LSU filled its final two available roster spots last night, seemingly ending its recruitment of players who spent time in NFL training camps. The decision has de-escalated tensions between LSU and the SEC, and this afternoon’s hearing in the lawsuit has been postponed. Attorney Tony Clayton represents the athletes and says it was his clients who sued the NCAA and SEC, not LSU.
“And I personally never met Lane Kiffin; so to say that about Lane Kiffin, they are wrong. This litigation was a result of Ryan Downton and Tony Clayton and the law,” Clayton said.
SEC presidents and chancellors scheduled a vote on whether to expel LSU from the conference on Thursday. The lawsuit alleges that LSU’s coordinated effort to recruit players in NFL training camps violates the conference’s First Amendment right to govern itself, but Clayton says LSU never rostered the players and broke any SEC rules.
“You can’t violate LSU’s rights, based on speculation. What I mean by that, because what a person might do. That’s not what this country is made of,” Clayton noted.
The lawsuit claims that LSU coach Lane Kiffin was involved in coordinating and encouraging the athletes’ lawsuit against the NCAA, but Clayton says there is no evidence of that. He says his clients made their own decisions, and he has never even met Kiffin.
“You’re doing this to LSU because of what Lane Kiffin is thinking, or what they might do? I really think this is going to come back to haunt Mr. Sankey and the SEC,” Clayton remarked.
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