LSU has never been shy about living at the center of college sports, and in the current NIL era that spotlight is brighter than ever. The football budget is projected to hover near $50 million in 2026, and the average take-home pay for a student-athlete under the south goalposts this fall is approaching one half million dollars. That number may shock some fans, but it sits at less than four percent of what LSU is paying Brian Kelly not to coach there for the next six years.
The money trail does not stop there. Ed Orgeron was given a $17 million parting gift not to patrol the Tigers’ sideline in 2022, and now he is back on staff at Death Valley four years later for $100,000. In a college sports world this tangled, the old lines between loyalty, movement and compensation are long gone.
That is why the transfer portal debate feels so familiar. Former LSU recruit T.J.
Finley has become the poster guy for unlimited movement, bouncing from LSU to Auburn in 2021 and 2022, then to Texas State in 2023, Western Kentucky in 2024, Tulane and Georgia State in 2025, and finally Incarnate Word. The argument here is simple: one transfer without penalty makes sense, and a second move should bring a year on the sidelines.
But if players are going to be held to that standard, head coaches should be treated the same way when they leave one school for another.
Under that idea, Nick Saban would have been fine. He left Toledo for the Cleveland Browns, then moved to Michigan State, spent five seasons there, and later arrived at LSU.
His next college jump, from the Miami Dolphins to Alabama after two seasons, would also fit because it was not a direct LSU-to-Alabama move. Lane Kiffin, though, would not.
After leaving Tennessee for USC and later being fired, he used his one free move when he went from Florida Atlantic to Ole Miss in 2020. Under the proposed rules, he would have to sit out this season at LSU and take over the Tigers in 2027.
The broader point is hard to miss: is it fair for players to be held to one standard and coaches another?
There is no complaint here about the market setting salaries for the people who work in college sports. The problem is the endless movement of stars from one school to another, which strips away any remaining sense of amateurism or allegiance to an alma mater.
If LSU wants to keep leaning into its place as a national power, the brass has already made the financial commitment. In the four most expensive sports, the Tigers pay their coaches at a level equal to or greater than any competitor in the country. Lane Kiffin, Will Wade, Kim Mulkey and Jay Johnson are all paid to win championships.
Mulkey already has the 2023 national title, and Johnson has won the College World Series twice. Even so, LSU still has a gap it cannot ignore: there has not been an SEC championship in any of the Big Four budget sports in seven years.
Johnson and Mulkey are still chasing their first league titles. The last SEC crown in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball or baseball came in 2019, when Ed Orgeron’s team beat Alabama 46-41 to reach the SEC Championship game and then crushed Georgia 37-10.
That same year also brought LSU’s last men’s basketball SEC title, with Will Wade’s scandal-plagued team winning the program’s first league crown in a decade. The women have not won the SEC since Van Winston Chancellor’s 14-0 team in 2008, capped by the 78-62 win at No.
1 Tennessee on Valentine’s Day. That victory remains one of the two best in program history, and this season marks 19 years since it happened.
In baseball, LSU’s last SEC title came in 2017 under Paul Mainieri, who also won in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
Conference supremacy is the standard that matters most. Sue Gunter was a respected coach who never reached it in 22 seasons at the PMAC, where her name is on the court. Any serious evaluation of greatness at LSU has to start there.
The school has already done a fine job honoring its football SEC champions on the west side of Tiger Stadium, where the teams from 1935, 1936, 1958, 1961, 1970, 1986, 1988, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2019 are recognized. A similar display outside the PMAC should be reserved for the league champions in men’s and women’s basketball as well.
The LSU men have 12 SEC titles in basketball, beginning with Harry Rabenhorst’s 1935 team, which also won the national championship. Rabenhorst added conference crowns in 1946, 1953 and 1954.
Dale Brown won four SEC titles in 1979, 1981, 1985 and 1991. John Brady won in 2000 and 2006, and Trent Johnson in 2009.
The women have three SEC titles, with Dana “Pokey” Chatman winning in 2005 and 2006, and Chancellor adding the 2008 crown. In football, LSU also has 12 SEC championships, while baseball has 17.
Skip Bertman delivered seven SEC titles in baseball along with five College World Series championships, winning the league in 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1997. Mainieri added four more in 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2017, and the Tigers also won the SEC diamond title in 1939, 1943, 1946, 1961, 1975 and 2003.
Ten LSU coaches in the Big 4 sports have won multiple SEC championships: Skip Bertman with seven in baseball, Paul Mainieri with four in baseball, Harry Rabenhorst with six total, Dale Brown with four in men’s basketball, John Brady with two in men’s basketball, Pokey Chatman with two in women’s basketball, Bernie Moore with two in football, Paul Dietzel with two in football, Nick Saban with two in football and Les Miles with two in football.
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LSU Suddenly Has One Massive Chance With The Nations Top Lineman
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Florida was once part of the conversation, but the picture has narrowed and LSU now looks like the most serious threat to pull Brewster away from Texas Tech. Even so, some around the recruiting world still expect him to stick with the Red Raiders, which leaves LSU in the familiar spot of chasing a major flip and waiting to see whether all of that contact eventually turns into a real opening. [Read more 🡒]