The Complex Legacy of LSU’s Livvy Dunne: Icon or Enigma in College Sports?
It is a coincidence that on the same week the NCAA went to court to learn of its new world, a woman who changed so much of it will end her college career.
Everyone knows Livvy Dunne, and yet most have never seen her do a thing in competition. Because she’s a gymnast, and she didn’t do that much.
She will leave a legacy that has almost no impression on the mat, but changed all of college sports.
She showed what a young, pretty face combined with ambition, smarts, an iPhone, a TikTok account and the platform of a major college athletics department can potentially do to a bank account. She spawned 1 million imitators, made millions herself, and as much as anyone is why NIL exists.
She is both one of the best, and worst, developments for college, and high school, sports. She showed the world you really don’t have compete to be “great.”
The LSU gymnastics team is back in Fort Worth to defend its NCAA title at the national championships this weekend at Dickies Arena. The event started with the national semifinals on Thursday, April 17, and the finals are scheduled on Saturday, April 19th.
Dunne, 22, is easily the most well known and visible athlete present, and there’s a decent chance she will not compete. She suffered an avulsion fracture in her kneecap on March 6, and has not performed since.
She told People Magazine two weeks ago, “I’m doing everything I can to be able to. I’m not sure what the case will be, but I don’t think I’ll be able to tumble or do beam.” She didn’t rule out the bars.
Pretty sure People Magazine didn’t ask for the updates of any other competitor here in Fort Worth about their status for the championships.
If she was available, she may not be on the mat anyways. On LSU’s march to its NCAA title last season, Dunne did not compete in the regional finals, semifinals or finals. As a fourth-year senior last season, she competed in nine meets for LSU.
As a junior, she appeared in four. In her sophomore year, she was a regular contributor, the same as her freshman season when she earned All American honors in the uneven bars.
By the time she arrived to LSU, in 2020, she was already a bit banged up from her high school career; it’s a common pattern for high school athletes who are playing far too much and rack up injuries that no teen should be incurring.
She is a member of one the highest profile teams in her sport, a roster that is loaded with quality gymnasts who may have pushed her to the sideline.
Another athlete student with that type of stat sheet, on a loaded team, might be encouraged to enter the NCAA transfer portal, or to just end their career. Instead, LSU kept her on the team with the widest of arms. She is essentially a model, salesman and brand ambassador. For anything that wants to give her a lot of money.
Dunne has 8 million TikTok followers, and an additional 5 million on Instagram. She has 2.2 million subscribers on Snapchat.
The power of her reach is the college equivalent of a Kardashian. As an “influencer” she has almost no peer in college sports for product endorsement. Dunne attracts the ideal consumer: A young, impressionable mind as it forms consuming habits.
Who cares why she’s famous? People just know she’s famous.
She did something that really had not been done before, and is one of the most vocal critics of the potential house settlement with the NCAA, which is still on going.
This agreement would offer $2.8 billion to the student athletes who could not earn NIL money before the rules were changed in 2021, Dunne’s first year at LSU. She is one of the few who has objected to this proposed settlement.
“This settlement doesn’t come close to recognizing the value I lost,” she said on a Zoom call to the presiding judge in this case, Claudia Wilken of of the Northern District of California.
This tells you everything about the type of income Dunne generates.
Her presence is one of those good/bad trades in the evolution of college sports. It’s good that she has cashed in, and been allowed to take advantage of an opportunity that she helped to create for every NCAA athlete.
It’s bad because her visibility and “success” have almost zero to do the game, or competition.
Livvy Dunne’s athletic career will soon end, and even though she didn’t do a lot at LSU on the mat she did change all of college sports.
Women’s gymnastics championship schedule
DICKIES ARENA
National championship | April 19
- 4 p.m. | ABC
This story was originally published April 16, 2025 at 5:00 PM.
