Report: LSU’s Lane Kiffin recruited NFL players in back-to-college bid

It’s been a wild week for LSU Tigers fans. A couple of former college football players who had made the jump to the NFL — former Cleveland Browns tight end Dae’Quan Wright and New Orleans Saints defensive lineman Zxavian Harris — were granted a fifth year of eligibility and transferred to LSU, reuniting with their old coach Lane Kiffin. That sparked days of debate among SEC presidents, chancellors athletic directors, and their counterparts in other conferences as to whether this should be allowed. On Tuesday, the SEC adopted a ban on players coming back to college after turning pro, but this isn’t over. Wright, Harris, and other impacted athletes have another court date coming up on Aug. 31.

But now, John Talty and Chris Hummer report for CBS Sports that Kiffin played a personal role in recruiting players under contract with NFL teams into joining a lawsuit in Louisiana court that would have allowed them a fifth year of college eligibility:

“To be clear, LSU wasn’t the first school to pursue this path of signing former professional players. Texas added fifth-year offensive lineman Cole Hutson, who had participated in NFL minicamps but wasn’t signed to a contract, following a lawsuit in Texas. A sweeping rule in Colorado also, for a time, allowed the class of 2022 players to return for a fifth year of eligibility. But that did not include former professional athletes.

That’s where LSU got creative.

Kiffin and the Tigers reached out to multiple players on NFL rosters or their representation in an effort to get them to bring a lawsuit against the NCAA and return to school, per sources. This includes some of the players who ended up in the Louisiana lawsuit, which sources have pointed out wasn’t tried in Baton Rouge by accident.”

Earlier in the week, Kiffin defended himself while fielding questions during his regularly-scheduled press conference after practice on Monday: “Because of the rulings, they are going to play for you or someone else. We made the decision to recruit them. It’s wrong to be critical of these kids. They were granted a fifth year and a judge said they were wronged.”

It’s a messy situation. It was messy behavior of Kiffin to effectively tamper with players under contract on another team (even if it’s a professional outfit instead of a rival college program). And it’s a legal mess to sort through as to whether the SEC’s adopted penalties are even enforceable upon legal challenges from the players involved. With LSU’s season kicking off against the Clemson Tigers on Sept. 5, right around the corner, all involved must act quickly to clean it up.