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The Daily Advertiser
LSU to use on-field ads, patches possible to pay athletes in wake of House settlement
- Story byThe Daily Advertiser
- LSU to use on-field ads, patches possible to pay athletes in wake of House settlement
The House settlement ― approved on June 6 ― allowed Division I schools to start paying players starting on July 1, and universities are still scrambling to figure out how to accommodate the new era of college athletics.
LSU plans to pay its athletes the maximum $20.5 million allowed during the upcoming academic year, per a report from The Advocate. Of that, $20.5 million, $2.5 million will come from the creation of 65 new scholarships.
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"I think what you'll find, is the House settlement being really, really favorable to LSU," LSU executive deputy athletic director Keli Zinn told The Advocate.
REQUIRED READING: College sports NIL revenue sharing figure being questioned by settlement plaintiffs
LSU facing deficit in 2025-26
After reporting a $1.735 million surplus during the 2024 fiscal year ― between July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024― LSU will likely face a deficit in 2025 with the new NIL payments. LSU officials predicted athletics could face an $8 million deficit in the coming fiscal year. Zinn predicted that the budget could be balanced by 2027.
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"We've really had to identify — and we're continuing to identify — new revenue streams that could potentially come to the athletic department to make up for that," deputy athletic director for revenue generation Clay Harris said.
How LSU will add more revenue
During the 2025 college football season, LSU will have advertisements on the 25-yard lines in Tiger Stadium. Last year was the first time schools were allowed to sell spaces on playing surfaces. Cox had a logo on the LSU basketball court.
According to Harris, ads could potentially add "multiple millions of dollars a year" in revenue. LSU will also add patches on its uniforms for advertisement, something else that could add millions of dollars in revenue.
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LSU has identified a partner for the patches and the logo for Tiger Stadium, but is yet to disclose which company it will be. But Harris added that the Tigers have a plan for the logos to be in school colors and appear on the chest.
"We don't want to have this as some crazy, NASCAR-like situation," Harris said.
LSU will also earn money from the billion-dollar rights deal between ESPN and the College Football Playoff. The university also can renegotiate its Nike deal. The contract of former head coach Ed Oregeron will also come off the books at the end of this year.
How LSU will allocate money between sports
The structure LSU followed is similar to the one the NCAA used to pay $2.8 billion in back damages, which mostly went to football and men's basketball players, as they brought in the most revenue.
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LSU will allocate 75% to football, which equals $13.5 million in the first year; 15% to men's basketball ($2.7 million); 5% to women's basketball ($900,000); and 5% to the rest of its sports ($900,000). Zinn told The Advocate that every LSU sports team will receive some money.
"There is enough," Zinn said. "Our ability to do this and also to support that decision, in big part, is our fan base and how much they have embraced and celebrated sports beyond basketball and football. And as long as they continue to do that, they're going to see us work aggressively to make sure those sports are well-positioned for the highest of success."
LSU will create 65 new scholarships, with 42 of them going towards women's sports. Baseball will see a significant increase in scholarships, going up from 11.7 to 34.
Despite the new House settlement allowing universities to pay athletes directly, the college athletes are still not considered "employees." With that, questions remain on how to navigate the transfer portal and a potential buyout for a player entering.
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"Instead, what you'll see us do is work through it in a way where student-athletes are expected to meet their obligations of those agreements," Zinn said. "And in the event that they don't, there's some opportunity there to react while they're here at LSU versus trying to seek money after the fact if they transfer or leave the institution."
Bryce Underwood-LSU saga
Bryce Underwood ― the No. 1 overall recruit in the 2025 signing class ― flipped his commitment from LSU to Michigan after the Wolverines made a sizeable NIL offer. During a speech Zinn made at the Baton Rouge Rotary Club last week, she mentioned Underwood, but not by name, but as a decommitment "to get a very high dollar from another institution."
Later, when an attendee referenced "the guy who went to Michigan for $6 (million) or $8 million" during their question, Zinn interjected by saying "$10 (million)." But she did offer the House settlement as a way to avoid these sort of bidding wars in the future.
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"These bidding wars that schools have found themselves in will no longer be the case," Zinn said about the Underwood situation.
This article originally appeared on Lafayette Daily Advertiser: How LSU will pay up to $20.5 million to athletes over the next year
