LSU’s big-time hire of Lane Kiffin comes with an insane price tag and a rare financial reality of their terrible past.
With Kiffin now having signed a seven-year incentive-heavy deal valued at $90 million, LSU is paying three head coaches simultaneously after confirming it fired Brian Kelly without cause and still carrying a small but pending buyout obligation to former coach Ed Orgeron.
Kiffin’s arrival continues a dramatic coaching carousel in Baton Rouge, but the university’s past decisions remain on the payroll.
For a brief moment in time right now, LSU is paying Lane Kiffin, Brian Kelly and Ed Orgeron. It sends Orgeron his last buyout payment of $426,000 on Dec. 15. Yeah, there's money in the banana stand.
— Wilson Alexander (@whalexander_) December 1, 2025
LSU owes a combined total exceeding $54 million to Kelly and Orgeron. Following his firing, Kelly argued publicly that his termination should classify as a no-cause dismissal, positioning him to take the matter to court.
He ultimately didn’t need to, as LSU confirmed last Monday it fired him without cause, guaranteeing Kelly receives the full $54 million he was still owed.
Orgeron, who departed LSU in 2021, is also due a final buyout payment of $426,000 scheduled for Dec. 15. The number isn't much compared to Kelly’s buyout but enough to put LSU in the unusual spot of compensating three men for the same job at the same time.
On top of Kiffin’s contract, which includes automatic escalation language making him the highest-paid coach nationally, if he wins a national title, LSU has also committed $25 million for staff hiring, further impacting the coaching expenditures.
Kiffin’s future and the lingering cost of its past show just how high the stakes now stand down in Death Valley.
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