Report: Kelly rejected multiple settlement offers from LSU

By Hunt Palmer

Brian Kelly’s attorneys have given LSU a 5:00 pm Monday deadline to assure the fired coach that the university intends to pay the more than $54 million he is owed.

The Advocate reported Sunday that former LSU athletic director Scott Woodward offered Kelly $25 million on October 26, the day he was fired. That offer was later increased to $30 million by executive deputy athletic director Julie Cromer.

Both offers have been rejected.

Kelly wrote in an email to LSU officials on the day of his firing that he was “open to your desire to reach a settlement of what’s owed to me under the contract, although of course it would have to make sense financially.”

The $54 million represents 90 percent of the remainder of Kelly’s 10-year, $95 million contract he signed in 2021. The money can be paid in monthly installments through 2031.

Language in Kelly’s contract states that any earnings from coaching that Kelly makes during the contract period would offset LSU’s financial obligation.

Kelly finished his tenure at LSU 34-14, 19-10.