Every team in the SEC wants to be the program that replaces Georgia as the SEC Champion this season. In reality however there are only a few schools who realistically stand a chance at pulling that off.
One of those schools is LSU who is entering the 2025 season as the No. 9 team in the country.
The Tigers have fallen short of reaching their goals every season under head coach Brian Kelly, but he apparently is doing everything he can to accomplish their goals this season which includes spending $18 million in NIL on their entire team.
NEW: Brian Kelly comments on LSU's roster cost:
— On3 (@On3sports) August 22, 2025
"We're going to be just about $18 million."https://t.co/N8THOX31CO pic.twitter.com/ezTEeupSjr
LSU spending insane NIL money to bring a championship to Death Valley
It’s quite interesting to see Kelly publicly proclaim how much NIL money LSU’s team is making this season. Sure that can be seen as a recruiting tactic to try and attract future players to their program, but this is something Kirby Smart and Georgia would never do.
Smart would never announce to the world how much NIL money they’ve spent on their team. That would completely go against his mantra of relationships over transactions, and so far that mindset has worked out extremely well for Georgia during Smart’s tenure.
LSU and Kelly however are in win now mode. The fans and boosters at LSU are becoming increasingly impatient with Kelly, and if things don’t work out this season Kelly could be the next head coach in the SEC to be fired. So this is likely why LSU chose to spend so much NIL money on their team this season to give Kelly one final chance to prove his worth.
Time will tell if this decision works out for LSU or not, but Ohio State did win a National Championship last season by spending $20 million, so anything is possible.