Former LA Insurance Commish, Jim Brown: "In Louisiana, It's All About Football"

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A lengthy article appeared in newspapers across the country by syndicated columnist George Will concerning the innovative programs involving higher education throughout the south. The University of Tennessee was recognized because of its Institute of American Civics. The University of North Carolina, my alma mater, because of its School of Civic Life and Leadership. The University of Mississippi because of its Declaration of Independence Center for the Study of American Freedom. There was no mention of Louisiana’s flagship, LSU.

The state’s major university did make big news across the country. It hired a new football coach. It ran off the last head coach having to pay him a total of $54 million as a buyout. The former athletic director, who also was recently fired, summed it up insightfully. The top three priorities at LSU are number one, football. Second would be football and the third? Oh yeah, it’s football.

LSU’s new football coach, a guy named Lane Kiffin, will be paid $13 million a year for a total of $91 million over seven years. Extra incentives could move his salary up to $17 million That makes the highest paid college coach in America. How much is $13 million? The school could hire one hundred new full-time tenured professors for the same amount of money. One Hundred educators offering an educational foundation for the state’s young people. But that doesn’t win football games.

Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry said there would be no more sweetheart deals for the new football coach similar to former coach Brian Kelly’s $54 million buyout. “I’m tired of rewarding failure in this country and then leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.” So was the Governor right? Instead of a $54 million buyout, Coach Kiffin has a $72.8 million buyout. And that’s supposedly a better deal?

The guiding force behind LSU, the Board Supervisors, says there will be very little public money involved in paying a new football coach. It’s all raised through the giving by private donors to the athletic program. So the public pays nothing, at least that’s what they say. But let’s call it what it is. These private donors deduct what they pay to the university football program, a nonprofit, from their income taxes that would normally come to the state and federal government to pay for public services. So actually, it is the taxpayers who are footing part of the bill.

Tulane University in New Orleans, where I went to law school and for years was LSU’s archrival, has been paying its football coach a little less than $3 million a year. The team just won the American Conference title and has qualified to make a run for the football national championship. The fighting tigers of LSU were lucky not to have to play Tulane this year.

As a sidenote, the last time Tulane beat LSU was on November 27, 1982. I remember the date well. I got married to my wife of 43 years on that morning in New Orleans, and came back to Baton Rouge to watch Tulane stomp the Tiges. After the game, many fans walked over to the LSU Assembly Center to watch a late night concert by singer Neil Diamond. Quite a day for me.

Let’s go ahead and call big time college football for what it is. It’s a professional sport. Nothing less. You can forget about all these sentimental values of pulling for your home team. In the old days, college football players brought value to their home state.

They played at local high schools, attended universities like LSU for a solid education, and went back home in their communities to make a solid contribution. Billy Cannon stayed in Baton Rouge as a dentist, LSU all American Tommy Casanova is an eye doctor in Crowley Louisiana. Star LSU quarterback Bert Jones runs a lumber company in Ruston Louisiana. They all contributed to their state. Those days are gone. It’s all about the money.

So cheer on your big time college team. But just recognize that it is no different than any other professional team. Such college teams bring little educational value to their home state. And for a state like Louisiana, that desperately needs a first rate flagship University, that’s a shame.

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