The inside story of how LSU football signed the No. 1 transfer portal class in the country

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The goal was to raise at least $13 million for LSU’s NIL collective, Bayou Traditions, with the intention of front-loading deals before the school expects to begin paying players this summer. Over the previous three years combined, the collective’s general counsel said it had spent $11 million on the roster, including $5.5 million last season.

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“We have a football team that now is poised to play with anybody in the SEC,” Kelly said. “We didn't before.”

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If the settlement takes effect, schools will be able to distribute up to $20.5 million in the 2025-26 academic year, creating a salary cap that increases annually based on rising revenues. Like other major programs, LSU plans to allocate $13.5 million to football, dividing the money between the 2025 and 2026 teams.

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LSU wanted to use the money in Bayou Traditions before deals would need to pass through a clearinghouse designed to judge fair market value. It plans to pay out $10 million in the first half of 2025, money that does not factor into the revenue sharing cap.

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A year ago, that was not the case. LSU signed nine transfers, giving it the No. 43 class in the country, according to 247Sports, and missed out on top defensive tackles. Kelly said it was a calculated decision not to sign a large transfer portal class because he thought young players needed to gain experience.

“We knew going into the season that our roster was not at the level that it needed to be, but we weren't ready to do the things necessary to address that,” Kelly said. “We were still a year away in terms of the development of our program. And so for us to go into the transfer portal would have been premature.”

Said Woodward: “We did not do as well as we should have in probably filling the needs that we needed to do from the portal, which other schools did better than we did. I think we clearly saw that and saw that deficiency and made up for it.”

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The night of Nov. 21, Carlos Spaht sat in a bank board meeting, listening to a presentation as his phone began to buzz. Spaht, the general counsel and former manager of LSU’s collective, got so many calls and text messages that he thought something had happened to a member of his family.

Underwood, the No. 1 overall recruit in the country, had flipped to Michigan. LSU’s offer would have made Underwood the highest-paid player on the team last year, but he reportedly received a lucrative NIL deal funded by the billionaire co-founder of Oracle, a multinational computer technology company.

“Everybody who has given more than $100,000 over the last three years called me within a 12-minute span is what it felt like,” Spaht said. Thomas acknowledged that losing Underwood resonated with donors, but he said it did not change LSU’s approach.

From Spaht’s point of view, the effect of Underwood’s decision on LSU donors “cannot be overstated.” He said some contributed to NIL for the first time, and LSU’s collective received several seven-figure donations in December.

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One of them, Rutland, had given smaller amounts to LSU’s NIL fund before and has donated to other projects. He thought about what could happen if LSU fell further behind. Though he doesn’t like the current set-up, he has seen losing eras. He gave a seven-figure donation, fearing how long it would take to return from irrelevancy.

“You just have to make the decision,” Rutland said. “Are you willing to help participate in a system that you don't agree with, that you think is flawed terribly but keeps you in the mix of a winning program while this all gets sorted out? That was it. I just thought coming back would be way too hard. It may take years and years and years.”

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As LSU worked on its class, Kelly referred to donors as “shareholders” in the process. He said they were allowed access he had never given in three decades of being a head coach. However, LSU had exceeded its $13 million fundraising goal, some of which was used on the 2024 team. Spaht said the majority of the money came from five to seven donors.

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