Mike Elko was asked last night about what's been going on with LSU and the SEC following some tension between the two parties defusing in recent days thanks to LSU apparently backing down from their threat to sign former professional players. As you might expect, the Aggies' head man cut right to the heart of the situation in a succinct fashion:
NEW: Texas A&M’s Mike Elko on the SEC’s discussions about removing LSU from the conference:
— On3 (@On3) September 10, 2026
"This is a little bit like the son figuring out where the limits are until dad comes home and raises his voice, and then the son goes, ‘I was just kidding, I didn’t mean any of that.’ I… https://t.co/95HbPyX9pI pic.twitter.com/oOxbCYYAS4
There was reportedly some real momentum among league presidents to remove the Tigers from the league if things didn't change— though the Tigers did not include Dae'Quan Wright and Zxavien Harris on their roster, they left two spots open. This looked to many to be paving the way for them to, conceivably, roster Wright and Harris later on in the year.
However, in the face of that threat, LSU decided to roster two different players (one of whom was former Texas A&M commit Gabriel Reliford!), stopping them (apparently) from rostering either Wright or Harris this season. It’s been quite the back and forth— but Elko pretty much summed it up.
Mike Elko: SEC is just “parenting” LSU after odd back and forth about pro players
The Aggie head man really used the perfect word for it. Everyone in the college football world was sick of LSU acting like they had any leverage over the conference, and Greg Sankey— not normally the most well-liked guy among the average fan— has received quite a bit of adulation for putting a stop to this.
Fans and higher-ups in the sport alike both know that this is a move that would change college athletics in a terrible way if it were allowed to happen. Lane Kiffin is a guy that tests the limits all the time, but this was obviously a bridge too far— and there’s still a threat out there that he may receive some blowback if it is indeed confirmed that he and other LSU officials induced these players to levy a lawsuit against the conference.
That kind of thing just cannot happen: you cannot be a member of a conference that you are encouraging action against without receiving some kind of punishment. This will depend on what the conference concludes, of course, but it’s something to watch going forward.
LSU fans will no doubt hate Elko’s terminology here— they’ve spent the last few weeks, in large part, acting like they’re bigger than the conference, after all, so this analogy has to come off as insulting— but he hit the nail on the head, as he often does. When the Tigers saw what was really at stake, they backpedaled quickly, giving this round to Sankey and the conference.
Something tells me that Lane Kiffin’s shenanigans are not over at all— not for good, at least. After this comment, it will be interesting to see how Lane talks about Elko in the lead up to and fallout from the game later this month between the Aggies and Tigers— there’s certainly no love lost between these fanbases, and that goes for Aggie fans and Kiffin as well.
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