The college football world has centered on Baton Rouge over the last few weeks. Lane Kiffin and the LSU Tigers have created a shockwave within college football by trying to take in a handful of NFL players who returned to college football after suing for a fifth year of eligibility after failing to stick on their respective NFL team’s 53-man roster.

LSU has engaged in a dangerous game of chicken with the SEC by trying to add two Ole Miss transfers in TE Dae’Quan Wright and DL Zxavian Harris over the conference’s loud objection. The SEC, along with the other Power Four conferences, has implemented a rule banning schools from adding players to their roster who had either signed a contract with an NFL team or appeared on an NFL roster.

Kiffin’s willingness to go to the mat and risk the university’s standing with the SEC for two players who aren’t even considered starters is particularly perplexing to most. However, it’s not to former Tennessee quarterback Jonathan Crompton.

Crompton played under Kiffin in 2009, and after Tennessee’s win over Furman on Saturday, he recalled on the A to Z Sports’ Big Orange Podcast a few distinct words that Kiffin said around the time time he was hired to succeed Phillip Fulmer.

Former Tennessee QB Jonathan Crompton has strong take on LSU’s Lane Kiffin bringing back NFL players

“I can tell you what’s going on” Crompton said as far as why Kiffin would go to the mat for those two players. “December 1, 2008. Listen, I like Lane. I randomly still talk to Lane. But I can be honest about situations. December 1, 2008, and I quote, “any publicity is good publicity at this moment.” That is a quote out of his mouth.

“Listen, I’m not taking a shot at him. He is a damned good football coach. He is. But that’s the way I look at it, is any publicity is good publicity. That’s what he told us.

“And there’s a comment that says, why didn’t Tennessee do this with Joey (Aguilar)? Well, the reality is because we have more integrity than that, in my opinion. It’s just my opinion, and maybe I’m wrong. That’s just my opinion. Because the reality is the court said no, so we’re like, cool, we’re going to move on. Thank you. You said no, we’ll go. Thanks.

“There’s a difference. I’m not saying we always would have done that. But I think the people in charge, with Heupel, with guys like Heupel, is why we’re in such good shape. Because he does have integrity, he goes care about the program and the brand and not tarnishing our logo and our name. I know he genuinely cares about that. That’s the reason for that comment. That’s the reason, for that comment, why we didn’t keep going and just suing everybody until he was eligible.”

The juice had better be worth the squeeze for LSU

Crompton is certainly right in that Tennessee took the high road when it came to the Joey Aguilar eligibility battle. Aguilar took the proper avenues to try to get another year, and when it didn’t go his/Tennessee’s way, all parties nodded their heads and moved on.

But when it comes to Lane Kiffin, he’s certainly left more than his fair share of bridges burning behind him. From Knoxville to Oxford, certainly, with how he left his programs for a greener pasture and a big name program.

And now, in the current fight with the SEC, the conference has put out that expulsion could be in the cards if the Tigers were to end up rostering the former NFL players (they did not roster them for the Clemson game). Kiffin has put LSU in position to potentially lose their conference membership over a fight that shouldn’t be going down.

And as such, Kiffin had better prove, and quickly, that he’s worth the trouble and bad publicity that he’s brought on his employer so quickly.