BATON ROUGE — Brian Kelly vowed to put his money where his mouth was in terms of challenging LSU football’s donor base and fans in raising money for the team’s Name, Image and Likeness funds. Shortly after the transfer portal opened, Kelly and his wife, Paqui, offered up the “Kelly Family Million Dollar Match Challenge” […]
BATON ROUGE — Brian Kelly vowed to put his money where his mouth was in terms of challenging LSU football’s donor base and fans in raising money for the team’s Name, Image and Likeness funds.
Shortly after the transfer portal opened, Kelly and his wife, Paqui, offered up the “Kelly Family Million Dollar Match Challenge” where they will match up to $1 million in donations given to LSU’s NIL collective, Bayou Traditions, received specifically for the football team through Feb. 5. The Kellys’ money will go to the Tiger Athletic Foundation.
So far, the team has announced two anonymous LSU supporters have agreed to match Kelly’s $1 million, therefore making every dollar LSU receives through Feb. 5 tripled going toward Bayou Traditions and the TAF.
College football coaches are not allowed by NCAA rule to donate to a school’s NIL collective. The TAF is a private fundraising organization that supports LSU athletics with money and other resources.
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Kelly told reporters Saturday after LSU’s practice that the response to his challenge has been “what we had hoped for.””From a fan perspective, I mean a grassroots support, not our huge donors, our donors have stepped up as well,” Kelly said. “Those fans that come to see the games, those that follow LSU football, whether it’s been $5, $50 or $500 dollars, we’re seeing those kinds of contributions that we hadn’t seen in the past.”
Kelly sounded the alarm during his news conference last week announcing the new signees for the Tigers that the program needed NIL money in order to compete at the highest level in the new era of collegiate athletics.
While he didn’t mention any player by name, Kelly alluded to the losses of No. 1 overall recruit and quarterback Bryce Underwood, as well as cornerback Kade Phillips, as examples of why LSU needed to improve its NIL coffers, saying both players “loved LSU but they were no given choice.”
Underwood signed with Michigan and Phillips landed at Texas.
After more than a week since the press conference when he put out the call to fans and donors, LSU now feels it’s in a good enough spot.
“It’s put us in a position where we can be aggressive on anybody that comes into the portal. That simply wasn’t the case before. I’m not saying this particular ‘match’ did that but I think it really sent a message to everybody that this is where we are today,” Kelly said.
“And if we want to be where we all want to be in terms of putting our roster together, we all have to step up. It started with me and I think our fan base responded equally.”
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Cory Diaz covers the LSU Tigers for The Daily Advertiser as part of the USA TODAY Network. Follow his Tigers coverage on Twitter: @ByCoryDiaz. Got questions regarding LSU athletics? Send them to Cory Diaz at bdiaz@gannett.com.
