, who originally played two seasons as a freshman and sophomore for the Crimson Tide in 2021-22 and 2022-23 and then signed a two-way contact with NBA’s San Antonio Spurs before playing in the G-League, was allowed to return briefly to play for Alabama.
He got a Tuscaloosa County Circuit Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order allowing him to practice and compete for Alabama while the case proceeded. He played five games for Alabama between January 24 and February 7, helping the team go 3–2 over before his temporary restraining order expired.
Sankey did nothing to punish Alabama. In fact, all the games in which Bediako participated counted in the Crimson Tide’s record. Alabama earned an NCAA Tournament bid.
Consider all the above examples. Stack them against what Kiffin has done – which is complying with the SEC’s new “pro” rule and then making a joke about it.
The fact LSU officials even must be involved in Thursday’s kangaroo court is nothing but being a target of a witch hunt.
The best way for Kiffin and his team to have Sankey and his presidential cohorts get on their brooms and ride straight to hell is destroy whoever they play every Saturday.
“Scoreboard” is always the best response.
Contact Ron at ronhigginsmedia@gmail.com