LSU Board To Continue Negotiating Brian Kelly’s $54 Million Buyout

By GLENN GUILBEAU, Tiger Rag Editor

The LSU Board of Supervisors approved a motion on Friday in executive session to continue to try to negotiate apparently-fired-without-cause football coach Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout that is owed to him. according to his contract if fired without cause.

Will the $54 million question about fired coach Brian Kelly – without cause – be answered Friday at special LSU Board of Supervisors meeting just called?https://t.co/k3eihc704H

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 20, 2025

Kelly was apparently fired without cause last Oct. 26 four years into a 10-year, $100 million contract after a 49-25 loss to Texas A&M that knocked him out of the playoffs for the fourth straight year by then-LSU athletic director Scott Woodward.

“When Coach Kelly arrived at LSU four years ago, we had high hopes that he would lead us to multiple SEC and national championships during his time in Baton Rouge. Ultimately, the success at the level that LSU demands simply did not materialize, and I made the decision to make a change after last night’s game,” Woodward said in an LSU release on Oct. 26, clearly spelling out a firing without cause and for not winning enough.

LSU never won an SEC championship and played in the SEC championship game only in Kelly’s first season in 2022. And LSU never threatened to make the playoffs going into the final weeks of any season under Kelly.

Firings of coaches without cause usually means the coach gets all of his buyout, or close to it.

“We will continue to negotiate his separation and will work toward a path that is better for both parties,” Woodward added in the release, a statement that might be said with regard to a firing with cause, as in breaking terms of a contract.

But four day later, LSU’s Board fired Woodward.

And on Monday, Nov. 10, Kelly and his lead attorney Bennett Speyer of Toledo, Ohio, filed a lawsuit against LSU seeking Kelly’s full, $54 million buyout. The suit filed in the 19th Judicial District of East Baton Rouge Parish came after LSU attorneys let pass a 5 p.m. deadline on Nov. 10 submitted by Kelly and team requesting LSU confirm it will “fulfill its contractual obligation” to pay the entire buyout to Kelly.

Kelly turned down settlement offers of $25 million, then $30 million. LSU not answering that request on Nov. 10 meant LSU doesn’t wish to pay the full buyout, and it then changed its story midstream and said it wanted to fire Kelly with cause. On Friday, it carried on with that argument, though it may be damaged because of its firing of Woodward.

While new LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry and a search committee were trying to negotiate Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin into being LSU’s new football coach on Friday, LSU’s Board – two members of which are on that search committee – is still busy with the previous coach.

Meanwhile in Oxford, Mississippi, Kiffin met with Ole Miss athletic director Scott Carter with Carter hoping that Kiffin has made a decision to stay at Ole Miss or leave for either LSU or Florida. But Kiffin has all the leverage.

So, what will Ole Miss do if Lane Kiffin doesn’t meet this supposed deadline that Ole Miss says it has for a decision? … Fire him? … LOL … This is Lane’s World. We’re all just passengers. Column:https://t.co/v1rlNTPwKv

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 18, 2025

Because he is Ole Miss’ most successful coach since Johnny Vaught in the 1950s and ’60s and has the Rebels ranked No. 6 at 10-1 on the season and on the verge of their first College Football Playoff in history. Before Kiffin, Ole Miss never came close to a national championship through any playoff or bowl system in 65 years since winning the national championship in 1960 under Vaught.

The next best thing to Nick Saban available – Lane Kiffin – is coming to LSU, if Nick Saban has his way.https://t.co/TaBuardbYF

— Glenn Guilbeau (@SportBeatTweet) November 17, 2025

A motion by the LSU Board Friday “to authorize” new LSU president Wade Rousse “in consultation with then general counsel (LSU lawyers) to review and, if appropriate, send Brian Kelly written notice of termination under his employment agreement” was approved at the meeting.

“We just gave the authority to the president to terminate him,” LSU board member and athletic chairman John Carmouche, an attorney, told reporters after the meeting about a coach actually fired nearly a month ago. Carmouche is on the search committee to find the new coach.

Asked if that “written notice of termination” would be of a firing with cause, Carmouche said, “The president will make that decision.”

A with cause firing would mean LSU would legally have a better chance to negotiate the buyout down.

The terms of the buyout and whether Kelly was fired with cause or without cause “is in litigation,” Carmouche said.

A university media relations release later Friday from Zach Labbe said only, “Under Article VII, Section 1(L)(3) of the Board of Supervisors bylaws, any personnel action relating to varsity athletics coaches with a salary over $250,000 requires board approval. In today’s meeting, the Board voted to delegate the authority to President Rousse to review and, if appropriate, send a notice of termination to Brian Kelly.”