Former LSU head coach Brian Kelly has filed a lawsuit against LSU to force the university to pay the full $53 million worth of his buyout after being fired Oct. 26, according to a copy of the filing obtained by ESPN.
The lawsuit reportedly says that LSU informed Kelly that it has taken the position that he has not been “formally terminated,” and that they were going to argue that he was fired “for cause,” which means they don’t owe him the full number of his buyout.
Kelly’s lawyers are seeking “a declaratory judgment confirming that LSU’s termination of Coach Kelly is without cause and that Coach Kelly is entitled to receive the full liquidated damages provided for in (his contract),” according to ESPN.
A representative for the LSU athletic department told Front Office Sports the school did not have a comment at this time.
Kelly was fired in October after a sweeping loss to Texas A&M. He is owed a $53 million buyout, payable in equal monthly installments of about $800,000, per his contract. Though he does have a duty to mitigate and an offset clause, meaning that he’s required to look for another job, and that LSU will only owe him the difference between the buyout and his new salary.
However, the buyout is theoretically only owed if Kelly was fired “without cause.” The buyout is not owed if he was fired “for cause,” which does not include whether or not he coached a winning team. His contract details the definition of for cause, which includes things like being convicted of a crime, committing “serious misconduct,” or “failing promptly to report any such material or substantial violation by another person to the Director of Compliance.”
Upon firing Kelly, LSU said in a statement that it was working on a separation agreement—implying that Kelly might agree to take a smaller portion of his buyout in a lump sum rather than wait for the full payout through monthly installments. The school offered Kelly lump-sum payments of $25 million and $30 million, according to The Advocate, but he rejected them, saying he wanted his full buyout.
Now, he’s taken that fight to court.
