Tennessee chancellor says SEC is ‘united’ on rule banning NFL players from competing in conference
By Sydney Hunte
Published:
Tennessee chancellor Donde Plowman on Tuesday vowed that the SEC would uphold its policy banning athletes who had been on a roster of an NFL team (or a team from another professional football league) from playing collegiately.
“We have a responsibility to try and lead the best we can in this time of chaos. Our group is united on this. This is not a rule we will budge on … Enough is enough,” Plowman, who heads up the SEC’s executive committee, told ESPN’s Pete Thamel and Mark Schlabach.
Despite this, LSU, the program at the center of the matter, has held firm on its position to recruit such players. Lane Kiffin said on Monday that “every one of” the players on the team’s leadership committee was “emphatic” about him continuing to do so.
Dabo Swinney, whose Clemson team visits LSU in Week 1, called the practice “kinda embarrassing”, while taking a jab at Kiffin.
“All that outside stuff … no pun intended, we just stay in our lane here at Clemson,” he said.
Whether or not LSU intends to field former NFL players against Clemson on Saturday — or any other time this season, for that matter — Plowman made it clear where she stood.
“We want to clarify — this is not about the five-for-five,” she said. “This is about — if you signed a contract, you signed a contract. That’s always been the bottom line. You don’t get to un-sign it and come back.”
Sydney is an Atlanta-based journalist who has covered everything from SEC and ACC football to MLS, the U.S. men's national soccer team and professional tennis. His work has appeared on such platforms as SB Nation, Cox Media Group and FanSided.
