TIGER RAG NEWS SERVICES
A bill backed heavily by LSU’s athletic department to keep covert how much it pays its athletes via revenue sharing passed the state House of Representatives by a 92-1 vote on Friday as the Louisiana Legislative session is coming to a close. House Bill 608 now goes to the desk of Governor Jeff Landry, a known and active LSU sports fan who is expected to rubber stamp it.
The Legislative Session is scheduled to end on Monday.
LSU and other major universities nationwide have been sharing up to 22 percent of their average athletic revenue annually since the 2025-26 sports calendar year started, following the landmark Grant House (an Arizona State All-American swimmer) vs. NCAA antitrust, class action settlement. That ruling ended the NCAA’s practice of prohibiting schools from paying athletes directly. In 2025-26, that 22 percent worked out to approximately $20.5 million per school annually. Schools also can pay athletes via other athletic department revenues, including media rights, ticket sales and sponsorships.
Louisiana legislators have been rapidly advancing HB 608 by Representative Tehmi Chassion (Democrat, Lafayette). It passed the Senate by a 22-13 vote on Tuesday before Friday’s House vote. The lone vote against the bill on Friday came from representative Lauri Schlegel of the 82nd district in the Metairie area.
PUBLIC RECORDS: With a 92-1 vote, House gives final passage to #LSU-backed bill to create a new public records exemption to hide info about how college athletics programs spend public money on revenue sharing with athletes and with individual sports. HB608 to governor. #lalege
— Melinda Deslatte (@MelindaDeslatte) May 29, 2026
The bill has received significant support from LSU’s athletic department as various leaders have been lobbying for votes for the bill. Executive deputy athletic director Julie Cromer and newly hired senior deputy athletic director Heath Schroyer have appeared at committee hearings to advocate for the proposal.
Revenue sharing is separate from Name, Image and Likeness deals athletes enter into with private entities for a much larger pool of money for athletes. These NIL records are already exempt from public disclosure, and athletes tend to get most of their money via NIL.
LSU officials do not want it known how much various athletes make, even though LSU is a state school and subject to state public records laws while receiving state funds. LSU officials have concerns about public knowledge of what players make because of possible additional fan pressure on or security issues with higly paid players. And others at LSU are concerned about players knowing what the highest paid players make when other players may make little or nothing.
And if opponents and opponents’ boosters easily can glean what players from other schools make if the salaries are public, they will know how much more to offer that player to entice him or her to come to their school via the transfer portal. Of course, agents and other player representatives have been able to easily find such information quickly now anyway.
LSU also wants secrecy in this situation for the same reason the state’s flagship institution usually does things.
Because it can.
Estimates as to what new LSU quarterback Sam Leavitt’s salary for 2026 at LSU have been at approximately $5 million with most of that from NIL-related funds and little or none of that sum from revenue share. Leavitt signed with LSU last January from Arizona State as the No. 1 overall player and No. 1 quarterback in the NCAA Transfer Portal.
If passed by Landry, the legislation would create a new exemption in the state’s public records law to conceal how much public money universities pay directly to student athletes.
Regardless of its source, all revenue that a state university receives is in truth public money. For each athletics department, it is a mix of self-generated revenue such as ticket sales, tax dollars and, for some, student fees. There are currently no exemptions in Louisiana law for sharing records with the public that detail how state money is spent.
“These are now professional athletes getting paid more than many actual professional athletes,” Senator Greg Miller, a Republican from Norco said. “We have lost sight of our priorities. We have jumped the shark on this, and I think it’s time that we just say, ‘Enough is enough.’ University professors and the university presidents, we all know how much they get paid. But athletes who are getting paid millions of dollars, we’re not going to be able to see what they get paid because we’re trying to protect them. Who are we really trying to protect?”
Be the first to comment