Additional information on Ed Orgeron buyout by LSU revealed
Additional information about the total cost of LSU’s buyout of head coach Ed Orgeron’s contract were revealed Sunday after it was revealed he was leaving. The total cost of Orgeron’s remaining pay will be $16.95 million, to be paid through the end of December 2025.
LSU’s buyout of Ed Orgeron’s contract
“Official: Per term sheet, LSU is terminating Orgeron’s contract ‘without cause’ and will pay a buyout of $16.949 million, as reported earlier,” explained Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellenger. “Payments to be delivered in 18 installments, starting this December & ending December 2025. [Orgeron’s] first payment, due in about two months, is for $5.68 million.”
The details show that Orgeron will continue to receive payments from LSU twice a year through the end of 2025, with the largest payment coming this December. Orgeron’s expensive separation price will earn the coach a total of just under $17 million just to not coach LSU.
There are a few conditions revealed as well in regards to Orgeron’s separation from the program. Orgeron may not coach an SEC team for 18 months, preventing him from joining a direct rival of LSU. He will also be expected to make at least one public appearance for LSU at school events each year.
Orgeron out at LSU
Ed Orgeron and LSU reached a separation agreement, according to a report from Sports Illustrated’s Ross Dellinger on Sunday, and the head coach will not return for the 2022 season.
Orgeron’s career at LSU will come to a close after this season, but he will finish the 2021 campaign before he is formally dismissed. Orgeron boasts a 46-17 record in six seasons at the helm of LSU, and he won a national championship in 2019 — a season in which the Tigers finished 15-0 and put together arguably the greatest season in college football history.
21 months later, the two have agreed to part ways. Since the national championship victory over Clemson, Orgeron’s 9-8 record hardly puts him over .500.
Negotiations between Orgeron and LSU began last week, before the Tigers pulled off an unexpected 49-42 upset over No. 20 Florida on Saturday.
“A strained relationship between coach and administration — rooted in team management & public/private behavior — has warped into an untenable situation, distrust & outbursts,” Dellinger wrote on Twitter.
After going just 5-5 in last year’s COVID-abbreviated season, Orgeron was named in a Title IX lawsuit about allegedly mishandling a rape allegation, igniting conflict off the field at LSU. An amended lawsuit named Orgeron as a defendant in the case, and it accused Orgeron of not reporting the alleged rape of a former student, despite his knowledge of the situation.
“It’s one of those things where no one wanted to be there anymore,” Yahoo! Sports’ Pete Thamel tweeted. “The players didn’t want to play for him, the coaches didn’t want to coach for him.”
On3’s Simon Gibbs contributed to this article.