To say the last few weeks in Baton Rouge have been chaotic would be an understatement. It all started when LSU was blown out by Texas A&M by a score of 49-25 in Death Valley. The school fired Brian Kelly the next day, which led to Louisiana governor Jeff Landry directly calling out athletic director Scott Woodward, who has since parted ways with the university.
5-star LSU football commit once again sends message that he won't flip
LSU then brought in Wade Rousse from McNeese to be the next university president. Rousee promptly promoted interim AD Verge Ausberry to the full-time position. Those moves hoped to bring some calmness to the situation surrounding the LSU Football program. However, the breakup between Brian Kelly and LSU has reached new levels of insanity that are straight out of a soap opera.
Brian Kelly sues LSU over buyout agreement
Along with figuring out who his replacement is going to be, Brian Kelly's buyout of $53.3 million has been the main point of focus in Baton Rouge over the last few weeks. Initially, it seemed that Kelly was open to a settlement that would pay him less than the full $53.3 million. However, it now appears that is not the case.
ESPN is now reporting that Kelly has filed a lawsuit against LSU saying that the school never "formally terminated" Kelly, and are now seeking to fire him for cause.
In a legal filing obtained by ESPN, Brian Kelly’s lawyers state that LSU is saying it never “formally terminated” Kelly and are now seeking to fire him “for cause” which could impact his near $54 million buyout.
— Dan Wetzel (@DanWetzel) November 11, 2025
Kelly is seeking a declaratory judgement that LSU did fire him and…
According to ESPN, on a phone call between Kelly's representatives and LSU representatives, LSU took the position that Kelly hadn't been fully terminated and that the school was now looking to fire him for cause.
"LSU's representatives had a call with Coach Kelly's representatives, where LSU took the position that Coach Kelly had not been formally terminated and informed Coach Kelly's representatives, for the very first time, that LSU believed grounds for termination for cause existed."ESPN report
LSU being able to fire Kelly "for cause" would give LSU an out in avoiding paying Kelly the full $53.3 million buyout. However, LSU hasn't specificed what "for cause" would be in this case. With that in mind, it woldn't be surprising to see this fiasco to continue playing out over the next several weeks.
With the whole country watching every development, this situation continues to get worse and worse for LSU. The past two weeks have been a roller coaster with plenty of moving pieces and power dynamics at play.
Not only does it look bad for LSU as a whole, but potential coaching candidates could be deterred by the mess. When hiring a big-name coach, it's important to display stability. However, LSU has shown the exact opposite.