LSU athletics projects $26 million deficit after $44 million shortfall in 2025-26

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Turns out money doesn’t actually grow on trees in Baton Rouge. Despite the football program’s high-roller status and spendthrift ways, LSU‘s entire athletic program remains in the red financially.

LSU president Wade Rousse reportedly informed the state’s Board of Regents that the school’s athletic department is projecting a $26 million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year, according to the Louisiana Illuminator‘s Piper Hutchinson. That news comes in the wake of the program’s $44 million shortfall for the 2025-26 fiscal year, LSU spokesperson Meg Sunstrom told the Illuminator.

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“The acute need is certainly athletics, so we’ve got to stop that bleeding first,” Rousse reportedly told the Illuminator. “But you know, I think what we’re building is scalable. And if we do it the right way, it could have a positive effect on revenue for the entire system.”

In fact, the LSU athletics department has far exceeded its annual budget by a combined $177.5 million over the past six years, Rousse reportedly told the Board of Regents during its annual budget meeting Tuesday, per Hutchinson. Rousse also revealed plans to publicly announce details about a potential new revenue-generation model involving private equity that was previously a topic of discussion during a private event at the Governor’s mansion in early August, according to Hutchinson. A formal announcement is currently pending a financial valuation of LSU’s brand, Rousse told the board.

“We want to make sure that our brand is valued the right way,” Rousse said, per Hutchinson. “At no point do we ever lose control of anything there.”

News of LSU’s financial issues comes at the same time as its Top 10-ranked football program is reportedly working with a $47-50 million roster budget that ranks fourth nationally, according to The Athletic, and is paying first-year head coach Lane Kiffin $13 million annually after signing the former Ole Miss coach to a seven-year, $91 million contract last December. That’s in addition to the $54 million buyout the program still owes former head coach Brian Kelly following his midseason firing last October.

Rousse and Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry reportedly held a closed-door meeting with many of the school’s top athletic donors back in early August to discuss a purported $100-plus million private equity deal that would be tied to future media rights, according to an Aug. 2 report from RedEyeBR.com‘s JR Ball. The proposed deal would reportedly transfer approximately 10% of the LSU football program’s value to a private equity firm “in exchange for an immediate cash infusion tied to the program’s media rights agreement” between the SEC and Disney, according to Ball.

LSU is also reportedly considering additional revenue moves that “could include selling targeted annual revenue streams — such as merchandising — to outside investors,” according to Ball, who added his source revealed the team’s ticket revenue is “off the table” due to potential “concerns that outside control could lead to escalating prices for fans.” 

First-year LSU athletic director Verge Ausberry recently brought up private equity among a list of potential challenges and changes facing college athletics’ ever-evolving landscape.

“There’s a lot of chatter and a lot of discussions going on about how we’re going to look by next year, the next two years, three years, how whole operation is going to look,”  Ausberry said during a July appearance on the In The Bayou podcast with LSU legend Tyrann Mathieu. “… I have a good president, President Rousse, who’s working with me on that, how we think it should look and what it should look like. … People talk about many things – collective bargaining, antitrust … private equity, restructuring of finances.

“All the conversations we’re having now. And everything is on the table. We’re just trying to put it together, how this thing is going to look in the future and what it’s going to look like.”

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