NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court ruled Friday that the ex-wife of former LSU football coach Ed Orgeron is entitled to about half of the settlement he reached with the school when he was dismissed in 2021 — an amount exceeding $8 million.

A tentative agreement between LSU and Orgeron was dated Jan. 14, 2020 — a month and a half before Orgeron filed for divorce from his wife Kelly Orgeron. The question before the court turned on whether that agreement was binding on that date or on a later date, when the LSU board ratified it.

In a 5-2 decision (reached after three justices recused), the court said Kelly Orgeron was entitled to $8,134,500. The coach had received a settlement of nearly $17 million, but some of that was paid to the coach's agent.

The majority found that the tentative agreement labeled clearly as "binding."

Justice Jay B. McCallum disagreed, saying he could find no "manifest error" in a lower court's opinion that Orgeron alone was entitled to his settlement with LSU. McCallum said Orgeron's settlement money was "liquidated damages" and not "community property" under the law.

After winning the national championship just days earlier, LSU and Orgeron agreed to formalize a longterm contract that ultimately was executed April 23, 2020. The "binding term sheet" signed Jan. 14 of that year was prepared out of LSU's desire to retain Orgeron's services before other schools came looking, the court said.

Special Justice Joseph Bleich agreed with Kelly Orgeron, saying the coach's representative unfairly tried to change the date of the contract. 

"In this writer's opinion this was an audacious, nearly fraudulent attempt to move the effective contract date away from that which had been created and existed during the community property regime," Bleich wrote. He said the move emphasized that everyone knew the Jan. 14, 2020, contract was valid.

"Ed owed Kelly the highest duties as manager of their community assets," Bleich wrote. "Here (Orgeron, through his agent) indicated a gross lack of concern."