The SEC school with the most historical willingness to push back against the league hired the coach most willing to try anything. Is it any wonder, then, that of 16 SEC schools, it's LSU and Lane Kiffin trying to wedge a Cleveland Brown and a New Orleans Saint onto its 2026 football roster?
The past week has pitted the Tigers squarely in opposition of the league in the absurd fight to squeeze waived NFL players onto the team just days before the start of college football season. The SEC voted 15-0 to prohibit and penalize schools for doing so, with LSU of course abstaining. But thanks to a Louisiana judge issuing a temporary restraining order that stops the SEC from enforcing its new rule, the Tigers are now poised to sign two former NFL players and raise
a Cajun middle finger in the direction of league commissioner Greg Sankey. All while denying reports of encouraging the players' legal action.
LSU is to the SEC what the Al Davis-owned Raiders once were to the NFL.
Which is somewhat remarkable, considering Davis once fired Kiffin and disparaged his character in a single motion.
Yes, for those too young to remember, the late swashbuckling NFL owner sued his own league more than once, defied his own commissioner, and didn’t give two tiger droppings what his fellow owners thought of it. He once testified against the NFL in an anti-trust lawsuit. He was about the Raiders first, the Raiders second, the NFL third, and making friends last.
Sound feauxmiliar?
LSU, after all, has never had a problem voicing its displeasure with the SEC. You'd have a hard time finding instances of that elsewhere around the league, but former Tigers Athletic Director Joe Alleva had no problem poking the bear. The firebrand ranged across multiple SEC commissioners in sounding off on matters from scheduling to the league's handling of the 2016 LSU-Florida postponement due to Hurricane Matthew. His predecessor, Skip Bertman, once blasted the league over officiating. And now, less than a year into the job, current AD Verge Ausberry is being more defiant than Alleva ever was, because he's not just airing grievances. He's standing opposite the SEC in a legal fight, one he could've avoided by simply telling Kiffin, "We're not taking NFL players. We're not going there."
Al Davis must be looking down from that luxury box in the sky and smiling ear to ear about all the legal havoc LSU is wreaking. But Davis seemingly loved the chaos as much as the cause, so it's not even certain he’d be rooting for the Tigers to beat the NCAA and the SEC in court. After all, he once fired Kiffin as his head coach, called him a liar on his way out the door, and washed his silver-and-black hands of him. And nobody held a grudge like Al Davis.
If the 16 schools in the SEC are in any sense sons to SEC boss Greg Sankey, LSU is the one that's off his meds and ruins Thanksgiving. Based both on LSU's history and Kiffin's, we can be relatively sure before he's even coached a game that his eventual departure from Red Stick will be as spectacularly explosive as his arrival. Until then, however, the unification of LSU and Kiffin has already made one thing clear.
Sorry, Sankey. You've got your Al Davis.
And he'll see you in court.
Tuscaloosa News columnist Chase Goodbread is also the weekly co-host of Crimson Cover TV on WVUA-23. Reach him at cgoodbread@gannett.com. Follow on X.com @chasegoodbread.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sorry, Greg Sankey, you've got your Al Davis. His name is Lane Kiffin | Opinion
