The LSU Tigers’ efforts to bring back several players to college football after not making NFL rosters has brought the wildest news cycle yet in this age of college sport chaos.
Amid ongoing court orders — which yet again prevented the NCAA from enforcing its own rules on eligibility — conferences have taken matters into their own hands by making league-specific rules to ban NFL players from returning to the sport. These rules have faced their own legal challenges, including judges in Texas and Louisiana issuing temporary restraining orders blocking the SEC from enforcing its ban on professionals returning.
According to an explosive report this week from Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, rival SEC schools are considering some extreme measures to discourage LSU from breaking conference rules, even if certain courts allow it.
“High-ranking SEC university executives are exploring legal and internal avenues intended to address the school’s plans to add former professional athletes to its rosters, including extreme measures such as boycotting competition against the Tigers, sanctioning the school with probation or even expulsion, and/or filing a federal legal challenge,” Dellenger wrote.
A decision from the league — who declined comment to Dellenger — is unlikely before a Baton Rouge hearing on Thursday which should make the picture clearer.
With the Tigers set to host Clemson this week, head coach Dabo Swinney weighed in on the controversy this week, calling it ’embarrassing’ that this is where the sport has come.
Dabo Swinney on LSU adding NFL players:
"It's just embarrassing that that's where we are.
"I don't blame the kids or people trying to take advantage of the system; I just think it's embarrassing where we are with college football."
"No pun intended, we just stay in our Lane… pic.twitter.com/tD0svikojL
— SEC Mike (@MichaelWBratton) September 1, 2026
“It’s kind of embarrassing,” Swinney said on Tuesday. “Honestly, it’s embarrassing that’s where we are. I don’t blame the kids, but people trying to take advantage of the system. It’s embarrassing, but we’ve been there for a while…No pun intended, we just stay in our Lane here at Clemson.”
It’s safe to say folks are ready for the legal talk to end and the actual games to start, but with LSU on a national stage in the first week of the season, these two things may intersect during week one.
Michael Brauner is a Senior Sports Analyst and Contributing Writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @MBraunerWNSP and hear him every weekday morning from 6 to 9 a.m. on “The Opening Kickoff” on WNSP-FM 105.5, available free online.
