The SEC filed a lawsuit against LSU in U.S. District Court in Alabama on Thursday, alleging the university is violating the league's First Amendment right of expressive association by ignoring SEC rules that prohibit signing and playing former NFL players. The lawsuit, which also names the LSU board of supervisors, LSU president Wade Rousse, athletics director Verge Ausberry and football coach Lane Kiffin as defendants, was filed while SEC commissioner Greg Sankey and others testified during a separate injunction hearing in a state court in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

During Sankey's testimony in the state court hearing, one of the plaintiff's attorneys brought up the newly filed federal lawsuit. The revelation sent a buzz through the packed courtroom, as few people were aware of the new development until it was mentioned. The lawsuit was filed just after midnight on Thursday morning, not during the hearing.

The SEC's federal lawsuit said: "The SEC has endured and thrived for nearly a century because its members have adhered to that common set of rules, which each member institution, and every coach at those institutions, has agreed to follow. Among the most fundamental of those rules are the longstanding provisions that prohibit individuals who have entered a professional draft, signed professional contracts, or been rostered on a professional athletics team from returning to compete in college athletics (the 'Professionalism Rules')."

The SEC is asking the federal court for a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting the defendants from violating the conference's First Amendment rights and barring them from seeking to deter, coerce, prevent, or punish the Conference. The lawsuit said the distinction between playing amateur and professional athletes is "critical" to the SEC's structure and governance. It noted that LSU, through Rousse, voted in favor of the SEC issuing a statement Aug. 25 affirming its longstanding rules.