re: LSU now suing in federal court

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You know damn well the budget cuts don't reach the AD.

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The political realities of the budget cuts do, or y'all wouldn't be delaying the building of facilities because of optics.

I bet paying Chavis the $3.4+ million contract he earned wouldn't have flown in that state either. With all those normal educators losing their jobs the side of LSU with a guaranteed income has to lay low to avoid looking like a piggy bank to politicians forced with making the cuts.

Sure, but Bobby is cutting to bone. Eventually those LSU AD profits will look like part of a political solution if Joe spends money like a drunken Aggie. I know how Louisiana politicians work, everything is on the chopping block before entitlements are.

Y'all delayed building facilities for a reason, and it wasn't lack of money. Heck the project could create some jobs, so it wasn't local economics.

It was optics, and Joe not wanting to put a polticial target on his back. Seeing as how Joe is sitting on a profit that is the only reasonable explanation for the weird deal Chavis was offered. It was either optics or incompetence.

You say that like LSU has universal support in the state. I know some NOLA power brokers that would love to tear down the LSU AD some.

Serious question to cardboardboxer and oldsarge.

Would you two be willing to go for a psychological evaluation if I would promise to pay for it?
The one condition is that you would be willing to give access to your SEC Rant account and post history.

You two are so totally obsessed with LSU it is weird and creepy.

I would love to hear what a certified health professional would think about two grown men who spend so much time on a message board obsessing over LSU and bloviating about TAMU sports as if it were relevant.

If you really want to send an Aggie to the shrink I vote it's JFF. Chavis really did a number on him.


Oops, I forget it wasn't Chavis, it never was Chavis. It was this Reymond or whoever guy that no one mentioned once back in 2012 when JFF actually played.

Raymond's secondary was the reason nobody was open

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It may effect some renovations and new construction but our staff salaries will not be changed in any way due to the fact that they are paid by TAF and donations

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You are completely missing my point.

I am not saying that the cuts will directly cut the budget of the AD. In fact from my understanding the money for the facilities is all there, but delayed because of optics. The fact that Joe has to play with optics is a dangerous thing, because it means the shitty political situation in Louisiana MAY lead to cuts in the AD.

Optics is a big deal in college football. Most of these schools are public entities, and state lawmakers have had a history of putting their hand in the AD cookie jar (no matter where the money came from) when it seemed like the AD was making out like a bandit. That is why Tenn's AD bottomed out- in the good times a framework was put in place to force the AD to pay money to the academic side. When times were bad they want broke because of that expectation. Even rich schools have to deal with this optics issue- Texas has to give like a third of the LHN money to the academic side because that total was seen as too much of a windfall for the AD alone when the state was cutting the education budget.

Optics are huge, optics are why a Wincy doesn't just pay Bert instead of letting him go to Arky. I read their message boards then and some fans wondered if their state would ever tolerate a head coach getting paid a rate not near Sumlin's or Les's despite the fact they can easily afford that thanks to the B1G Network. Optics keeps a glass ceiling on that program.

When shite hits the fan like it is in Louisiana then anything tied to the government sitting on a nest egg might be seen as a source of revenue. Some of yall seem confident that LSU's AD is seen as such a public benefit that no politician would dare touch it but I remember a time when those shitty Louisiana politicians almost ran the Saints out of the state. I see people bitch on this very forum that poor underpaid Les makes too much money, so obviously there isn't this unified local sympathy that paying Texanish amounts for coaches would fly in that environment. College and Pro football optics in Louisiana matter for as long as it remains a purple state.

tl:dr the shitty politicians might come after Joe's money as a way to avoid really bad cuts in the LSU system if Joe spends crazy amounts on any single person or project. Seeing how extravagant spending on people/projects is the new trend in college football that doesn't bode well for LSU in the medium term and might be why Joe is trying to fight for every dollar in the public sphere that he can go after. This is all optics-driven.