It has been a month since we learned that a budget shortfall faced by the state of Louisiana could have a direct effect on the LSU football team, as the budget issue could cause many of LSU's student athletes to be ineligible for the 2016 season.
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Well, it appears that issue has not gotten any better, as LSU president F. King Alexander reaffirmed to The Advocate out of Baton Rouge that the LSU athletes are still in trouble for the upcoming season.
"I know a lot of people will say, 'Well, that's not going to happen,'" he said referring to the prospect of LSU football being hurt. "Well, that will happen if we don't have summer school. We'll only have half of our football team eligible."
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"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."
This all stems from a $900 million mid-year budget shortfall that the state of Louisiana is attempting to recoup as quickly as possible. If no solution can be found by the end of April, it is possible that all public schools will be closed, leaving all student-athletes ineligible.
This situation could be remedied if the crisis is solved in time for a summer session, but things are looking extremely bleak for all LSU sports right now. If LSU football is indeed unable to compete, the sport will be losing a program that is expected to be elite in 2016, as the Tigers combine a Top 5 recruiting class with 18 returning starters.
Hopefully this gets resolved in time so no athlete has to worry about losing eligibility over a situation that they themselves did not cause.
