LSU boosts athletics spending as rest of campus subject to austerity measures 

by Piper Hutchinson, Louisiana Illuminator
September 5, 2025

The LSU Board of Supervisors voted Friday to dramatically increase the salaries of two top members of its athletics department while the rest of campus faces new austerity measures. 

The board unanimously voted to increase LSU baseball coach Jay Johnson’s salary from $1.67 million to $3.05 million, following his program’s second national championship in the three years he’s been in charge. His pay will increase by $100,000 annually through the end of his contract in 2032. 

Board members also unanimously approved the contract of Julie Cromer, LSU’s new executive deputy athletics director and chief operating officer. Her annual compensation package increases the university’s spending for the position more than $150,000 a year. 

The pay increases were awarded as every other department on campus began returning 2% of the budgets they were allocated July 1 back to the university. The recoupment is in response to President Donald Trump’s slashing of federal research funding, which has dramatically impacted higher education finances nationwide. 

LSU had previously announced its athletics department would not be subject to the new money-saving measures. 

During difficult budget times in the recent past, LSU’s athletics department has provided money to the university. 

After Gov. Bobby Jindal made drastic cuts in the state budget, LSU athletics began making annual transfers to the school. It received tens of millions of dollars from its sports programs from 2012-19, spanning Gov. John Bel Edwards’ first term, until athletics director Scott Woodward ended the practice shortly after he took the job. 

Woodward declined to take questions Friday from reporters after the board meeting. 

Increasing athletics spending while academic departments tighten their belts has the potential to increase friction between the two. In a new survey, professors in Louisiana and across the South lamented the outsized focus on collegiate sports as higher education institutions struggle with shrinking budgets, loss of research funding and political attacks. 

LSU Board chairman Scott Ballard said tension between athletics and academics has always been there and always will. College sports bring value to the university from a marketing perspective, he said. 

“God knows I don’t create the market in athletics,” Ballard said. “If I did, these salaries would be far lower, but I can’t do anything about it.”

LSU Board vice chairman Lee Mallett pushed back on Deputy Athletics Director Lori Williams as she presented Johnson’s new contract, raising concerns about the financial impact of buying out poor-performing coaches. 

It is now industry standard that coaching contracts include a buyout clause, which require universities to pay out some or all of a coach’s promised compensation if they are fired without cause. Poor performance on the field is typically not considered a valid reason for a school to waive the buyout clause of a coach’s contract. 

LSU agreed to pay former head football coach Ed Orgeron $17 million when he was fired in 2021, though major donors are believed to have helped the athletics department cover the buyout. However, the university is legally on the hook for tens of millions of dollars in buyouts across all of its coaching contracts. 

Johnson’s buyout is 90% of his base and supplemental salary. 

Mallett said he doesn’t agree with the practice and LSU should be first to “break the mold.” 

Williams said without buyout clauses, LSU would not be able to attract top coaching talent. 

“We have to play the game with the rules that we’re given,” board members James Williams said.

Johnson is now the highest-paid college baseball coach in the country, surpassing Tony Vitello at the University of Tennessee at $3 million, according to The Advocate. 

The increase also edges Johnson closer to LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey, who will make $3.35 million this upcoming season as part of her record-setting contract. 

LSU football coach Brian Kelly is the program’s highest-paid employee at approximately $9.9 million a year in total compensation. His current buyout figure exceeds $60 million.  

Cromer will receive a base salary of $400,000 with additional funding from the Tiger Athletic Foundation. For the first two years of her contract, her supplemental pay will be $110,000. For the second two years, the supplement increases to $130,000, and she can also earn incentives of up to $166,200 for the first two years and up to $168,600 for the second two years. 

LSU’s pay package for Cromer is substantially higher than what it paid former deputy executive AD Keli Zinn, who left LSU to become athletics director at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Zinn’s contract at LSU provided her with a $425,000 salary and up to $90,000 in incentives.

Paying Cromer, formerly Ohio University’s athletics director, above market rate for the position might have been necessary to lure her to a position with a lower title, industry observers have speculated. 

Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: [email protected].