Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wrote an op-ed in 2025 arguing for change to fix a “broken” college athletics system, in which many universities had “unduly spent” on coaches and their respective staffs. A few months later, the LSU Tigers have now spent nearly a quarter of a billion on coaching changes.
According to Pete Nacos of On3.com, LSU has committed more than $200 million to hire football coach Lane Kiffin, men’s basketball coach Will Wade and their respective coaching staffs.
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As of October 2025, the Tigers’ athletic department has fired head football coach Brian Kelly and recently parted ways with Matt McMahon. The school immediately began searching for his replacement, poaching Kiffin from the Ole Miss Rebels and bringing Wade back to Louisiana.
Settlement offers with Kelly went nowhere, resulting in the former Tigers head coach now set to receive a total of $54 million from the program. Firing McMahon, who had three years left on his contract, would have cost the school an additional $8 million.
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Under new athletic director Verge Osberry, the public university is spending at a rate we’ve never seen from any school. Kiffin received a seven-year, $91 million contract, plus LSU paid the College Football Playoff bonuses he earned while the Rebels advanced without him. The Tigers have one of the largest and most expensive coaching staffs in college football, with a budget of zero and $40 million spent in the transfer portal.
LSU also paid $7 million to acquire Kiffin ($3 million) and Wade ($4 million) from their previous programs. Wade’s new deal, worth $30 million over seven years, is one of the largest contracts in college basketball and he is reportedly expected to have a $12 million roster budget for the men’s basketball team next season.
Not surprisingly, Gov. Landry fully supported Wade’s appointment, just months after he had lamented how much college athletics were costing universities. Apparently, a quarter-billion dollar overhaul of just two men’s college teams doesn’t count as much spending in the eyes of Louisiana’s governor.
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