This week, it was revealed that the LSU Tigers football team accidentally overpaid head coach Brian Kelly by more than $1 million last season due to an accounting mistake that sent duplicate payments to multiple accounts. And one LSU professor is using this as ammo to criticize the way the university treats its football program compared to its academics.
Robert Mann, a political historian and a longtime professor at LSU, shared a tweet in response to the Brian Kelly news where he compared LSU’s faculty and staff to “serfs” and its football coaches to “an untouchable royal family.”
A former colleague and I have been texting about when we led a study-abroad program & LSU dogged us over every penny of every expense.
There are LSU serfs (faculty and staff) — and there is an untouchable royal family (football coaches). Best of times, worst of times. https://t.co/7V5TJbXY4n
— Bob Mann (@RTMannJr) January 26, 2023
“A former colleague and I have been texting about when we led a study-abroad program & LSU dogged us over every penny of every expense. There are LSU serfs (faculty and staff) — and there is an untouchable royal family (football coaches). Best of times, worst of times,” Mann said in a tweet.
Mann claimed in follow-up tweets that LSU is extremely critical and careful with what faculty spends and even once sent an auditor to his house to verify some purchases.
Also recall when the Legislative Auditor sent someone to my office with a list of stuff I'd purchased with LSU funds. Demanded to see it all to ensure I'd not sold it on eBay, I guess. I had every item, save a book at my house. But the football coach got an extra million. cool
— Bob Mann (@RTMannJr) January 26, 2023
“LSU seemed to start from the proposition that we faculty members were looking to steal from the university by misappropriating a few hundred dollars, while on the other side of the campus the accountants were showering the football coach with an extra million. madness,” Mann said in a tweet. “Also recall when the Legislative Auditor sent someone to my office with a list of stuff I’d purchased with LSU funds. Demanded to see it all to ensure I’d not sold it on eBay, I guess. I had every item, save a book at my house. But the football coach got an extra million. cool”
It’s certainly quite a dichotomy.
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