The LSU Athletic Department, like many college and university athletic programs has had an incredibly difficult year as far as COVID-19 is concerned. The loss of games and revenue from games has certainly impacted many programs around the country. In order to help better fiscally deal with that revenue loss, the LSU Athletic Department has announced a round of layoffs and salary and bonus reductions for staff. This includes LSU Head Football Coach Ed Orgeron.

Coach O has voluntarily agreed to have his $8.9 million dollars annual salary reduced by five percent for 2021. This amounts to about $300,000 less in annual compensation for Orgeron who is the nation's second-highest-paid football coach. For clarification purposes, Orgeron's compensation is $6 million annually from LSU and the other $2.9 million in compensation comes from other entities, most notably the Tiger Athletic Foundation.

LSU Athletic Director Scott Woodward has also agreed to the voluntary cut in salary but his compensation is quite a bit less than Coach O's. In addition to the voluntary salary reductions, the athletic department at the state's flagship university also announced the elimination of some positions within the department.

It's estimated that LSU will lose about $80 million dollars or more because of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to Orgeron's voluntary salary reduction, LSU Baseball Coach Paul Mainieri, who makes $1.2 million annually has agreed to a five percent reduction in salary for 2021. Other cost savings announced yesterday included the suspension of bonus payments for all coaches in all sports for 2021. However, coaches under contract who earn more than $80,000 annually are not subject to the five percent reduction, but they may volunteer to do so if they choose.

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