NCAA WOMEN’S TOURNAMENT San Diego St. at LSU l 9:15 p.m. l ESPN 1C THE
ACADIANA
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T H E A C A D I A N A A D V O C AT E.C O M
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S at u r d ay, M a r c h 22, 2025
One Acadiana nets $1M investment
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Landry pushing tax overhaul amendment Measure is one of four on the March 29 ballot
BY TYLER BRIDGES Staff writer
STAFF PHOTO By ADAM DAIGLE
Ileana Ledet, chief economic competitiveness officer with Louisiana Economic Development, speaks during Wednesday’s news conference.
New Iberia industrial park to increase its size BY ADAM DAIGLE
tional 32 acres at Progress Point Business Park, pushing its total acreage to 85. The business park, located near the A $1 million investment into an in- corner of U.S. 90 and Jefferson Island dustrial park in Iberia Parish will sig- Road, already has commitments from nificantly increase its size and make it the University of Louisiana at Lafayette more attractive to companies looking to for its Iberia BioInnovation Accelerator at the park’s northern corner. relocate there. It could be a destination for pharmaOne Acadiana officials, along with elected officials and others from Ibe- ceutical companies or other advanced ria Parish, announced the investment manufacturing companies, said Mike Wednesday through the state’s Louisiana ä See INVESTMENT, page 5A Competes program to purchase an addiAcadiana business editor
New Iberia 3112
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ä See LANDRY, page 4A
Athletes at smaller schools benefiting from NIL deals BY ELLA ARMSTRONG, CAROLINE BURK, TY CAZEAUX and CHRISTIAN GLADNEY
LSU Manship School News Service
BY COURTNEY PEDERSEN Staff writer
ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO By STEVEN SENNE
McNeese State forward Christian Shumate celebrates during the Cowboys’ win over Clemson in the first round of the NCAA basketball tournament on ä See MCNEESE, page 4A Thursday.
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Lake Charles overjoyed with McNeese State’s historic basketball win
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‘Take it all the way’ For the McNeese State University men’s basketball team, it’s a memorable season of firsts. The Cowboys made it to the NCAA Tournament two years in a row. The team has its now-famous student manager Amir Khan, the first team manager in college sports to score an NIL deal. And the most exciting of all, the team made many college basketball fans outside Lake Charles believers in the Cowboys, by making it to the second round of the NCAA tournament. There’s no more McNeese who? The No. 12 seed McNeese Cowboys stunned No. 5 seed Clemson Tigers 69-67 in a thrilling
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Gov. Jeff Landry is crisscrossing Louisiana, running an advertising campaign and appearing on talk radio shows to get voters to approve the next big item on his agenda: a tax overhaul on the March 29 statewide ballot known as Amendment 2. At the governor’s behest during a special session in November, the Legislature reduced income taxes, raised the sales tax, abolished a tax on big businesses known as the corporate franchise tax, imposed a tax on digital goods and lowered taxpayer subsidies for film producers and developers of historic “Amendment buildings. 2 will set Those changes are now Louisiana on state law. a course to But Landry and lawmakers want to make a host of other create more changes to the tax section of jobs, grow the the state constitution that reeconomy and quires a vote of the people. put more money “Amendment 2 will set Louisiana on a course to cre- in the pockets ate more jobs, grow the econ- of hardworking omy and put more money in Louisianans, the pockets of hardworking teachers and Louisianans, teachers and our senior our senior citizens,” Landry citizens.” wrote in a column published in the Ouachita Citizen on GOV. JEFF LANDRy Wednesday. Amendment 2 has the support of several prominent advocacy groups, including the Louisiana Federation of Teachers, the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, Americans for Prosperity and the Pelican Institute for Public Policy, among other groups. Groups on both the left and the right are mounting a grassroots campaign against Amendment 2 for divergent reasons. Those on the left say it would lead to spending
Bailey Tillman began her freshman year at McNeese State University in 2021 after new NCAA rules allowed college athletes to start making money. Attending a small school in a lesser-known conference, the volleyball player was not sure if local businesses would want to use her name or image in ads and other promotional activity — and national connections seemed impossible. But by reaching out to companies on her own, she was able to secure several so-called name, image and likeness, or NIL, deals. She earned $100 writing reviews for Twanie’s Terrific Treats, a cookie store in Lake Charles. And Avoli, a women’s volleyball brand, sends her products in exchange for Tillman posting videos on Instagram of her taking them out of the box. Now a senior, Tillman is one of
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50 student-athletes picked by the NCAA and Meta — the parent company of Facebook and Instagram — for an internship that could help her maximize NIL prospects and build new relationships with social media experts. “Just go after what you want, and reach for the stars,” Tillman said. “The worst thing people can say is no.” Before 2021, athletes could not take money or receive special promotions from schools or boosters recruiting them. The name, image and likeness rules were introduced to help student-athletes profit from their hard work on and off the court. NIL is now a billion-dollar marketplace, and athletes at smaller universities are still figuring out how to get in on the game while LSU and other major sports schools are providing unprecedented financial opportunities for athletes.
ä See ATHLETES, page 5A
100TH yEAR, NO. 265