Report: LSU Tigers Spend Staggering Sum to Hire Lane Kiffin, Will Wade

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Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry wrote an op-ed in 2025 arguing for change to fix a “broken” college athletics system that saw numerous universities commit “unreasonable spending” on coaches and their respective staffs. A few months later, the LSU Tigers have now spent nearly a quarter-billion on coaching changes.

According to Pete Nakos 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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Since October 2025, the Tigers’ athletic department has fired head football coach Brian Kelly and most recently parted ways with Matt McMahon. The school quickly moved to find their replacements, 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 poised to receive $54 million total from the program. Firing McMahon, who had three years remaining on his contract, will cost the school another $8-plus million.

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Under new athletic director Verge Ausberry, the public university is spending at a rate we’ve never seen from any school. Kiffin landed a seven-year, $91 million contract, with LSU also paying the College Football Playoff bonuses he earned while the Rebels advanced without him. The Tigers also boast one of the largest and most expensive coaching staffs in college football, with an NIL budget to match and that came with $40 million spent in the transfer portal.

LSU also paid $7 million to buy out Kiffin ($3 million) and Wade ($4 million) from their previous gigs. Wade’s new deal, worth $30 million over seven years, is one of the biggest contracts in college basketball and he’s reportedly expected to have a $12 million roster budget for the men’s basketball team next season.

Unsurprisingly, Gov. Landry fully endorsed the hiring of Wade just months after he bemoaned how much college athletics are costing universities. Evidently, a quarter-billion-dollar overhaul of just two men’s college teams doesn’t count as overspending in the eyes of Louisiana’s governor.

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