By JIM ENGSTER, President, Tiger Rag Magazine
LSU is frequently a pacesetter for the SEC and the nation. The Ole War Skule not surprisingly is positioned at the epicenter of the debate of the new and “improved” landscape for college sports factories. Imperial coaches on campus are ranked in the top one-tenth of one percent in salary for Louisiana workers, and LSU’s NIL budget hovers close to $50 million for football in 2026.
Nostalgic yearning for the good ole days of players receiving books, board and tuition and payments from benevolent boosters under the table has spurred a state of dismay. Many fans are incensed with the average take home pay for a student-athlete running under the south goalposts this fall approaching one half million dollars.
The figure is stunning, but it is under four percent of the amount LSU is rewarding Brian Kelly not to coach here for the next six years. The environment is so convoluted that Ed Orgeron was sent away with a $17 million gift not to patrol the sidelines for the Tigers in 2022. Now he is receiving $100,000 to return to the staff at Death Valley four years later.
On the players’ side, former Tiger recruit T.J. Finley is the poster guy for unlimited transfers. The quarterback from Ponchatoula who started at LSU as a freshman for Coach O. migrated to Auburn in 2021 and 2022, to Texas State in 2023, to Western Kentucky in 2024, to Tulane and Georgia State in 2025 and then to Incarnate Word.
It is reasonable to allow one transfer with no action and to require a year on the sidelines for subsequent transfers. But any adjustment to the portal should also apply to head coaches who leave a second school to pursue success at another university.
Nick Saban would have been okay under this system because he left as head man at Toledo to become defensive coordinator for the Cleveland Browns. He then migrated to Michigan State, led the Spartans for five seasons before arriving at LSU. The next college move to Alabama from the Miami Dolphins after two seasons would also be permitted because there was no direct defection from LSU to Alabama.
Lane Kiffin is a different story. He left Tennessee to go to USC where he was fired in a decision beyond his control. His one free move was taken when he departed Florida Atlantic for Ole Miss in 2020. Thus, Kiffin would need to sit out this season at LSU and become leader of the Tigers in 2027 under the same prospective rules for head coaches and their recruits.
Is it fair for players to be held to one standard and coaches another?
This observer has no quarrel with the market dictating salaries for those who participate in college sports. Yet it is a travesty to sanction unlimited movement of the game’s stars from one university to another. Any semblance of amateurism and allegiance to an alma mater is lost in the process.
LSU Brass Should Accent SEC Supremacy
LSU compensates its coaches in the four most expensive sports at a level equal to or greater than any competitor in the country. Lane Kiffin, Will Wade, Kim Mulkey and Jay Johnson are paid handsomely to win championships.
Mulkey has the 2023 national crown on her mantel while Johnson has twice captured the College World Series title. There remains a void because the Tigers have not collected the SEC championship in any of the Big Four budget sports in seven years. Johnson and Mulkey are in pursuit of their first league championships. The last SEC title won by a coach in football, men’s basketball, women’s basketball or baseball was in 2019. That was the year of the magical run for Ed Orgeron’s Bengals, who beat Alabama 46-41 for the right to play in the SEC Championship game, where LSU destroyed Georgia 37-10.
The last time LSU won SEC honors in men’s basketball was also in 2019 when Wade’s scandal plagued operation performed brilliantly to win the first LSU men’s crown in a decade.
The LSU women have not won the SEC title since Van Winston Chancellor posted a 14-0 league record in 2008. This was accomplished when the Lady Tigers beat No. 1 Tennessee 78-62 at Knoxville on Valentine’s Day of 2008 in one of the top two all-time victories for the program. This season marks 19 years since that epic achievement.
LSU baseball has not won the SEC since Paul Mainieri collected his fourth regular season conference crown in 2017. He also won in 2009, 2012 and 2015.
The league pinnacle is elusive. Sue Gunter was a fine coach who never reached it in 22 seasons at the PMAC where her name is etched into the court. Any assessment of coaching greatness at LSU should start with conference supremacy.
The LSU brass has provided a splendid salute to the LSU football champions in the conference on the west side of Tiger Stadium. The teams from 1935, 1936, 1958, 1961, 1970, 1986, 1988, 2001, 2003, 2007, 2011 and 2019 are heralded in grand fashion.
A similar presentation outside the PMAC should accompany the league basketball kings and queens for men and women. The LSU men won the SEC and national championships in 1935 under Harry Rabenhorst, who also directed his teams to conference glory in 1946, 1953 and 1954. Dale Brown was SEC champ in 1979, 1981, 1985 and 1991. John Brady won in 2000 and 2006, and Trent Johnson in 2009.
LSU boasts 12 SEC titles in both football and men’s basketball. In addition to Chancellor’s triumph in 2008, Dana “Pokey” Chatman won the SEC in 2005 and 2006 to account for three SEC Women’s Basketball regular season titles.
Skip Bertman won five CWS tournaments for national supremacy and added seven SEC titles in 1986, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996 and 1997. Paul Mainieri accomplished the feat in to rule the league in 2009, 2012, 2015 and 2017. The Bengals also prevailed on the SEC diamond in 1939, 1943, 1946, 1961, 1975 and 2003 for a total of 17 league titles.
A total of 10 LSU Coaches in the Big 4 sports have won multiple SEC championships:
LSU Coach/Multiple SEC Crowns
Skip Bertman 7 in Baseball
Paul Mainieri 4 in Baseball
Harry Rabenhorst 6 (4 in Men’s Basketball, 2 in Baseball)
Dale Brown 4 in Men’s Basketball
John Brady 2 in Men’s Basketball
Pokey Chatman 2 in Women’s Basketball
Bernie Moore 2 in Football
Paul Dietzel 2 in Football
Nick Saban 2 in Football
Les Miles 2 in Football
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