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The head of the SEC’s executive committee just sent another major warning shot at Lane Kiffin over plans to use former NFL talent on LSU’s roster this season.

Just weeks before the start of the 2026 season, college football has been mired in controversy. Several recent state court rulings, including in Louisiana, have given over a dozen athletes who were playing for NFL teams this summer another year of eligibility. Following the decision, Kiffin and LSU led the charge to sign some of these players. Agreeing to NIL deals with Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris this month. However, the signings received a huge amount of blowback from around the sport.

Two weeks ago, the Big Ten came out strongly against the signings and created new bylaws banning former NFL players from playing for Big Ten schools. The SEC, ACC, and Big 12 followed suit. However, LSU still plans to move forward with Wright and Harris on their roster despite the new bans. Believing the legal rulings will protect them from punishment.

LSU threatened with SEC expulsion

LSU Tigers head football coach Lane Kiffin talking with Quarterback Husan Longstreet 8 at LSU Football practice. August 18, 2026.

That isn’t sitting well with other SEC schools, and according to a report from Yahoo’s Ross Dellenger last week, high-ranking executives and multiple SEC schools are looking into taking legal and internal avenues intended to push back against LSU’s plans. This could include “extreme measures such as boycotting competition against the Tigers, sanctioning the school with probation or even expulsion, and/or filing a federal legal challenge.”

On the possibility of expulsion, in what sources called “serious” conversations, an SEC stakeholder claimed, “It is fair to say we are discussing multiple options, including that. This is ridiculous.”

SEC’s top executive sends new threat to LSU

Well, if that wasn’t enough to scare Kiffin and the Tigers away from using former pros, the SEC’s top executive went public with the conference’s displeasure in new comments to ESPN.

“We have a responsibility to try and lead the best we can in this time of chaos,” President of the SEC’s executive committee and Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman told ESPN. “Our group is united on this. This is not a rule we will budge on… Enough is enough.”

Plowman then explained that she and other SEC school executives are not against the new five-for-five rule giving athletes a fifth year of eligibility. Instead, she claims the idea of not letting athletes who signed pro contracts return to college is nothing new.

Thursday brings a preliminary injunction ruling from Louisiana’s 19th Judicial District Court that will decide whether Wright and Harris have a legal right to play for LSU in 2026. Things will get very interesting if they are, and whether Kiffin and the school are willing to die on that hill for two players.

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Source: Yahoo Sports