BYU guard Richie Saunders, whose great-grandfather helped invent the Tater Tot, has signed an NIL deal with Ore-Ida.

DENVER — Only in America, and only during the NCAA Tournament, can you find this kind of a story.

A few weeks ago it was discovered that BYU junior guard Richie Saunders had a famous relative: Ore-Ida Potatoes co-founder F. “Nephi” Griggs, his great-grandfather who appears to have invented the Tater Tot, the daring man’s option instead of French fries and Napoleon Dynamite’s favorite treat.

Ore-Ida put out a press release Thursday morning as BYU prepared for its first-round NCAA Tournament game against VCU announcing a NIL deal between the company and Saunders, who they dubbed the “Tater Tot Heir.”

For each game BYU wins in the tournament, Ore-Ida will give away free Tater Tots nationwide. Once the final horn sounds on a Cougar victory, the “Tot Clock” will officially start and runs for 30 minutes, during which fans can click on the Ore-Ida Instagram bio to claim free golden delicious Tater Tots.

During Tuesday’s news conference at Ball Arena, Saunders was asked about his connection to Tater Tots.

“It’s hilarious,” he said. “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. We’ve had a lot of laughs just in our house and had a lot of Tater Tots.”

Here is the news release from Ore-Ida:

“The Tot King has officially arrived, just in time for March Madness…

ICYMI: Last week, a shocking fact took the world by storm… BYU Cougar forward Richie Saunders is the great-grandson of Ore-Ida founder and the inventor of the Tater Tot, F. ‘Nephi’ Griggs. That’s right, Richie isn’t just a rising basketball star, he’s the Tater Tot Heir (that’s nep(t)otism for ya!).

Now, less than one week later, Ore-Ida is officially signing Richie to a formal NIL deal ahead of BYU’s much anticipated March Madness debut tonight – 70 years after his great-grandfather founded the brand and invented one of the world’s most beloved fried potato varieties.

And while fans may be divided on which team is leading their bracket, one thing is absolutely true. They can all agree they love crispy and delicious tater tots…

For each game BYU wins in the tournament, Ore-Ida will give away FREE TATER TOTS NATIONWIDE immediately following the game.

At the sound of tonight’s final buzzer, if BYU wins, the ‘TOT Clock’ will officially start and run for 30-minutes. Fans simply need to click the link in Ore-Ida’s Instagram bio to claim their free tots!

To celebrate Heir Richie, Ore-Ida and Richie created a new take on the classic photo of MJ during his rookie year with Nike – shoes, basketball and all. With one must-have addition: Ore-Ida Tater Tots.

Fans can tune in Thursday at 2:05 PM MT at Ball Arena in Denver to see if the Tot King continues his reign.”