It's always been Lane Kiffin v. Everyone in college football

ESPN

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On Tuesday, the SEC held another closed door meeting in which representatives from all 16 schools voted to essentially ban former professional players from the league.

It came in response to Kiffin, now the head coach at LSU, attempting to land at least three players who were recently cut from NFL training camps but had won temporary restraining orders from an East Baton Rouge Parish judge allowing them to play.

The vote was unanimous: 16-zip. That means even LSU (initially at least) voted against its own coach. It followed the Big Ten and others hastily making their own rules in response to Kiffin's eve-of-season recruiting that once seemed so ridiculous that no one thought a rule was needed.

"College sports are for college athletes," the SEC actually declared in a statement.

"Feel like I took a freakin' gummy," Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay said when discussing having waived-NFL rookies go back to college. McVay spoke for seemingly all of football save a few plaintiff attorneys.

Lane Kiffin v. Everyone. Always.

All of this comes amidst Kiffin's career of wild break-ups -- fired at an airport by USC, dismissed as an Alabama assistant before a national title game, leaving Tennessee with such tumult they considered naming a waste treatment plant after him and, most recently, bailing on a playoff team at Ole Miss to come to LSU.

Kiffin, now a battled-hardened 51, will tell you it's all coincidence or history or happenstance. And while he'll always work the angles, by the standards of college sports, his "scandals" are fairly harmless, or even comical, not criminal. He's just never been the backing down type.

In this case, he'll note he's just recruiting players who are eligible to be recruited -- "we followed all court orders" -- and that he is hardly the only coach attempting it -- "they're either going to play for you or they're going to play for someone else."

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LSU paid tens of millions in buyouts and contracts to fire Brian Kelly and hire Kiffin away from Ole Miss. It did so with full knowledge of what it was getting -- a talented coach undeterred that his endless ambition tends to put his bosses in difficult positions.

In this case, if the court goes the players' way, then LSU would need to go against everyone else.

The coach will always push. Can his school handle the pull?

Does LSU really want to take on the entire SEC, the league office and beyond for a few players? Does it want to risk reputation, possible sanctions, scorn and isolation? Is there a fight it won't take?

We've long known Kiffin's answer to such questions.

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