LSU has one of the biggest NIL markets in the SEC when it comes to football, baseball and basketball. With the movement in the transfer portal for LSU softball, fans are speculating that it may have something to do with the funds the Tigers’ softball team is receiving after yet another player enters the portal.
On Wednesday, LSU infielder Kylee Edwards took to X, formerly Twitter, to announce that she would be leaving the Bayou. The former Tiger shortstop posted on social media that she’s entering the portal after much thought and consideration.
This post came as a shock to many LSU fans, as she posted weeks prior that coming to LSU was the best decision she’d ever made. This post has since been removed from her X profile.
LSU softball and volleyball news outlet Daily LSU News took to X to suggest that two things could be true at once: Edwards could have been the happiest she’d ever been, but she could also have gotten an offer that was too good to pass up.
The point this post makes has set LSU softball apart from other schools, and it may have to do with the practice of NILSU.
NILSU associate athletic director Taylor Jacobs has reiterated to the Reveille that the most important part of an athlete utilizing their NIL opportunities is creating a personal brand if they choose to do so.
The approach to NIL has put LSU on top in other sports as well. Jacobs and her team provide resources that help athletes capitalize on their marketability.
“The reality is businesses are still looking for that return on investment for them, and they are still really making sure that whoever they do work with will be, one, a good representation of their brand, and two, somebody that would be valuable for them to actually utilize in marketing services,” Jacobs told the Reveille in the fall.
However, there is one thing the NCAA softball world is experiencing that other sports aren’t: the approach Texas Tech softball has been taking to recruiting from the portal.
Texas Tech head coach Gerry Glasco has built a team of pure talent by buying athletes from other teams. LSU ace pitcher Jayden Heavener just announced she will be joining the Red Raiders for the 2027 season, and many fans are speculating that Edwards will follow suit after another star shortstop committed to Texas over Texas Tech on Tuesday.
Buying teams and losing the loyalty of players will hurt LSU softball right now, but it can also harm the growth of softball as a whole in the long run.
The fastest growing pro softball league in the U.S., the AUSL, is in its second season, and NIL money has already caused some hesitation from one of the star NCAA athletes in signing with the league.
Texas Tech bought star pitcher NiJaree Canady from Stanford for $1 million in the hopes of bringing home a national title. When she graduated, she was drafted to the Texas Volts but was the last player in the league to sign her contract.
Canady’s agent, Lindsay Colas, said they were waiting to come to a “fair and equitable agreement.”
Softball is one of the fastest-growing women’s sports, and if fans want to see the professional league grow, then athletes who are after the money will be the cause of the collapse.
If more players continue to play out their eligibility and hope to make the same money in a league that is still establishing itself, the league won’t last, and the growth the sport has seen won’t either.
It all starts now with one loyal LSU softball player entering the portal after saying she was happy in Baton Rouge, and in a few years it could be the AUSL dissolving just as its becoming its most popular.
