Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards made waves last month by threatening the end of college football in the Bayou State if the state budget crisis remained unresolved.
LSU president F. King Alexander came out in agreement of Edwards' statements on Monday, telling the Baton Rouge Press Club, “I know a lot of people will say, ‘Well, that’s not going to happen,’” he said according to the Advocate. “Well, that will happen if we don’t have summer school. We’ll only have half of our football team eligible.”
LSU could be hit with a $17 million mid-year cut, and Louisiana colleges as a whole will be cut $70 million with the possibility of that number inflating to $200 million.
“It’s not us saying that,” Alexander said. “It’s the NCAA telling us that — that student athletes have to be eligible to play. And yes, classes and sports go together. They’re student athletes, you can’t have one without the other.”
While most of us, perhaps up to and including Alexander himself, believe LSU would find a way to drop academics entirely before cutting Tiger football, it will be interesting to see if this affects Les Miles and company on the recruiting trail. Because you know LSU's SEC West rivals will bring this up early and often.