I’d like to give some free advice to Lane Kiffin since he landed that great big, beautiful contract (7 years, $91 million) to be LSU’s new football coach.
In case you didn’t know, that contract he signed a little over a week ago makes him the second-highest paid college coach in America, earning $13 million a year. That puts him behind only Georgia’s Kirby Smart, who makes $13.28 million annually, according to a USA Today database.
It puts him ahead of Ohio State’s Ryan Day, who earned a $12.5 million a year deal after leading the Buckeyes to a national championship (his first as a coach) last January. Unlike Smart and Day, Kiffin has never won a national title. Smart has won two, guiding the Bulldogs to consecutive national crowns in 2021 and ‘22, including an undefeated 15-0 season in ’22.
To his credit, Kiffin coached Ole Miss to four 10-win seasons in the past five years, including the school’s first 11-win regular season this fall. That was enough to convince LSU to empty the bank vault to snag him in hopes that he can lead the Tigers to a fourth national championship since 2003 and fifth overall.
With such a hefty salary, not to mention the way he departed Ole Miss before the Rebels’ playoff-bound season was over, Lane’s endured a lot of criticism. He’s generated considerable envy, and in a heartbeat, he’s gone from a hero in Oxford, Miss., to a pariah.
The best thing he could do, before coaching his first LSU practice, is to take a page from his foremost mentors, Nick Saban and Pete Carroll, and announce to the public he will donate a significant part of his salary to the faculty, academic scholarships and/or other philanthropic causes at LSU or in the community.
I know Kiffin donated $20,000 of his salary at Ole Miss to “Rebel Aid,” a school fund that provided Covid-19 relief to students in April of 2020. But to whom much is given, much is expected, right? You can find that message in St. Luke’s gospel, and the new LSU coach could take a step towards becoming St. Lane if he follows the example of Saban or Carroll.
Some other coaches, too, past and present, have generously shared their wealth for the betterment not only of football or the athletics budget for the betterment of the entire university or even mankind.
Saban, at both Alabama and LSU, made significant donations to academics and other causes. The “Nick’s Kids Foundation” that started when he was coaching LSU continues to support various charities in Louisiana. While at LSU, he played a crucial role in pushing for, and then helping with the fund-raising for, a new academic center for athletes. He started the fund with about $50,000 of his own money.
At Alabama, Saban’s foundation focused on education, housing and playgrounds. He also made large contributions to various non-profits serving underprivileged youth. He and his wife, Terry, pledged $1 million for first generation scholarships and funded projects such as the Tuscaloosa Juvenile Detention Center’s welding division.
Nick and Terry also started the financing and fundraising for the Saban Catholic Student Center at St. Francis of Assisi University Parish near the university campus, helping raise the $1.9 million needed for the new facility, which served as an education and gathering space for Catholic students.
Pete Carroll established a scholarship at USC for students pursuing graduate degrees. This was in ’07-08, when he was the highest paid employee at a private university in the country. After leaving as coach of the NFL Seattle Seahawks in 2024, he returned to USC to co-teach with two others an undergrad business course. There were 300 applicants for only 52 spots for the course, which focuses on leadership, personal development and creating a “game plan” for life after graduation.
Kiffin’s predecessor, Brian Kelly, talked about the need for more academic funding but Kelly donated to the Tiger Athletic Foundation (TAF) and challenged fans to support NIL, demonstrating generosity primarily for football competitiveness. He also made a $1 million donation in 2020 for the athletic training facility.
The message Kiffin needs to send is that he is all-in at LSU, for academics as well as athletics, and that he’s all-in for the Baton Rouge community’s welfare.
Kiffin should consider this path of philanthropy, and he might also ask his handsomely paid assistants and his upper-crust NIL players to follow suit.
I suggest these things with an attitude of hope in this season of giving. Yet, I recall a vignette from a recent Wall Street Journal story on the Big Ten Conference’s becoming a money machine.
Former Michigan athletics director Bill Martin suggested in 2005 to fellow conference ADs that schools cap how much their departments received with any excess going to a general scholarship fund. They refused, not wanting to risk an opponent luring away their coach with a big payday.
Well, we just have seen a spate of opposing schools luring away coaches with big paydays – the biggest of all being LSU’s luring Kiffin away from Ole Miss.
If there’s any sanity, any sense of unselfish generosity left in a sport that seems crazier than ever, it could come from a ballyhooed coach who sees two roads ahead. The signs above them are “Give” and “Take.”
Hope he chooses the right Lane.