Jul 16, 2025; Atlanta, GA, USA; LSU Tigers head coach Brian Kelly talks to the media during SEC Media Day at Omni Atlanta Hotel. Mandatory Credit: Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images Jordan Godfree-Imagn Images

Brian Kelly Reveals How Much LSU Football Spent on the Tigers 2025 Roster

Originally posted on LSU Tigers on SI | By Zack Nagy | Last updated Aug 22, 2025 9:00 AM ET

Brian Kelly and the LSU Tigers reconstructed the roster in Baton Rouge this offseason with the program hitting the NCAA Transfer Portal with force.

After utilizing the winter and spring windows of the portal, the Tigers added 18 newcomers via the free agent market.

LSU's Transf er Portal haul comes in as the No. 2 ranked class in America with the 2025 roster loaded, but just how much will it cost the program?

During Kelly's first radio show of the year on Thursday, he revealed that the roster is “going to be just about $18 million” for the upcoming season.

LSU's shot-caller dove into the differences between the NFL and college football with the "big money" clearly coming in the big leagues.

“Look, the NFL is $280 million a year in salary cap. We’re going to be just about $18 million,” Kelly said. “There’s a big difference between $280 million and $18 million.

"So if you can’t see the difference between the two, then you’re not really understanding that what you want to develop your son to be is the best version of himself so he can get the big money in three years.

“It’s starting to resonate back to that. Be competitive with other offers that they may get, but at the end of the day, it’s still about showing them that if you come to LSU, we’re going to develop you in all facets. So when you leave here, not only are you a better player, you’re a better man, you’re a better person and you can go into an NFL locker room. … The NFL knows that.

"They know that if they go through our program here, not only are they really good players, but they’re prepared for that next step. And that next step is really important because they’re going to pay them a lot more money than we were paying them.”

LSU General Manager Austin Thomas has spearheaded the program's new approach from a financial perspective with Kelly diving into where the Tigers stand.

The NIL Approach: LSU's Early Plan

“I’ll go back to that, we had a plan that I think was advanced for everybody else and that was, we were going to front-load a lot of our players prior to revenue-sharing,” Kelly said. “We wouldn’t be in a position where we were, when we got to revenue-sharing, we couldn’t compete.

"A lot of this was front-loaded contractually where our players were able to – and for us - we were able to get to them before revenue-sharing, and then use revenue-sharing to kind of put them over the top.

“So pulling from both of those resources really allowed us, from a contractual standpoint, to get a little bit of a jump on the crowd, if you will, because everybody now sees that plan and will be using it. But it gave us a real boomerang effect in terms of recruiting and it helped us with our freshman recruiting, as well.”