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In Follow The Money, Ben Portnoy will bring you into a weekly deep dive into the business of college sports.
Before we jump in, I thought it would be helpful to briefly explain what we’re doing here.
College sports have never experienced a more topsy-turvy era. Longtime traditions and the increased need for commercialization are clashing at every turn. Quarterbacks are signing multi-million dollar deals. Television contracts are popular fodder for fan bases. Even jersey patch deals are becoming mainstream.
Each week we’ll capture some of the angst and inherent fluidity of the ecosystem as we look at the off-the-field storylines that are shaping what you’re seeing on Saturdays.
With that, let’s get into it.
The Main Event: SEC, LSU And Potential Independence
Lane Kiffin is already at the center of college football’s latest controversy in his first season at LSU. (Photo by Ella Hall/LSU Athletics/University Images via Getty Images)
There is no place quite like Baton Rouge.
This is a city where football is king, where politics and the Tigers intertwine like PB&J and where power struggles and backroom dealings are the currency of the day.
So what better place to begin the 2026 football season than a Louisiana courtroom?
For those who haven’t spent the last two weeks locked into PACER (Public Access to Court Electronic Records) tracking court cases, let’s rehash what’s happening down on the bayou:
- June 23 — The NCAA institutes its new age-based eligibility model that will give athletes five years of eligibility and streamline the processes around waivers and other carve-outs. It begins with the high school class of 2023.
- Aug. 19 — Lawyers representing 32 athletes file a claim in Louisiana that the new NCAA rules shouldn’t apply to them as class of 2022 athletes and thus allow them a fifth year of eligibility
- Aug. 20 — A Louisiana judge grants a TRO allowing Dae’Quan Wright and Zxavian Harris — who played in training camp with the Browns and Saints, respectively — among others, to enter the transfer portal and join their former head coach, Lane Kiffin, at LSU
- Aug. 24 — A separate Louisiana judge grants former Utah Jazz player RJ Luis an injunction, paving the way for him to return to school and join the LSU basketball team.
- Aug. 30 — The SEC issues a statement that it will comply with the court order, though sources suggest it is weighing significant penalties, including as severe as booting the Tigers from the league should they play former pro players.
Yeah, it’s a lot.
That said, the LSU situation got me thinking: What if the SEC really did kick the Tigers from the league? And, if it did, what kind of brand value or sponsorship dollars might LSU command on the open market as an independent?
“A conference like the SEC is just bigger than a single school,” Rob Temple, CEO of Pivotal Sports & Entertainment, told me. “A team moving out of it may have a change or an impact on its sponsors tied to the school or whatever, but the big money around advertising and distribution of content, all that kind of flows to another place.
“But the idea of private equity coming into college sports — just like Americans have gone and become owners in the EPL — if that dynamic ever came into college sports, and you got into valuations of franchises, that’s different. That’s a huge hypothetical.”
Tamarcus Cooley intercepts the ball during 2026 spring practice in Baton Rouge. (Photo by Ella Hall/University Images via Getty Images}
Independence isn’t anything new in college sports. Notre Dame is the poster child, but others have played this game — BYU in the 2010s and Miami in the 1980s immediately come to mind. Pulling it off these days, however, is increasingly complicated.
For one, scheduling is its own challenge. Independent UConn and its administrators have long addressed the issues this poses in trying to piece together a coherent ledger.
There’s also a matter of whether LSU would subsequently control its own media rights or whether it’d remain tied to the SEC’s ongoing deal with ESPN. The rights would likely revert to the school, but that’s no guarantee — see Clemson and Florida State’s lawsuits against the ACC in recent years for further proof.
Media rights control aside, the most obvious parallel in all of this is Notre Dame, which brings home an annual payout that neighbors the SEC and Big Ten’s media rights distributions in the $75 million range through its NBC deal and arrangement with the ACC.
Could LSU fetch that on the open market? That’s less clear.
“It’s no knock on LSU; it’s just Notre Dame has been Notre Dame, and they’ve operated independently for so long that to assume LSU would immediately have that same level of independent value is probably unlikely,” one media rights consultant told me. “Do they have a good shot of it? Sure, perhaps in the Southwest, but I think the point is, I don’t know if they have that same level of national recognition and standing to be considered independent.”
Lane Kiffin and LSU are set to welcome 44 incoming transfers this season, including former five-star and Colorado standout Jordan Seaton. (Photo by Gus Stark/LSU/University Images via Getty Images)
There’s also the matter of the school’s broader business value.
The Athletic conducted a study in July that suggested LSU would be the 11th-most valuable program in the country at around $1.3 billion.
That shouldn’t come as a huge surprise.
LSU athletics has reported north of $120 million in revenue every year since 2015 and almost $200 million or more since 2022, per the Knight-Newhouse College Athletics Database. It also reported at least $60 million in donor contributions annually since 2022, while corporate sponsorship and licensing dollars have jumped from $3.3 million in 2022 to $5 million in 2025.
Pro sports exist in Louisiana, but it’s fall Saturdays at Tiger Stadium that capture the consciousness of the state in a way the Saints and Pelicans can’t quite muster — and why a pending game of chicken between LSU and the SEC has everyone paying attention.
“The SEC and Commissioner Sankey are prepared to contest the allegations in the plaintiffs’ petition at Thursday morning’s hearing,” the league wrote in a statement released on Sunday night, “and defend the SEC’s rights as a voluntary association to fulfill its mission to its member institutions.”
Best Quote I Saw This Week
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has taken an active interest in the success of LSU football over the years. (Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call)
“This whole thing is ridiculous. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.” — Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry in a statement to Front Office Sports on the ongoing eligibility fight in the state.
Best Deal I Saw This Week
Duke partnered with Edward Jones, allowing the financial services firm to place branding on the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium. (Photo courtesy of Duke Athletics)
Duke announced a five-year agreement with Edward Jones, which, at face-value, isn’t going to force eyebrows to raise.
That the Blue Devils brass is allowing the company to place its branding on the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium, however, is noteworthy.
“It’s balancing our needs with the history and tradition, evolving with the current landscape and figuring out what is right to do here,” Duke athletics director Nina King told me by phone. “I’m just really excited by how this looks. It’s not like, ‘Oh my goodness, we turned into NASCAR.’”
Michigan added signage within the Big House for the first time in recent weeks. Now, Duke is following suit. Such is life in college sports these days.
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