LSU AD Verge Ausberry stresses SEC unity in meeting with coaches - ESPN

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. — In reaction to the controversial comments made recently by his head coach, Lane Kiffin, first-year LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry told ESPN on Thursday that he has spoken with his coaches about the importance of unity within the SEC.

Ausberry, who was promoted this past November after working at the university for more than 30 years, said his message has been «worry about LSU. Everything's about LSU.»

«It's not about the other place you were at before, the other schools in this conference,» he said. «In the SEC we have to be one. Every other organization from NASCAR, to the NFL, NBA, they're one. We fight each other on the fields: Saturday nights, basketball games, baseball weekends, track and field, that's when we compete. After that, this is one. When you start breaking up and doing our own things, that hurts our conference.»

SEC commissioner Greg Sankey, speaking to reporters for the fourth straight day at the conclusion of the league's spring meetings, declined to say if any fines or sanctions are coming to Kiffin or Texas coach Steve Sarkisian. Sarkisian told USA Today earlier this month that «all you have to do is take basket weaving, and you can get an Ole Miss degree.» He conceded this week that was a «poor choice of words.»

In the four-hour interview with Vanity Fair, Kiffin, who was the head coach at Ole Miss before taking the same job at LSU, said some top recruits would tell him they weren't interested in coming to Oxford, Mississippi.

"[They would say], 'Hey, Coach, we really like you, but my grandparents aren't letting me move to Oxford, Mississippi,'" Kiffin told the magazine. «That doesn't come up when you say Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Parents were sitting here this weekend