Let all the Bulldog faithful rally behind the men who now wear the red and black with two words, two simple words which express the sentiments of the entire Bulldog Nation: Auburn Sucks.
The court has ruled in favor of the athletes! Again, they are not professional football players circling back after years in the NFL. They are college players who were told, by the NCAA, that they were done. So they took the only door that was open, only to watch the NCAA change…
Yep, to literally no one’s surprise, another Kangaroo Court makes 2026 the year of bizarro in college sports.
Don’t get me wrong, the crosshairs are aimed squarely at Lane Kiffin and LSU, compelling some of us to head to church on Sunday to repent for ever pulling for Orange, but that’s where we are at. I’m pulling hard for Dabo now, and I never thought I’d say that in a million years.
What’s worse is that the foolishness of litigation around college sports has become so pronounced, that you have moments like this from the court drama on Thursday:
Louisiana attorney Tony Clayton yelling at Greg Sankey’s attorney “Ain’t no fun when the rabbit got the gun!” in open court, with Sankey on the stand, is the stuff legends are made of https://t.co/n8cjGsvPkZ
It’s becoming not only a farce for the sport, but for the courts, too. Maybe we take it more seriously as passionate fans, or maybe we’re missing some greater point.
Is it that the NCAA has been too fickle throughout the years, and this is the pendulum swing to counter balance that? Or is it that outsiders are seeing it for what it is, a money-making machine that is still raking in the dough while still trying to rally around some bullshit concept like amateurism?
At least we have college football tomorrow…or what’s left of it.
How is the LSU vs the SEC going to go down? Don’t ask your Vegas odds maker (note: I couldn’t find odds on any betting site for this), just ask college sports attorney extraordinaire Tom Mars:
Former NFL Players v. SEC: You only need to get to page 2 of the SEC’s brief to realize this lawsuit against the SEC and Greg Sankey is going to be tossed in the trash pretty quickly – maybe as soon as tomorrow.
Former NFL Players v. SEC: You only need to get to page 2 of the SEC’s brief to realize this lawsuit against the SEC and Greg Sankey is going to be tossed in the trash pretty quickly – maybe as soon as tomorrow.
Page 2 includes citations to a 1996 Louisiana Supreme Court decision and two Louisiana Court of Appeals decisions going back to 1973 – all three of which clearly stand for the proposition that the SEC may enforce its own rules based on the undisputed facts of this case. Therefore, unless the courts in Louisiana are willing to ignore or overrule 30 years of Louisiana Supreme Court precedent, and more than 50 years of precedent from the Court of Appeals, this entire case against the SEC and the Commissioner is going to be thrown out as a matter of law. The SEC’s brief makes other compelling arguments, but the very first one is enough to end what’s become the most momentous legal battle in college sports history. So much for the lawyers’ fifteen minutes of fame.
I don’t see how the players’ lawyers could possibly respond to the SEC’s legal arguments with a straight face. In all seriousness, I won’t be surprised if they withdraw their claims against the SEC and the Commissioner before tomorrow’s hearing. But I suspect that pride will cause them to choose a public ass-whipping instead.
Pride? Will pride goeth before the fall camp is over? Also, this is the same program doing this:
What if it was all just a distraction, just like the Jayden Daniels situation with the squabbling over the number 5? What could they be covering up? Has there been an appearance of a romantic Cajun named Jeaux Eau Douce?
Meanwhile, even Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr is getting in on the action:
If you ever wanted a deeper context of Lane Kiffin, there’s a nice excerpt from the book “Lane Being Lane” that details the genesis of the moniker “Joey Freshwater”, as well as his time in Tuscaloosa that lead to his firing the week before the National Championship game with Clemson.
Layla and the kids never made the move to Tuscaloosa, leaving Kiffin to go off the rails, frequenting Tuscaloosa-area bars. On at least one occasion, an Alabama staffer had to go to Innisfree Irish Pub to retrieve a golf cart Kiffin had left there the night before. “[Innisfree co-owner Derick] Purdy would call me and say, your boy Lane’s back in here asking where the hotties are,” says Josh Booty. “‘Can you introduce me to hotties?’” As one friend of Kiffin’s during that time put it, he was afraid Kiffin was going to “drink himself to death.” He was lonely without his family, and he was facing intense pressure working for a man he couldn’t understand. The stress was almost unbearable at times, and he looked for relief around town. With that came guilt and further strain from his family over his actions. “I’ve seen him on the floor crying like a goddamn baby,” the friend described, when Kiffin faced repercussions from mistakes that impacted his family. “And then I’ve seen him doing shit that’s like ‘you got to put your dick back in your pants.’” Layla filed for divorce in March 2016, citing irreconcilable differences. A month before the filing, Kiffin issued a statement to Fox Sports stating the couple had “mutually decided to divorce.”
It was around this time that Kiffin’s most famous nickname debuted: Joey Freshwater.
The story goes that Kiffin, not wanting to say his real name when recognized in local bars, would tell women his name was Joey Freshwater. There are those who were around Tuscaloosa at that time who insist this was a real thing he did. “The Joey Freshwater thing, it got out there for a reason,” says Trevor Hewett, who worked at Innisfree in addition to covering the team. Kiffin wasn’t the first Alabama assistant to enjoy an adult beverage on the town after the game, nor would he be the last, but he wasn’t subtle about it the way others were to avoid Saban’s wrath. “Lane was visible publicly in a time where Alabama coaches were not visible publicly,” Hewett says. “The other coaches just never went out, and Lane was definitely different in that aspect. Lane was going to be in public at times, sometimes at very odd times during the season.”
The more Hewett thought about it, the more impressed he was that it had mostly stayed as scuttlebutt and never morphed into a public scandal. In some ways, he said half-jokingly, it was Kiffin’s biggest accomplishment while at Alabama. “The fact he made it out of Tuscaloosa without anything becoming super public is wild,” he says.
In 2017, radio host Clay Travis asked Kiffin directly about the Joey Freshwater nickname.
Kiffin denied it as only he could.
“I’ve used Jimmy Chestnut but not Joey Freshwater,” he said. “Someone told me Joey Freshwater is the best thing I’ve ever heard, and I said, ‘Well, his friend is Jimmy Chestnut and is just as good.’”
True or not, those rumors hurt his ability to become a head coach again. Multiple Alabama sources insisted that Kiffin’s behavior during his time in Tuscaloosa precluded him from ever succeeding Nick Saban and becoming the Crimson Tide’s head coach. He had upset too many important people, and the stories were too well-known for it to be palatable for those in power. College administrators viewed him as immature and a liability, even if he was having a lot of on-field success as Saban’s offensive coordinator.
Question now is this: Kiffin has obviously shown his mettle as a head coach again, and, despite the off-field nonsense he’s generated this year, if he’s successful at LSU, are the bridges still burned in Tuscaloosa? We all know that the Crimson Tide fanbase is a fickle one, and that a thirst for success makes for some short memories when it comes to getting great again at Alabama.
Granted, the question remains if he can have success at LSU as an SEC head coach if the presidents of the SEC decide to ban them from the league?
At least they’ve hedged their bets on Kalshi to pay the buyout when he jumps to Tuscaloosa.
NFL teams were naming their 53 man rosters this week, and the Falcons decided to keep four quarterbacks, one of which is injured, the other is so concussed it’s questionable if he can make it out of the preseason, and two others that are more likely to be the starting quarterback by week 3 than the two highest paid guys on the team.
Meanwhile, Cash Jones missed the 53 man roster…but…
We have signed the following players to the practice squad:
Carlos Allen Jr. Vinny Anthony II James Brockermeyer Cobee Bryant Kam Dewberry Dylan Drummond Tyler Goodson Darnay Holmes Cash Jones Riley Mahlman Nick Muse Cam Sample Jack Velling Juice Wells Josh Woods… pic.twitter.com/lCWv2c8tQ0
In other news, Colbie Young and Zachariah Branch made their respective teams rosters, and Dillon Bell initially made the roster…only to have this happen a little later.
A number of former Bulldogs were cut this weekend, including Mecole Hardman, Channing Tindall, Azeez Ojulari, Dominic Lovett, Dan Jackson, Cash Jones, Noah Thomas, Malik Herring, Monty Rice, Zamir White, Trevor Etienne, Trey Hill, Lawrence Cager, Tre’ McKitty and Nazir Stackhouse. They will all hope to find new homes or potentially land on practice rosters.
Of those players, Thomas does fit the qualifications of someone who could potentially find themselves on an NFL (sic) roster, provided he gets a temporary restraining order. He was a 2022 recruit.
Technically, Bell could’ve made a return to an NCAA roster, as well…but I think we already know Kirby’s take on bringing guys from the NFL to an NCAA roster, right?
Kirby Smart says Georgia will not pursue NFL players:
"The opportunities presented to the guys on our team is important to me.
"They've earned those opportunities through an offseason, through a summer program, through a really tough fall camp." pic.twitter.com/lutqhRgXnb
Meanwhile, Tulane is eyeing a return to the SEC. At this point, it may be a fair trade and LSU could take their changes as a G6 team if they plan on standing firm on their NFL to College transfer portal pipeline.
I mean, not really, but it keeps the regionalism and Tulane is less of a headache and a half than LSU and Joey Freshwater. Speaking of…what’s Lane up to right now?
One thing the Dawgs have going for them in 2026: tons of returning starters…in fact, they are tied for the most in the SEC with Oklahoma at 14.
Tennessee and Texas, surprisingly, also bring back more than half their starters from 2025, while South Carolina, Ole Miss, and Vanderbilt return 10 starters on their squads.
So who has the fewest returning starters, you might ask. The answer should absolutely excite you.
Ah, Auburn. Notice they have the same amount of returning starters as South Florida…shocker, I know.
Happy September, Refugees. It’s your monthly reminder that Auburn sucks.
NEWS: #LSU signees, Dae’Quan Wright, Zxavian Harris, and Junior Tuihalamaka (alongside former Tiger, Jack Pyburn and others) will have a Preliminary Injunction hearing on Monday, August 31 at 1:30pm CT.
Say, now that’s interesting! The NCAA could slap a ban on LSU football from play or invalidate wins because Joey Freshwater conspired against the NCAA? Didn’t this really get started in Oxford, anyway?
If that’s the case and they can prove it, would that constitute “cause” in releasing Kiffin from his LSU contract? While hilarious and maybe a backhanded way for Lane to kill one of Alabama’s rivals and then backdooring his way into the Alabama head coaching position would be a level degree of chess that even I never gave him credit for.
of course this is on the heels of USA Today ranking Alabama the number 2 party school in the US, so maybe Lane had this in the works all along.
One thing of note: just because these guys can’t play in the SEC or B1G doesn’t mean they can’t play in other conferences. That means there’s only one way this can go for the ultimate “hilarity ensues” moment…
The decision making that occurred in bringing Lane Kiffin to LSU, and later to bring back Will Wade in one of the ugliest exits from a program to go back to a program, will be the thing of legends and documentaries once the dust settles. More than anything else, it will possibly make history as case law in litigating modern sports roster management.
First in basketball:
#BREAKING: The SEC is seriously considering banning all LSU sports programs from conference play due to today’s RJ Luis eligibility ruling, per sources.
RJ Luis just took a major step forward in spending the 2026-27 season in Baton Rouge. On Monday, a Louisiana judge granted Luis an injunction, On3’s Pete Nakos has confirmed. Luis now has an avenue to play for Will Wade and the LSU Tigers with an additional year of eligibility.
This is another example of a member of the 2022 recruiting class using the legal system to get back into college athletics. Luis spent three seasons at two different schools, initially suiting up for UMass. But after a year there, he opted to play for Rick Pitino at St. John’s.
Luis thought his college basketball career was over, entering the 2025 NBA Draft. He did not get selected but signed a two-way contract with the Utah Jazz. A stint out West did not last too long, as Luis was traded to the Boston Celtics in August. Unfortunately, just over two months later, he got waived.
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey files affidavit against RJ Luis
SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey filed an affidavit in an eligibility case involving LSU and former St. John’s star RJ Luis. Sankey called Luis’ attempt to play for the Tigers “a competitive disadvantage and fundamental unfairness,” per ESPN’s Pete Thamel.
“These rules are grounded in the principle that athletics are an integral part of the academic experience,” Sankey wrote. “The rules align the time permitted for college athletics with the pursuit of an undergraduate education and further the important purpose of preserving opportunities for future student-athletes to participate in college sports.”
This is a move we have seen from Sankey before. Back when Alabama was going through the Charles Bediako situation, he opposed Nate Oats getting the big man on his roster. In the end, Bediako was ruled ineligible and his time in Tuscaloosa came to an end.
To date, the rumor has it that Luis would be Wade’s fifth player to join the program.
And he only has five. Like five members on the team, opting to go against the traditional recruiting and transfer route and trying to field a roster of nothing more that former pros to play in the SEC.
It’s certainly a strategy, no? At some point, one has to wonder if LSU is doing nothing more than saying “hey, NCAA, you screwed this up, and we’re going to make a mockery of it until you decide to get a backbone again”. Honestly, I can’t hardly blame them.
Meanwhile, aside from Lane’s decision to bring former pros and Ole Miss players to Baton Rouge, he now is making the news for how the Ole Miss administration had to treat the facilities after his departure.
When Lane Kiffin left Ole Miss for LSU in the middle of a College Football Playoff run, the Rebels did not just change their locks, and erase their white boards and their group texts while the dust settled. They also called the FBI.
Grove Collective executive director Walker Jones laid out the whole thing on the Assorted Crackers podcast, and it is the kind of story that tells you exactly how much trust was left in the building by the time Kiffin was out the door.
“We actually had the FBI come through and walk the building for bugs and for everything,” Jones said. “We knew kind of what was in Baton Rouge, and we knew how they operated.”
Jones said he checked under his own desk for recording devices. The staff ran two separate text threads, held separate meetings, and cut back on hallway conversations to keep information from leaking to the coaches who were either on their way to LSU or considering making the move alongside Kiffin. That certainly is not standard operating procedure for a program getting ready to play in the Playoff.
Kiffin’s antics are having wide-sweeping effects. As of writing this, the B1G and the SEC are meeting to discuss the ramifications of the pros-to-college movement, with the B1G reportedly taking a firm stand of prohibiting this in the conference, with the SEC (naturally) following suite and matching the B1G’s approach and energy with this matter today.
Which is better? The billable hours or the entertainment hours that has come of this?
Somehow, Nick Saban isn’t just looking like a grumpy old man who had his secret sauce stolen in the NIL/Transfer Portal era. Looks like he was right, that this was going to be the outcome of all this in the first place.
Let’s take a quick trip in the WAYBAC machine, not too long ago when Georgia was beaten by Ole Miss in the Sugar Bowl, and all the talk was about Kiffin and his appearance in the broadcast booth or his spying on the team or players being pissed at him leaving. Here’s a quotable notable:
NEW: Ole Miss DL Zxavian Harris took a shot at Lane Kiffin after beating Georgia in the College Football Playoff Quarterfinals:
“That’s what Kiffin tried to do. He tried to be a damn announcer … trying to be a troll. We were going to troll him. We got something for him. He was… pic.twitter.com/cGQFkIf4Hw
Good for him. After all, only a man with integrity would stick with his program and spurn the pay raise and big dump trucks of money to see the playoff run through. Thats the kind of coach you want to play for, and Zxavian Harris took a rightful stand against it!
Flash forward a few months and crappy NFL preseason camp later:
