LSU Disputes Owing $54M to Former Head Coach Brian Kelly

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00:00It's days after former LSU head football coach Brian Kelly informed the school to fulfill its

00:05contractual obligation to pay him the full $54 million buyout from his contract, this after he

00:11was fired by the school. LSU has now filed their own legal paperwork. They allege that Kelly was

00:16removed for cause and that would avoid them paying out the second largest coaching buyout in college

00:21history. So let's bring in front office sports college sports reporter Amanda Christovich. So

00:25Amanda, what happened over the last little while that escalated to this point?

00:30So I just obtained a copy of the court filing. And according to that, there was a meeting on

00:35November 10th. So yesterday between LSU officials and Brian Kelly's representatives that base where

00:43basically LSU took the position that you just explained that actually he hadn't been formally

00:48fired and he had been fired for cause, which in the parlance of these, you know, coaching contracts

00:55means that you're not owed the buyout. Being fired without cause is actually what it means in this

01:01parlance to be fired because you did not do a good job coaching your team, interestingly enough.

01:06Right. Which was, by the way, the first, that's what they claimed originally, why he was fired.

01:09Exactly. And the lawsuit explains in multiple ways how publicly and privately they said this,

01:15that they were affirming that he was fired without cause. And then all of a sudden in this meeting

01:20yesterday, they said they believed that there were reasons why they might take the position he was

01:26fired for cause and that he wouldn't be owed any of the buyout. And the lawsuit was fired, filed hours

01:31later. Interesting also because in the lawsuit, they claimed that they had been negotiating a smaller

01:37buyout for him, maybe between 20 and 30 million dollars. How much of this has to do with the fact

01:43that Kelly rejected those offers and was seeking the full buyout here?

01:46You know, I'm not sure because the lawsuit did confirm that the court documents confirmed that

01:52he was offered 25 million in the, you know, the day he was fired. And then like later that day

01:56offered 30 million in a lump sum and his representatives declined that offer, but they did say that they

02:04were open to other negotiations. They didn't say all or nothing. So I find it a bit strange that all of a

02:12sudden they went from, we'll offer you $30 million in a lump sum to nothing, especially when he does

02:19have a duty to mitigate an offset clause, which means that whenever he gets a new job, LSU only

02:24owes him the difference between what the buyout money is and what his new salary is. So they really

02:29wouldn't, it's possible that if they agreed to pay him the full buyout, he wouldn't, they wouldn't have

02:33to pay up to 25 or 30 million because he's being paid in incremental monthly installments.

02:38Interesting. How much also, and you've reported extensively on this, is the governor of Louisiana,

02:44Jeff Landry, a part of this, given the fact that he has been outspoken in saying that the money was

02:49mismanaged in terms of how he doesn't want to spend that kind of money again on a coach or all of that.

02:54So how much of it has to do with the governor here?

02:56Really interesting in kind of buried in the court filing was this allegation that the governor's office

03:05was going to reach out to Brian Kelly to discuss the terms of his buyout. There was a letter that

03:11Kelly's representative sent to LSU and said, you know, Kelly has told us, his representatives,

03:17that someone from the board or the governor's office will reach out to him. But, you know,

03:23we don't think we need a meeting unless you have another offer for us, et cetera, basically.

03:27There was another part of that court filing that cited an email sent by Virge Osprey,

03:34the current athletic director, who denied that the governor's office had ever told Kelly they'd

03:39reach out to him. So that's sort of strange. But it does imply that Governor Landry continues to be

03:47involved in these buyout conversations as he has said he would be.

03:52We're we have about 40 seconds left. Does this situation deter anybody maybe from wanting to

03:58take the LSU job just because sort of the mess that's been coming out of this?

04:02I think it's a major concern for any coach and their agent. But I will say that it just means

04:09that these agents are going to offer even more ironclad contracts with potentially even bigger buyouts.

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