THE SIDELINES : La. State Plans to Stay With SEC

BATON ROUGE, La. — Southwest Conference officials have approached Louisiana State but the school has no plans to leave the Southeastern Conference, said Chancellor Bud Davis.

“There was an informal discussion with the Southwest Conference,” Davis said. “It was really just an inquiry to see if we had any interest in joining their conference. I said we would continue with the SEC.”

The SEC is moving along with its plans to expand but it probably won’t happen as quickly as some athletic officials have predicted, said Davis.

Several officials at SWC schools have started an effort to strengthen their conference and to discourage league members Arkansas, Texas and Texas A&M; from jumping to the SEC. Baylor Coach Grant Teaff and Houston Athletic Director Rudy Davalos initiated a proposal to bring LSU, Oklahoma or some other top program into the SWC.