DJ Pickett Keeps No. 5 Despite Daniels' LSU NIL Dispute
SkimNews Take
The NIL framework was designed for current athletes monetizing their own likeness, but this dispute extends those claims into retrospective territory—former players asserting commercial rights to identifiers like jersey numbers that schools routinely reassign.
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- DJ Pickett told reporters Thursday he has no plans to change out of No. 5, saying he has 'worn the number my whole life, since I was 4 years old' and that LSU promised it to him.
- Jayden Daniels' attorney sent an Aug. 5 letter to LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry informing the school it can no longer use Daniels' name, image and likeness — a copy of which was obtained by ESPN on Wednesday.
- Pickett, a sophomore who was a freshman All-American in 2025 with a team-leading three interceptions and 37 tackles in 524 defensive snaps, switched from No. 3 to No. 5 when LSU opened preseason practice last week under new coach Lane Kiffin.
- Kiffin said No. 5 was promised to Pickett during his December 2024 recruitment by former coach Brian Kelly, who told ESPN he withheld the number because Daniels 'wasn't on board' — Kelly was fired Oct. 26, 2025, after going 34-14 in four seasons.
- Joe Burrow said Thursday night after Cincinnati's preseason opener that he'd been told his No. 9 would not be worn again, the same informal standard Kelly cited for Daniels — though LSU has never formally retired either jersey, with only Billy Cannon's No. 20 off-limits under university policy.
- Damien Pickett, DJ's father, told The Advocate the family would have 'moved forward' had LSU said during recruitment that No. 5 was contingent on Daniels' blessing and directed his anger at Kelly's staff rather than Kiffin.
- Daniels posted to Instagram that he is 'locked in on training camp' and hopes the dispute with LSU 'will get done privately,' while his spokesperson said the family is 'deeply disappointed.'
Why it matters: Daniels' escalation to a formal NIL cease-and-desist over a jersey number — rather than a quiet handshake arrangement — exposes how informal LSU's Heisman-number tradition actually is: the school has only one officially retired football jersey (Cannon's No. 20), so Pickett's right to No. 5 rests entirely on a verbal recruiting promise that Kiffin says Kelly made and never honored. The dispute puts LSU's compliance office and Pickett's career year in the crossfire of a fight between two former Tigers.
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