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BYU's Richie Saunders inks NIL deal with Ore-Ida Potatoes, will give away tater tots for each March Madness win

ns_headshot_2024-clearby: Nick Schultz03/20/25NickSchultz_7
BYU's Richie Saunders inks NIL deal with Ore-Ida
Courtesy of Ore-Ida

During last week’s Big 12 Tournament, the announcers revealed Richie Saunders’ great grandfather invented tater tots. F. “Nephi” Griggs also founded Ore-Ida Potatoes, and the BYU leading scorer capitalized in a big way ahead of the NCAA Tournament.

Saunders signed an NIL deal with Ore-Ida, the company announced ahead of Thursday’s March Madness opener. The agreement comes with a twist, though. For each BYU win in the NCAA Tournament, Saunders – the “Tater Tot Heir” – will give away free tater tots to fans. He also took part in a photo shoot recreating an iconic Michael Jordan picture while also holding a bag of Ore-Ida tater tots.

The first opportunity came after Thursday’s win over VCU. After the final buzzer sounded, a 30-minute timer started for fans to head to the Ore-Ida Instagram page to claim their free tater tots. BYU will now advance to take on No. 3 seed Wisconsin in the second round on Saturday, which will provide another opportunity for the giveaway.

Ahead of the first-round matchup, Saunders confirmed his great-grandfather founded Ore-Ida. Although he didn’t quite know how it got around social media so fast, he said his family got a good laugh out of it – and, of course, ate some tater tots.

“It’s hilarious,” Saunders said Wednesday. “I don’t know where that came out of. It came out of nowhere. My great grandpa founded Ore-Ida, which founded the tater tot. I don’t even know how it got started. … I don’t know where it came out, but we’ve had a lot of laughs just in our house and had a lot of tater tots.”

Saunders entered the NCAA Tournament averaging 16 points to lead BYU to a No. 6 seed in the bracket. In Thursday’s victory over VCU, he led the way with 16 points and three rebounds as the Cougars came away with the 80-71 victory. It marks the program’s first March Madness victory since 2012.

Richie Saunders cemented himself as a starter at BYU this season after mostly appearing off the bench under Mark Pope a year ago. He took a big leap forward in 2024-25 and has now helped the Cougars make it to the Round of 32 in the NCAA Tournament in Kevin Young’s first season as head coach. They will take on Wisconsin in Denver on Saturday. The tip-off time had not yet been announced at the time of publication.