Gov Landry steps in after LSU football coach firing threatens to leave taxpayers on hook for $54M

Louisiana GOP Gov. Jeff Landry has seen enough about the high-profile firing of Louisiana State University's football coach that also exposed a roughly $54 million buyout negotiated by the publicly-funded school's athletic director.

Landry made clear Wednesday that regardless of whoever becomes the next LSU coach – in yet another attempt to restore the school to football glory – athletic director Scott Woodward won't be inking the deal. 

"I can tell you right now Scott Woodward is not selecting our next coach,” he said at a press conference four days after head coach Brian Kelly was fired. “Hell, I’ll let Donald Trump select him before I let him do it.”

Landry, endorsed by Trump in winning the governorship in 2024, also invoked a bit of MAGA swagger in his vow to end a cycle of using taxpayer money for failed endeavors, which would include the hiring – and firing – of Kelly, who was 34-14 four seasons into a 10-year contract with no major bowl victory. 

"I'm tired of rewarding failure in this country, then leaving taxpayers to foot the bill," he said. 

“Look, my role is about the fiscal effect of firing a coach under a terrible contract,” Landry said at a separate press conference Wednesday. “All I care about is what the taxpayers are going to be on the hook" for.

"President Trump picks winners," he added.

Kelly’s reported buyout is the second-most expensive in college football history, following only the $76 million Texas A&M owes former coach Jimbo Fisher. 

Landry, in one of the press conferences, pointed out Woodward also negotiated the Texas A&M contract. And he said the hiring of the next LSU head coach will go through the school's board of supervisors, which will create a search committee for the task. 

Publicly funded state universities like LSU – which historically offer lower tuition and higher acceptance rates for residents – receive money from public sources including state appropriations and federal grants. And they get money from such private sources as corporations and school and alumni foundations. 

LSU Board of Supervisors Chairman Scott Ballard, aware of the public concerns over tax dollars funding Kelly’s payments, said the buyout sits squarely on the shoulders of athletics.

“We are not taking anything here from education or academics,” he said. “It's not coming from the English department or the French department or the business school or money that would go to scholarships that we are diverting here.”

Multiple news outlets are reporting that one private donor will fund the entirety of Kelly’s buyout, but the donor’s identity is anonymous. (The multi-million dollar salaries of big-time college football coaches are also reportedly funded by boosters.)

To be sure, men's varsity football is big business for many states and their state flagship universities. 

Ohio State made $280 million in its 2024-25 season, according to 247sports.com.

Most of the revenue comes through TV broadcast rights, estimated at $4 billion-plus now, and also includes ticket sales, alumni donations, licensing ad contracts and profit distributed by the conferences in which teams play.

While Kelly is the most expensive and most recent coach to start collecting buyout checks from the 2025 season, he is far from the first.

Penn State fired James Franklin and owes him just under $50 million. LSU’s fellow SEC competitor Florida needs to pay Billy Napier a little over $20 million. Even smaller power conference programs like Oklahoma State, Virginia Tech, Arkansas and UCLA are all on the hook for multiple millions of dollars in coaching buyouts. All of those schools are also public universities.